I don’t live there but I am half-Brazilian, my grandparents are from there, my mother was born there. But I am very confused about whether being Brazilian is Hispanic/Latino. Every place says different information.
Hispanic means you speak spanish and Brazil speaks portuguese, but I (coincidentally) speak both of those languages (i learned spanish in school, does this make any difference?). I saw the US government census doesn’t consider brazil as hispanic but some national scholarship program DOES. So now I’m confused what to put in common app?
I identify as LATINA but NOT hispanic. i mean brazil is in latin america.
But I don’t want to put misinformatoin so can someone help?
To sum it up:
I am 50% brazilian, does this make me Latina/Hispanic on Common App?
The short answer, in general: it depends. As you correctly stated, everybody seems to have their own interpretation of what “Hispanic/latino” means, especially with regards to Brazilians.
The question asked on the Common App, though, is: “Are you Hispanic or Latino?” Since you identify as latina, nobody will fault you for checking yes.
No, learning Spanish does not make you latina 
And you can be latino/a without knowing Spanish. Also, read through the following thread:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/641650-hispanic-latino-defined-aka-am-i-hispanic.html
Thank you! Interestingly CA has changed their layout, it used to say "South America (excluding brazil)"according to the thread you posted, but it no longer says this, it’s only “south america” now… so do i tick that, or do i tick ‘others’? @skieurope
and the next question, “Regardless of your answer to the prior question, please indicate how you identify yourself. (Select one or more)” is optional. is it in any way an advantage/disadvantage to answer it? why is it OPTIONAL?
Well, Brazil is in SA, so I’d say SA
For some colleges looking to achieve racial diversity, there may be an advantage. For the same colleges that are overrepresented in a category, there may be a disadvantage. It’s optional due to guidelines from the US Dept. of Education.
It’s optional because if you answer no to the first question and don’t want to reveal what your ethnicity is, you’re allowed not to answer.