Hi guys,
I have been checking off white all of my life. However, I would like to check off hispanic for colleges. My dad is American, but my Mom was born in Israel with both of her parents being Brasilian. They had just emigrated from Brasil to Israel. So, bloodwise, my mom is 100% hispanic, and I am 50%. Can I say I am hispanic for colleges? How would I go about this?
You and Jeb Bush.
You can check the box, but ask yourself, culturally how do you identify?
I don’t feel American, Israeli, or Brasilian. I am a mixture of all three. It would be just as inaccurate for me to say white as Hispanic?
If I were you then I would definitely check off hispanic. I have a friend who is half white (Irish) and half hispanic (Mexican) who checked off Hispanic on all her college application. I have a higher ACT score than her and I definitely feel like we both have similar extracurriculars. However, she got into Stanford, a couple of the ivies, and a few other elite schools. Whereas, I got rejected from some of the schools she got into (ex. Stanford). If you’re aiming for an elite school then, marking off Hispanic will just give you better chances.
How would I go about that? @Hpatz1234
@Basketball135 Go about checking off your Hispanic? You honestly just have to check it off, I don’t think they would look that much into it.
Hispanic is an ethnicity. White is a race. Being ½ Brazilian makes your ethnicity Hispanic, but your race is still white.
Technically, Hispanic is Spanish speaking, and Brazilians speak Portuguese.
They don’t care if Brazilians speak Portuguese. Brazil is part of Latin America, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t mark Hispanic.
@snarlatron - your right. According to definitions of the U.S. government census, Brazilians that are Portuguese speakers are not considered Hispanic, and are not included in the “Hispanic or Latino” population surveys. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanic_and_Latino_Americans
@basketball135 - might want to rethink this.
I think you are hispanic. Mazel Tov!
Apparently you’ve used the right answer all your life. Go with it.
Are your grand parents of Jewish ancestry who emigrated to Israel? If so then you probably wouldn’t be considered Hispanic in my eyes.
Be careful trying to game the system. The AOs can figure this out by your parents last name.
??? Your last name only shows one side of your ancestry. If my mom had a stereotypically Hispanic last name like Lopez, and she married a Smith, that doesn’t mean I’m not half Hispanic.
Husband’s grandmother was raised in Argentina. Migrated there from Poland. Of Jewish ancestory. Husband’s mother was born and raised in Argentina and came to America in her early 20’s. She was totally Hispanic in terms of ethnicity and had even gone to Catholic school in Argentina in order to get a better education. So my husband was raised by a Spanish speaking mother and grandmother. We checked yes for Hispanic and also added that race was white and additional ancestry (my side and FIL’s side ) was Russian and Austrian.
Even ran it by College Board and they 100% supported that D was 1/4 Hispanic (which qualified for National Hispanic Scholars program.)
So it is not “gaming the system.” My d’s consider themselves white Americans whose grandparents came from Argentina, Russia and Austria. Their religion is Jewish, but that is an aside.
The OP’s issue is that Brazil is not a Hispanic country. If you research National Hispanic Scholars, I do think they outright state that. But you should verify that information yourself.
BTW–over 70% of today’s Argentinian population consider themselves white and many trace their background to Poland, Italy and Germany. They are certainly Hispanic and white.
Jewish is an ethnicity. Be honest and check white, especially if you are actually jewish. I am quite sure people in Latin America don’t consider Jews as hispanics, especially if they are Ashkenazi jews, which some of them are in Brazil.
You can be jewish and hispanic/latino. You can be white, jewish, and still hispanic/latino. Hispanic/latino is an ethnicity. It has nothing to do with race. As others have stated, however, most definitions of hispanic/latino do not include Brazilians.
Hispanic = from a Spanish-speaking country (including Spain); Brazil doesn’t “count”.
Latino = from Latin (and, by extension, South) America where one speaks a romance language.
So Brazilians are Latino, but not Hispanic.
One can be a white latino/a, black latino/a, asian latino/a, or any swirl of those three, and many are. Race and ethnicity are not the same. The question is whether Brazilians are hispanic and the answer is a big, fat … maybe. More info [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/641650-hispanic-latino-defined-aka-am-i-hispanic-p1.html%5Dhere.%5B/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/641650-hispanic-latino-defined-aka-am-i-hispanic-p1.html]here.[/url]