<p>My mom is Mexican.
My dad is a black but he is from South America (Guyana)
All of my features are in between my parents. I don't look completely like on race or the other.</p>
<p>My parents have never made race an issue. I didn't even realize there were different races until I was 11years old. I usually just say I'm mixed. Spanish was my first language though.</p>
<p>Should I put that I'm both Hispanic and black on my college apps? Would it be better to just choose one race?</p>
<p>btw- I'm planning to talk about my culture/upbringing in my essays</p>
<p>Hispanic is an ethnicity not a race according to the US Census. So classifying yourself as Hispanic does not prevent you from listing yourself as another race. Most Hispanics are white (maybe your mother is white Hispanic) but some are black. So you can easily list yourself as Black/African American and Hispanic. If your mother is white Hispanic, you could also put down white if the form which you are using allows for multiple racial categories.
A lot of Hispanics have recently come to see Hispanic as both their racial and ethnic category, so some colleges will allow you to put just Hispanic, if you see yourself as just Hispanic.</p>
<p>Technically your dad is more Caribbean than anything in terms of culture. I would ask him if he identifies more as a Caribbean gentleman or a South American gentleman and just go from there. </p>
<p>For example, my late mother was Colombian. She was from Barranquilla and the culture over there is actually really similar to that of your dad’s country except that everyone speaks Spanish. And that is because the history of Colombia lent itself to Spanish being the main language for a “gahzillion years.”</p>
<p>The history and, therefore, the main language over in your dad’s country is different because of British Colonialism, basically. And, I am very sorry to even speak of that, but it is just a matter of history and I am trying to be helpful to you. Your dad’s country was under British “rule” and all of that up until the 1960’s or so.</p>
<p>I would speak to him because his country is almost like an anomaly in terms of all those apps for University admissions and scholarships. In this life, his country is cool. But, those apps for things makes it different, so please speak to him.</p>
It’s not a big deal, it’s common.</p>