Creating race: How the 'Hispanic or Latino' category came to be

Creating race: How the 'Hispanic or Latino' category came to be
- May 4, 2011
- Rubén Rumbaut, sociology professor, is featured on 89.3 Southern California Radio May 3, 2011
From 89.3 Southern California Radio:
An interesting article published by the he Migration Policy Institute examines the
racialization of those who make up the "Hispanic, Latino or Spanish Origin" category
on census forms. Written by UC Irvine sociologist Rubén Rumbaut, a veteran chronicler
of the immigrant experience, the piece delves into the history of racial and ethnic
classifications, and on the impact that what began as an administrative move to classify
people of Latin American ancestry has had on how they now define themselves in terms
of race. Rumbaut writes: Are Hispanics a "race" or, more precisely, a racialized category?
In fact, are they even a "they?" Is there a Latino or Hispanic ethnic group, cohesive
and self-conscious, sharing a sense of peoplehood in the same way that there is an
African American people in the United States? Or is it mainly administrative shorthand
devised for statistical purposes; a one-size-fits-all label that subsumes diverse
peoples and identities?
For the full story, please visit http://multiamerican.scpr.org/2011/05/creating-race-how-the-hispanic-or-....
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