White Hispanic and Latino Americans

Some Euro-Latinos/White Latinos in the United States of America today are descended from original Spanish colonists who settled the so-called "internal provinces" and Louisiana of New Spain. As the United States expanded westward, it annexed lands with a long-established population of Spanish-speaking settlers, who were sometimes overwhelmingly or exclusively of white Spanish ancestry (cf. White Mexican).{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=raV_AQAAQBAJ&q=white+hispanics+white+mexicans+united+states+spanish+ancestry&pg=PA44|title=Recognizing Race and Ethnicity: Power, Privilege, and Inequality|first=Kathleen J.|last=Fitzgerald|date=February 18, 2014|publisher=Avalon Publishing|via=Google Books|isbn=978-0-8133-4931-2}} This group became known as Hispanos. Prior to incorporation into the United States of America (and briefly, into Independent Texas), Hispanos that were fully Spanish, (criollos) had enjoyed a privileged status in the society of New Spain and later in post-colonial Mexico. The vast majority of Hispanos however, were racially mestizo, and thus weren't always seen as white by U.S standards.

Concepts of multiracial identity have existed in Latin America since the colonial era, originating in a Spanish caste system. During the 20th century, the concept of mestizaje, or 'blending', was adopted as a national identity by a number of Latin American countries in order to reduce racial conflict.{{r|Gonzalez-Barrera 2015}}

A 2014 Pew Research Center survey found that one-third of US Latinos identify as "mestizo", "mulatto", or another multiracial identity.{{r|Gonzalez-Barrera 2015}} Such identities often conflict with standard racial classifications in the United States: among Latino American adults surveyed by Pew Research who identified as multiracial, about 40% reported their race as "white" on standard race question as used on the US Census; 13% reported belonging to more than one race or "mixed race"; while about 20% chose "Latino" as their race.{{cite web |last=Gonzalez-Barrera |first=Ana |date=July 10, 2015 |title='Mestizo' and 'mulatto': Mixed-race identities among U.S. Hispanics |publisher=Pew Research Center |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/10/mestizo-and-mulatto-mixed-race-identities-unique-to-hispanics}}

File:Hispanic Whites population pyramid in 2020.svg

The top 10 U.S. states with the largest White alone population.

White Hispanics are widespread, with California and Texas being two states with some of the highest populations of Hispanics self identifying as white.{{cite web |title=Race and Ethnicity in the United States: 2010 Census and 2020 Census|url=https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/race-and-ethnicity-in-the-united-state-2010-and-2020-census.html|access-date=24 November 2023}} West Virginia has the highest percentage of the overall population identifying as White Hispanic with 34.2%. The commonwealth of Puerto Rico had a White population of 536,044 or 16.5% of all Hispanics with an additional 24,548 people who were white alone (but not Hispanic or Latino) representing 66.7% of all non-Hispanics.{{cite web |title=Race and Ethnicity in the United States: 2010 Census and 2020 Census|url=https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/race-and-ethnicity-in-the-united-state-2010-and-2020-census.html|access-date=24 November 2023}}

In the 2000 census, the responses that contained a race specified by the Office of Management and Budget and a race not specified by OMB, were reclassified to match the races that OMB had considered. In this way, 44.24% of the Hispanic population that had marked as white and another race not specified by the OMB was recategorized as only white.{{cite web|url=https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/technical-documentation/methodology/modified-race-summary-file-method/mrsf2000.pdf |title=Modified Race Data Summary File|access-date=2023-10-24}}

Hispanics and Latinos who are native-born and those who are immigrant identify as white in nearly identical percentages: 53.9 and 53.7, respectively, per figures from 2007. The overall Hispanic or Latino ratio was 53.8%.{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/acs-11.pdf |title=Race and Hispanic Origin of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States: 2007; American Community Survey Reports |access-date=2010-05-27 |last=Grieco |first=Elizabeth M |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau}}

In 2017, the Pew Research Center reported that high intermarriage rates and declining Latin American immigration has led to 11% of US adults with Hispanic ancestry (5.0 million people) to no longer identify as Hispanic.{{cite web |last1=Lopez |first1=Gustavo |last2=Gonzalez-Barrera |first2=Ana |last3=Lopez |first3=Mark Hugo |title=Hispanic Identity Fades Across Generations as Immigrant Connections Fall Away |publisher=Pew Research Center |date=December 20, 2017 |url=http://www.pewhispanic.org/2017/12/20/hispanic-identity-fades-across-generations-as-immigrant-connections-fall-away/ }} First generation immigrants from Spain & Latin America identify as Hispanic at very high rates (97%) which reduces in each succeeding generation, second generation (92%), third generation (77%), and fourth generation (50%).

