I’m currently in the process of applying to college and I’m not sure which boxes to check for the whole race/ethnicity portion. My family is very Portuguese (both of my grandfathers came from Portugal when they were kids) which is considered Latino, but my grandmothers are Irish and French and while most of my family is very tan, I am very pale and I’m afraid of getting in trouble if I say that I’m Latino. When my dad went to college he said he was Latino but I’m afraid of getting in trouble because I don’t “look Portuguese” even though I very much identify as it. What should I do?
I have never heard that Portuguese is considered Latino.
And using the National Hispanic Recognition Program criteria, it isn’t Hispanic either.
Your family and your family’s origin is from Europe both recently and further back, so you are European. The term “Hispanic” refers to people from the 20 North and central American countries in which Spanish in the official language, but not Spain. Latino also includes Brazil.
There is a difference, though, between how you can describe yourself on the US census, which is “however you want”, and between what colleges will consider to be “Hispanic” or “Latino” in regards to being considered a URM. You will not be considered a URM by colleges.
@mwolf Many groups include Spain in the definition of Hispanic. Including the National Hispanic Recognition Program.
There is a long discussion here on this topic. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/641650-hispanic-latino-defined-aka-am-i-hispanic-p1.html