DEMOGRAPHICS - Who's Hispanic?

Saturday, June 8, 2002


Will George W. Bush appoint the first Hispanic to the Supreme Court? The
conventional wisdom is that he will if a vacancy occurs during his
presidency. But in fact, President Hoover may have beaten Bush to the
punch in 1932 with the appointment of Benjamin Nathan Cardozo to succeed
Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Whether the nation has already had its first Hispanic justice depends on
the answer to a seemingly simple question: Who's Hispanic?

Two Hispanic-oriented Web sites-HispanicOn line.com and
americanos-bostonianos.org-count Cardozo and list him as the first
Hispanic justice. Yet the Hispanic National Bar Association is urging Bush
to appoint the first Hispanic justice. And The Washington Post, Legal
Times, Chicago Sun-Times, National Review, and many other publications
have declared that Bush might well do just that. The short list of likely
Bush Supreme Court nominees almost invariably includes White House counsel
Alberto R. Gonzales and federal appeals court nominee Miguel Estrada,
partly because of their Hispanic heritage.

Whether Cardozo, who died in 1938, was Hispanic depends on whether the
term is defined to include Americans of Portuguese ancestry.
"Hispanic," it turns out, is an inherently ambiguous-and, these
days, a highly political-word with no fixed cultural or ethnic moorings.
The confusion over how to classify people of Portuguese descent helps shed
light on the complex, ever-changing politics of ethnic identity and
minority rights in the United States. Generally, government agencies,
employers, and university admissions offices count as "Hispanic"
anyone who identifies himself or herself as such, even if the person's
surname is, say, McDonald or Kowalski.

As used in common parlance today, "Hispanic" is a leaky umbrella
that covers a geographically sweeping range of ethnic groups-from
Mexican-Americans such as Gonzales, to most people whose background is
Central American, such as the Honduras-born Estrada, South American,
Caribbean, or Spanish. Today's model of the umbrella frequently fails to
cover anyone from the French- and Creole-speaking Caribbean island of
Haiti, from Portugal (Spain's neighbor on the Iberian Peninsula), or from
Portuguese-speaking Brazil.

Leaders of Hispanic organizations tend to be understandably leery of
carefully defining "Hispanic" or its pseudo-synonym,
"Latino," because they know that there is strength in numbers
and that very loose, inclusive terminology pumps up their official
proportion of the U.S. population. "I truly believe that the terms
`Hispanic' or `Latino' have served to really kind of unify the
community," says Larry Gonzalez of the National Association of Latino
Elected and Appointed Officials.

Gonzalez adds that his organization doesn't ask candidates' nationality:
"We try to be as inclusive as possible, and that's why we really
don't ask.... When you meet these folks, you find out. Or they send you
their press releases saying, `I'm the first Salvadoran or first
Dominican.' But we want to be inclusive. We want to include them all under
the heading of `Latino elected officials.' "

After its 2000 head count, the Census Bureau for the first time pegged
"Hispanic/Latino" as the nation's largest minority group-35.3
million people strong. That news jolted both major political parties into
focusing more intently on attracting Hispanic voters. Yet the Hispanic
vote is anything but monolithic. To cite one well-known example: The
primary concern of Mexican-Americans (easing immigration restrictions) is
quite different from that of Cuban-Americans (toppling Fidel
Castro).

Wooing Hispanic voters certainly wasn't Herbert Hoover's aim when he
tapped Cardozo for the high court 70 years ago. "Hispanic"
wasn't even a regular part of the American political lexicon. Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary then narrowly defined the word as "of or
pert[aining] to Spain and its language." Apparently, neither Hoover
nor any of his predecessors saw appointing Cardozo to the Supreme Court as
a way to score a historic "first" because of his background. In
fact, several presidents intentionally passed over Cardozo, who was
controversial because his appointment would add another Jew, another New
Yorker, and another Democrat to the nation's top court. According to
Harvard law professor Andrew Kaufman, one of Cardozo's biographers,
Cardozo would have thought of himself as a Sephardic Jew of Portuguese
descent and probably not as Hispanic.