{{section update|date= September 2024}}

Some Hispanic or Latino American groups that have white majorities or pluralities originate in countries that do not. For example, Mexico's white only population is 9% to 17%,{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/mexico/ |title=CIA — The World Factbook – Mexico |access-date=2010-03-18}}{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/379167/Mexico |title=Mexico — Britannica Online Encyclopedia |publisher=Britannica.com |access-date=2010-07-29}} while Mexico is majoritarily mestizo, meaning that they have mixed European and Native American ancestry, while 52.8% of Mexican Americans are white, or identify themselves as white in the Census (See the table). The differences in racial perceptions that exist in both countries are considered: the concept of race in Mexico is subtle not only including physical clues such as skin color but also cultural dispositions, morality, economic, and intellectual status. It is not static or well defined but rather is defined and redefined by the situation. This makes racial distinctions different from those in other countries such as the United States.{{Cite thesis |degree=PhD |title= For The Enjoyment of All:" Cosmopolitan Aspirations, Urban Encounters and Class Boundaries in Mexico City |author= Alejandra M. Leal Martínez |year=2011 |publisher=Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 3453017 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets-economy/062416/economics-mexicos-middle-class.asp|title=The Economics of Mexico's Middle Class|first=TK|last=McDonald|date=June 24, 2016|website=Investopedia.com|access-date=August 28, 2017}}

Other important differences lay in the criteria and formats used for the censuses in each country: In Mexico, the only ethnic census including categories other than Amerindian (dated back to 1921) performed by the government offered the following options in the questionnaire:{{cite web |url=http://www.nacionmulticultural.unam.mx/Portal/Izquierdo/BANCO/Mxmulticultural/Elmestizajeylasculturas-elmestizaje.html |title=El mestizaje y las culturas |first=Federico |last=Navarrete |work=México Multicultural |publisher=UNAM |location=Mexico |language=es |trans-title=Mixed race and cultures |access-date=July 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130823015618/http://www.nacionmulticultural.unam.mx/Portal/Izquierdo/BANCO/Mxmulticultural/Elmestizajeylasculturas-elmestizaje.html |archive-date=August 23, 2013 }}

• Full European heritage
• Mixed Indigenous and European heritage (the term "mestizo" itself was never used by the government)
• Full Indigenous
• Foreigners without racial distinction
• Other race

The census had the particularity that, unlike racial/ethnic census in other countries, it was focused in the perception of cultural heritage rather than in a racial perception, leading to a good number of white people to identify with "Mixed heritage" due cultural influence.{{cite web|url=http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/105/10503808.pdf |title=Composición Étnica de las Tres Áreas Culturales del Continente Americano al Comienzo del Siglo XXI|work=Academic investigation|publisher=university of the State of Mexico|year= 2005 |access-date=2014-06-10|language=es|page=196}} On the other hand, while only 2.9% of the population of the United States identifies as mixed race{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-6.pdf |title=The Two or More Races Population: 2000. Census 2000 Brief |access-date=2008-05-08 |last=Jones |first=Nicholas A. |author2=Amy Symens Smith |publisher=United States Census Bureau}} there is evidence that an accounting by genetic ancestry would produce a higher number, but historical and cultural reasons, including slavery creating a racial caste and the European-American suppression of Native Americans, often led people to identify or be classified by only one ethnicity, generally that of the culture they were raised in. While many Americans may be biologically multiracial, they often do not know it or do not identify so culturally.Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Faces of America: How 12 Extraordinary Americans Reclaimed Their Pasts (New York University Press, 2010)

Judith Ortiz Cofer noted that appellation varies according to geographical location, observing that in Puerto Rico she was considered white, but on the United States mainland she was considered a "brown person."{{cite book|title=Transcultural Women Of Late-Twentieth-Century U.S. American Literature|author=Pauline T. Newton|chapter=An Interview with Judith Ortiz Cofer|year=2005|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=0-7546-5212-2|page=161}}

Myrtle Gonzalez was one such American actress in the silent film era; she starred in at least 78 motion pictures from 1913 to 1917.{{cite book|author=Rosa Linda Fregoso|title=MeXicana encounters: the making of social identities on the borderlands|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mxXuiKx8yYQC&pg=PA109|access-date=August 12, 2010|year=2003|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-23890-9|pages=108–111|author-link=Rosa Linda Fregoso}}

File:Vera Michelena 6.JPG was an actress of Spanish Venezuelan descent in the early 20th century.]]

