<p>OP, to answer your question, I don’t think it looks bad to check only the Hispanic box. They are just asking about race, not language fluency. If you want to go into it further, you have the option of explaining more fully how you identify in your essay.</p>
<p>I can completely relate to you. I’m puerto rican on my mothers side and white on my fathers. I have an EXTREMELY irish last name and my spanish is definitely lacking. However, I would definitely recommend always checking the hispanic box if it truly does apply to you. The way I see it, ethnicity does nothing if you’re not a competitive applicant in the first place. However, if colleges are deciding between a URM and another applicant with similar credentials, often times the URM will get the spot. I hope this helps you! Best of luck!</p>
<p>I’m going to check both. Thanks everybody!</p>
<p>Many of my mixed classmates checked “other”. You can do the same. </p>
<p>
Lot’s of people in Latin America are 100% white and have lived a privileged life unencumbered by discrimination.
<a href=“Venezuelans of European descent - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_of_European_descent</a></p>
<p>My nephews are Hispanic, do not speak Spanish, and grew up upper middle class. They do not look Hispanic. They are allowed to put Hispanic on their application.</p>
<p>My friend’s children are part Mexican, their grandfather was full Mexican. His son, their father, is learning Spanish now as an adult. The children are Hispanic.</p>
<p>If people who are less than 25% African can identify as black, why can’t someone 50% Hispanic identify as Hispanic?</p>
<p>It is what you are, whether or not you culturally identify with it. Obama grew up with whites, it doesn’t make him less black to most people. He grew up with his white mother, who married an Asian guy and had another kid, and then sent him to live with his white grandparents. He can identify as black even though he is mixed race.</p>
<p>And look at Cuba - I know a particular Cuban-American who identifies as Hispanic and “helps the brown skins” (her words, she is quite a bigot including discriminating against my son who is brown-skinned but not of Hispanic heritage). She is as white as a piece of paper, and speaks Spanish as she learned in American schools. Being white does not cancel being Hispanic.</p>
<p>This of course leads to the point about diversity - real diversity is only socioeconomic. It is not based on skin color or native language. A white person, a black person, an Asian person, and a Hispanic person would have much more in common if they were all rich or all poor, than several people of the same ethnic/racial background who are very different socioeconomically.</p>