But by 1970, when the Census Bureau reluctantly began to ask U.S.
residents whether they were Hispanic, the term had evolved to include
people of Portuguese extraction, at least in the view of Webster's. It
defined "Hispanic" as "of or relating to the people,
speech, or culture of Spain, Spain and Portugal, or Latin America."
The Census Bureau added the "Hispanic" query at the last minute
at the insistence of President Nixon, who astutely saw the large number of
Mexican-Americans in his native California as an indicator that Hispanics
were becoming an important voting bloc. Bureau officials strongly objected
to Nixon's request because they didn't have time to determine whether the
term "Hispanic" had any scientific basis and whether it was a
designation that the targeted population would identify with.

Today, except at the Library of Congress and the Small Business
Administration, the consensus tends to be that Portuguese-Americans are
not Hispanic. "I personally do not classify Portuguese under the
`Hispanic' or `Latino' label, and I would say the majority [of
Portuguese-Americans] do not as well," says Jason Moreira, executive
assistant

of the Portuguese American Leadership Council of the United
States.

Webster's now defines "Hispanic" as "of, relating to, or
being a person of Latin American descent living in the U.S.; especially
one of Cuban, Mexican, or Puerto Rican origin." Any U.S. resident who
wanted to could claim to be "Spanish/Hispanic/Latino" on the
2000 census form because the Census Bureau allows people to define
themselves. People of Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban descent had separate
checkoff boxes so that their proportion of the Hispanic population could
be determined. Anyone belonging to an "other" Hispanic group was
asked to name it. Self-identified Hispanic people who listed themselves as
Portuguese, Brazilian, or Haitian were then not tallied as
"Hispanic," though the census form did not warn that they would
not be.

The two Portuguese-Americans in the U.S. House, California Republican
Richard Pombo and Pennsylvania Republican Patrick Toomey, do not belong to
the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Neither does Sen. Ben Nighthorse
Campbell, R-Colo., a Native American who is part Portuguese. However,
former Congressman Tony Coelho, a Democrat of Portuguese heritage, did
belong to that caucus. Dennis Cardoza, who defeated California Rep. Gary
Condit in the Democratic primary, is Portuguese and doesn't consider
himself Hispanic. But Cordoza has two adopted Hispanic children, and he
intends to join the Hispanic Caucus, if elected. (The House's
Portuguese-American Caucus is largely composed of non-Portuguese lawmakers
who represent large numbers of Portuguese-Americans.)

Drawing Different Lines

The Library of Congress employs one of the most expansive definitions of
"Hispanic": "The Hispanic Division Reading Room serves as
the primary access point for research relating to those parts of the world
encompassing the geographical areas of the Caribbean, Latin America, and
Iberia; the indigenous cultures of those areas and peoples throughout the
world historically influenced by Luso-Hispanic heritage, including Latinos
in the U.S., and peoples of Portuguese or Spanish heritage in Africa,
Asia, and Oceania."

The reading room was founded in 1936, thanks to the largesse of
philanthropist Archer M. Huntington, who was primarily interested in the
study of Spain and Portugal. According to a reading-room official who
asked to remain anonymous, "The idea of Hispanic studies is Spain,
Portugal, and Latin America in the scholarly world. Now, all of this
antedates our political concept of Hispanics in the U.S.

"The reason we don't include Portugal as we should-it should be the
Luso-Hispanic Division-is because we are told that the American public
would not know what `Luso' is," she added. "In every great
research library in the United States, Hispanic studies is the totality of
the Iberian Peninsula, Latin America, and the Caribbean."

Questions about the library's definition of "Hispanic" come up
"all the time," she says, from researchers of Portuguese
descent. "The Spaniards have never asked, `Why are we part of Latin
America?' But the Portuguese have come and said, `Why aren't we part of
the European Division? And I say to them, `If you were part of the
European Division, you would be like Slovenia. And if you're part of the
Hispanic Division, you are an important country because of our big patron,
Archer Huntington.... And the European Division covers, guess what-Russia,
Germany. You know, the big boys.' "

Refugio Rochin, director of the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives,
embraces an even broader cultural definition of "Hispanic." To
him, the Hispanic world stretches as far as the Philippines and Morocco,
though neither country is Spanish-speaking. "There is a strong Middle
Eastern influence on Hispanics throughout history. A lot of our culture,
our systems of design, architecture, and mathematics derive from Moroccan
influence on Spain," he explains.