Anita Page was an American actress of Spanish descent who reached stardom in 1928, during the last years of the silent film.[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/anita-page-star-of-the-silent-screen-922510.html Anita Page: Star of the silent screen]. Independent.co.uk (September 8, 2008). Page was referred to as "a blond, blue-eyed Latin".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6YhMoUyUbS4C&dq=anita+page+pomares&pg=PA13|title=Heroes, Lovers, and Others|isbn=978-0-19-533513-2 |access-date=8 November 2022|last1=Rodriguez |first1=Clara E. |year=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_62IjQ-XQScC&dq=anita+page+pomares&pg=PA499|title=Latinas in the United States|date=June 30, 2006|isbn=0-253-11169-2 |access-date=8 November 2022|last1=Ruiz |first1=Vicki L. |last2=Korrol |first2=Virginia Sánchez |publisher=Indiana University Press }} Hilary Swank an American actress and film producer recipient of numerous awards, including two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. Her maternal grandmother, Frances Martha Clough (née Dominguez), was born in El Centro, California, and was of Mexican descent.{{cite web|title=Dowling Family Genealogy Frances Martha DOMINGUEZ|url=http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=dowfam3&id=I337854&op=GET|website=Ancestry.com|access-date=June 12, 2016|archive-date=June 13, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160613014236/http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=dowfam3&id=I337854&op=GET|url-status=live}}

Telenovelas (soap operas) have been criticized for not fully reflecting the racial diversity of Hispanic and Latin Americans, and for underrepresenting non-white Hispanic and Latin Americans, in favor of those that are of lighter complexion, blonde-haired and blue/green-eyed rather than the typical Hispanic and Latin Americans.{{cite web |url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/58525?tid=relatedcl |title=Y Tu Black Mama Tambien |access-date=2008-05-02 |last=Quinonez |first=Ernesto |website=Newsweek |date=June 19, 2003}}[https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A19009-2000Aug1¬Found=true The Blond, Blue-Eyed Face of Spanish TV]{{dead link|date=June 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}. Washingtonpost.com (August 3, 2000).[http://latinola.com/story.php?story=9009 Blonde, Blue-Eyed Euro-Cute Latinos on Spanish TV]. Latinola.com (October 24, 2010).[http://www.vidadeoro.com/2010/10/latinos-not-reflected-on-spanish-tv.html Latinas Not Reflected on Spanish TV]. Vidadeoro.com (October 25, 2010).[http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art40221.asp What are Telenovelas? – Hispanic Culture]. Bellaonline.com.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120915015308/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2000-08-06/news/0008060066_1_spanish-latino-leaders-caste Racial Bias Charged On Spanish-Language TV]. Articles.sun-sentinel.com (August 6, 2000).[http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/08/19/pride_or_prejudice/ Skin tone consciousness in Asian and Latin American populations]. Boston.com (August 19, 2004).[https://www.pbs.org/pov/corpus/film_description.php Corpus: A Home Movie For Selena]. Pbs.org.[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3069253/site/newsweek/%5B/url%5D Soap Operas on Latin TV are Lily White] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070520050153/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3069253/site/newsweek/%5B/url%5D |date=May 20, 2007 }}

White Hispanic/white Latino literature originating from the San Joaquin Valley revolves around the lives and stories of farmworkers.{{rp|page=45}} Meanwhile, the autobiographies of white stateside Puerto Ricans and the poetry of the Nuyorican Movement are most often about their socioeconomic concerns.

