Good Afternoon,
I have a question as to what race to select on the Common App. I am a Chilean Mapuche (native tribe in much of central Chile). It seems instinctively that I would select Yes for the hispanic/latino option, and Native American Race option. However, I was reading the US Census page, and one of the statements it says is “who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.” This is where I got confused. I don’t speak the language, I have never lived in a tribal group, and have no actual way of affiliating with the tribe since the Chilean Government has never even recognized indigenous groups (plus from what I’ve heard, a tribal registration would really only matter to US-based tribes). I speak Spanish and grew up in Machali, a recently commercialized farming town.
I don’t complete the list of things that the CDC states would categorize someone as an American Indian (“A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.”) but I don’t know what else to select. I don’t think I’m white, my family has never mentioned anything of Spanish origins (in fact, my mother disses
the conquistadors on the daily). So I’m stuck. What do I choose?