The reasoning as to why these loopholes were tightened needs no explanation. People are very aware of these issues.
“Hispanic or Latino” is not strictly defined by blood line like the other categories (including “Asian”) are.
Asian is a race, as is AA/Black; Latin@ is an ethnicity. One can be Black Hispanic, Asian Hispanic, White Hispanic, or multi-Hispanic. In fact, on the Common App, they separate out the questions asking about race and ethnicity.
Having said all that, I agree that this is a compelling essay topic, and will show more about “you” than if you just check (or not) a couple of boxes.
I still think it goes against the spirit of the question. Is a person who happened to live in a South American country for a few years really Hispanic/ Latino?
Because Asian is categorized by race, just like every other category-- except Hispanic.
Hispanic can be ANY race. If Nazi doctor Josef Mengele had Aryan offspring in Argentina, they’d be Hispanic too. Hispanic is a category sorely needing classification reform…
Godwin’s law.
Note that Mexico is a North American country, not a South American country. Also, not all South American countries or territories are considered “Hispanic or Latino” places.
For a student in high school, 11 years is the majority of his/her life. Of course, the answer to your question is “it depends”, and is also somewhat subjectively determined, so that different people will draw the line in different places.
@jym626 Not sure if that qualifies, since a Nazi wasn’t compared to anything, just mentioned as an example.
@cobrat Obviously the applicant did something unethical, but why on Earth did your classmates care enough to write “African-American” in their yearbooks and come up with hypothetical scenarios about job recruitment?
Yeah, I was also filling out the general info in my college app and wondered why they differentiated the two questions (one being do you consider yourself latino/hispanic and the other of race, which did not include any of latinos). I also found out that I could put that yes, I did consider myself latino/hispanic but that I could also put in the other question as an Asian. Will this create any type of conflict?
Is being hispanic really considered more cultural rather than race?
In another thread, a Caucasian American kid w Caucasian grandparents who immigrated from Spain, was given the green light to tick the Hispanic box.
This thread’s OP seems to have more immediate ties to a Hispanic/Latino country/culture. The OP speaks Spanish better than English and identifies w Mexican culture. This is in stark contrast to our family who lives in an expat bubble (after living in the present country for years, none of us can even count to 10 in the local language).
But I feel like historically and race-based, I’m not Hispanic or Latino at all. Obviously other than that, culturally I feel more Mexican and feel closer as a Mexican than a Korean. However, I feel like there could be problems if I tick the “yes” mark when college app asks me whether I’m Hispanic or Latino.
You’re allowed to tick multiple boxes.
- You can check multiple boxes. In some cases, "Hispanic or Latino" is a separate question from the other race question.
- As noted above, "Hispanic or Latino" is a cultural identification, rather than being strictly blood line based like all of the race categories like "Asian". Persons who are "Hispanic or Latino" may be of any race.
- Regardless of what boxes you check or do not check, you may still want to write about your background in essays, if appropriate to the essay prompts and it is important to you.
@ucbalumnus thanks so much for clearing it out! I’ll definitely do that and try to write the best essay possible with my experiences living in Mexico.
Your case is clearly where you should tick two boxes: “Asian” for race (or “multiple”) and “Hispanic” . It’s possible to be Asian with Hispanic culture, just like you can be Asian with Anglo culture, Asian with Asian American culture, etc.
Your essay should be about growing up in Mexico.
Ucb-
Used SA as an example - not speaking specifically of this situation.
Just for the records, huge number of Asians are technically caucasians and you can find a good number of Indians in African countries who moved there from India during British colonial era and identify themselves as Africans because generations have never even been to Asia and most married locally.
As far as OP’s Mexican immersion goes, he can express that in his essay and add his diploma in honors/awards.
There are many examples of applicants and/or their parents trying to game the system. IMO, this is not one of them. Obviously a college admissions officer will have an opinion which supersedes either ours, but a kid who spent 11 of his/her 17 years living in Mexico should have no qualms with identifying as Latin@.
Anyway, as I said earlier, the CA splits the questions of race and ethnicity. Specifically:
The questions are optional, so the OP can answer or not answer as s/he sees fit.
I used to work for the US Census Bureau and, according to their definitions, you’d check Asian for race and Hispanic for ethnicity. Answering that way doesn’t “go against the spirit” of the question; it’s honestly answering exactly what the question is asking. If Hispanic was classified as a race (and there was talk then that eventually the Census Bureau will classify it that way), that would be different. But it’s not.
I think your plan to check both boxes and use your essays to give insight into your experiences is a good one. Good luck.
Because they were quite angry with his unethical behavior, especially how proud he was that he “played the system”.
That may be true, but while the Indian communities in East Africa were there, most didn’t seem to integrate or have interactions which left positive impressions with the indigenous African population.
This was underscored when my cousin was newly married and honeymooning with wife in East Africa, they were perturbed by the level of vitriol openly directed against “Asians” in the conversation by their East African hosts. It was only after one of the hosts noticed their nervousness that they clarified that in their East African nation, “Asian” referred almost exclusively to those from the Indian subcontinent and the vitriol was due to decades of history of frictions between East African Indian communities and indigenous Africans as they were perceived by the latter as too insular, disdainful of, and quite high-handed/unethical in business dealings with them.
Historical factors which in retrospect might explain the level of anger from the African/African-American classmates who were among those who confronted that unethical classmate of Indian descent who marked himself down as “African-American” on his college apps.