{{ Cite book

| isbn=978-0-8160-6084-9

| lccn=2007034805

| title=Encyclopedia of Hispanic-American Literature

| first=Luz Elena

| last=Ramirez

| publisher=Infobase Publishing

| year=2009

| pages=xvii+430

| edition=1

}}

{{rp|page|275}}

A total of 27% of Hispanics marry outside their ethnicity. Non-Hispanic white/Hispanic intermarriage is the most common intermarriage in the United States representing 42% of interethnic marriages compared to white/black at 11%. Intermarriage rates between whites and Hispanics do not differ significantly among the genders (with Hispanic females slightly more likely to marry whites).{{cite web|url=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/12/key-facts-about-race-and-marriage-50-years-after-loving-v-virginia/|title=Key facts about race and marriage, 50 years after Loving v. Virginia|date=June 12, 2017|website=Pewresearch.org|access-date=August 28, 2017}}

Genetic research has found that the average non-European admixture is present in both white-Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites with different degrees according to different areas of the United States. Average European admixture among self-identified white Hispanic Americans who took a commercial DNA test from 23andMe is 73% (the average for Hispanic Americans regardless of race is 49.5%), contrasting to that of non-Hispanic European Americans, whose European ancestry totals 98.6% on average.{{cite bioRxiv| last1=Bryc | first1=Katarzyna | last2=Durand | first2=Eric Y. | last3=Macpherson | first3=J. Michael | last4=Reich | first4=David | last5=Mountain | first5=Joanna L. | title=The genetic ancestry of African, Latino, and European Americans across the United States | date=2014-09-18 | biorxiv=10.1101/009340}}. [http://biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/suppl/2014/09/18/009340.DC1/009340-1.pdf "Supplemental Tables and Figures"]. p. 42. 18 September 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2015. "Average admixture," however, can be a misleading measure, as it conflates vastly different population groups and ignores marked differences within individual Latino groups. Each Latin American country has a unique demographic history. Mexican Americans and Central Americans may frequently be of mestizo descent for instance, but Mexico has one of the largest total white populations in Latin America, and over 65% of Costa Rica's population identifies as white.[http://www.conapred.org.mx/documentos_cedoc/21_Marzo_DiaIntElimDiscRacial_INACCSS.pdf "21 de Marzo Día Internacional de la Eliminación de la Discriminación Racial" pag.7], CONAPRED, Mexico, 21 March. Retrieved on 28 April 2017.[http://www.conapred.org.mx/userfiles/files/Enadis-2010-RG-Accss-002.pdf "Encuesta Nacional Sobre Discriminación en Mexico"], "CONAPRED", Mexico DF, June 2011. Retrieved on 28 April 2017.{{Cite web |title=Listado de Temáticas |url=https://inec.cr/tematicas/listado |access-date=2024-06-29 |website=INEC |language=es}} Many other Latin American countries with relatively high proportions of white Latin Americans are

Paraguay and Chile. In Uruguay, over 85% of the population identifies as white.{{Citation |title=Uruguay |date=2024-06-26 |work=The World Factbook |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/uruguay/ |access-date=2024-06-29 |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |language=en}} The genetic profile of American Latinos varies from group to group and is a result of unique immigration histories.{{cite web|url=https://blog.23andme.com/ancestry-reports/reports-for-caribbean-and-latin-american-customers/|title= Reports for Caribbean and Latin American Customers|date=May 15, 2019}} For instance, the Cuban exiles "fleeing the Castro regime in the 1960s and '70s were almost entirely white, educated and middle or upper class."{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/opinion/why-are-cubans-so-special.html#commentsContainer|title= Why Are Cubans So Special?|newspaper= The New York Times|date=January 29, 2015|last1= Bardach|first1= Ann Louise}}

Farmworkers in the country are disproportionately white Hispanic/white Latino.{{cite web | publisher=Pew Charitable Trusts Stakeholders' Discussion Series | url=https://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/phg/content_level_pages/issue_briefs/pspsummaryworkerpdf.pdf | title=Farm Worker Health and Hygiene}} This is especially true in some areas, for example Southern Arizona. Many are producers, in other words they are farm operators.{{cite web | access-date=2022-09-23 | date=October 2019 | author=United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA NASS) | title=2017 Census - Hispanic Producers | url=https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Highlights/}} White Hispanics/white Latinos are a larger part of the Southern Arizona population than in the rest of the country, and are a large part of the area's agricultural workforce.{{cite web | access-date=2022-09-20 | author=City of Tucson | title=City of Tucson | website=U.S. Economic Development Administration | url=https://eda.gov/arpa/build-back-better/finalists/City-of-Tucson.htm}} However, racial classification in the United States usually requires tribal enrollment to identify one's race as Native or Indigenous. "Brown" Latinos are often automatically recorded as white if they aren't enrolled in a Native tribe and if they don't have Black ancestry. This paints a false picture of the workforce in a state that has had a history of racial profiling, such as Arizona SB 1070, and which continues to harbor widespread, racial-based anti-immigrant sentiment.

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