Having married a wonderful lady who just happens to me Mexican has been an eye opener for me in many ways.  Having lived and grown up in California, it was not like I was a stranger to Latinos, indeed as we moved from Post to post, some of my best friends were Mexican.  And I learned to love the cuisine! 

As I grew up, I was also made aware, through government pronouncements, that they were a separate race, and I accepted that as a fact as most people do.  But as the only thing that mattered to me was if you were "in" or not, (in as in a Military brat), I cared nothing for the color of my friends skin, only whether they were jerks (they come in all colors) or good friends.

But now I am learning, sometimes the hard way, that my wife is NOT Hispanic.  She is American whose mother came from Mexico!  Therefore, as a stratification, one can call her Mexican (dont do it derogatorily), or American, but not Hispanic of Mexican-American!

Why is she not Hispanic?  Hispanic is not a race.  It never has been really.  What the government so glibly did was decide that everyone born south of the Rio Grande, and all of their ancestors, were a race called Hispanics.  Never mind that the Spanish and Portuguese people were lumped into that pot, even tho they are some of the fairest skinned people in Europe!  Never mind that what the government is calling Hispanic is actually a mixture of 3 races - Caucasians, American (not plains) Indians, and blacks. 

But you see the Spaniards and Portuguese settlers of the new world did something different from the English Settlers.  They settled and intermarried with the native populations, after being quite mean to them (no worse than what the English did).  And in so doing, they "mixed" the races.  But that does not change the fact that they did not create a new race!  Did someone from the government recently decide that the offspring of Blacks and Caucasians was a new race?  Now wouldn't that be stupid?  But that is exactly what the pencil necks in DC did!  And in so doing, they are also stigmatizing a whole group of people, and indeed showing their own narrow minded bigotry in the process!

One of the stupidest things I have been witness to, and unfortunately I have seen it all too often, is to call in a Spanish speaking person to talk to a Brazilian!  While there are some similarities between Portuguese and Spanish, they are in no way the same language!  I use to work with a lady who was Mexican.  She married an American and came to work as our security officer.  Since she was fluent in Spanish (duh), the agency would call upon her to help whenever a Spanish speaking person came seeking assistance.  One day, a Gentleman from Brazil came, and they called her.  Needless to say, it was all Greek to her!

I think lumping everyone south of the border and from the Iberian peninsula as a distinct race is stupid and should be abolished.  Mexicans have no more in common with Colombians than we do!  Indeed, as I have found out (since I do most of the grocery shopping), Columbian Chorizo is not Mexican Chorizo, and El Salvadorian Tamales are not Mexican Tamales!  My wife likes to try different Mexican restaurants here in town, and we have found a favorite one.  But she had the misfortune of trying out one that advertised Mexican food, and it was not Mexican!  Upon questioning the waitress, it turns out the cook was from El Salvadore!  That would be like going to a Chinese restaurant and being served Thai food!  Both good, but hardly interchangeable.

So from now on, I am banning Hispanic from my vocabulary!  It is a racist stigma applied but a bunch of know nothing bureaucrats that dont know the difference between racism, and prejudice!  For apparently they suffer from the former.  My Wife is of Mexican ancestry.  And before that from Aztec and Spanish (and who knows what else) ancestry.  She is not Hispanic.

I would bet that most Mexicans, and indeed most central and south Americans already know that, which makes them much better informed than most Americans.