Yet not everyone wants to be covered by "Hispanic." Brazilians
want nothing to do with that label, regardless of how the term is defined,
according to Jose M. Neistein, executive director of the
Brazilian-American Cultural Institute. "We don't feel discriminated
against; we only feel uncomfortable when people say we're Hispanic,"
he says.

In contrast, many Haitians want to be considered Hispanic or Latino-as
scholars tend to agree they should be-but often get left out. In 1804,
Haiti became the first colony in Latin America to win its independence.
And one of Simon Bolivar's key allies in the fight to free the region from
Spain's grip was Alexandre Petion, a founding father of the Republic of
Haiti. Yet because Haitians speak Creole or French rather than Spanish and
because they are black, they are often thought of as fundamentally
different from "Hispanics"-even though the Census Bureau
conscientiously reminds everyone that Hispanics may belong to any race. In
the 1990s, members of the congressional black and Hispanic caucuses spoke
out in favor of granting political asylum to Haitian refugees.
Nevertheless, Haitians continue to be a people caught between two
identities and have suffered politically as a result.

Jean-Robert Lafortune, chairman of the Haitian-American Grassroots
Coalition, says that Miami's Cuban-American community is extremely
supportive of Haitians but that Haitian-Americans need to forge closer
ties to Hispanic organizations outside Miami. "We need that linkage
between Haitians and Latino groups around the nation. Because that linkage
is missing, we're having so much difficulty advocating for our
community," he said.

Non-Hispanic political leaders attempting to address Hispanic needs often
overlook Haitians. For example, in late March, Reps. Tom Davis, R-Va., and
Howard L. Berman, D-Calif., introduced legislation to grant amnesty to
thousands of Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and Hondurans if they could prove
they had lived in this country since 1995. The measure does not include
Haitians.

Likewise, Spanish-speaking George W. Bush has aggressively courted the
Hispanic vote with knowing nods to the parochial interests of key segments
of that population-with the notable exception of Haitians. As president,
Bush has forged a strong relationship with Mexican President Vicente Fox
and, even since September 11, has signaled a desire to ease immigration
restrictions on Mexicans. The Bush administration has also promised to end
the Navy's much-criticized weapons testing on the Puerto Rican island of
Vieques. And just last month, the president forcefully reaffirmed the
longtime trade embargo on Communist Cuba.

Yet since December, the Bush administration has locked up Haitians-and
only Haitians-seeking political asylum. People of other nationalities are
released to relatives or other U.S. citizens while their asylum cases are
pending. (With the notable exception of Elian Gonz--lez, whom the Clinton
administration sent home to his father, Cuban refugees are automatically
allowed to stay in this country if they make it to U.S. shores.)

Preferential treatment for Cuban immigrants is nothing new. During the
Cold War, Cuban and Nicaraguan refugees fleeing Communist regimes received
much warmer welcomes than did the Guatemalan and Salvadoran refugees
fleeing right-wing dictatorships.

A Continuing Evolution

No mere esoteric debating point, the question of how "Hispanic"
gets defined-if it gets defined at all-by a particular administration,
agency, court, or university can have far-ranging, real-world consequences
on issues from immigration to affirmative action. On May 14, the 6th
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, 5-4, that it is constitutional for the
University of Michigan's law school to give special consideration to black
and Hispanic applicants. How does the university figure out who's
Hispanic? Admissions officers simply look at whether the applicant checked
"Hispanic/Latino" on the admissions form.

But elsewhere, lawsuits have already begun to target affirmative-action
programs that use definitions of "Hispanic" so loose that they
include nationalities with no history of being discriminated against. For
example, after Congress instructed the Small Business Administration to
make "Hispanics" eligible for 8(a) loans, the agency decided to
include Portuguese-Americans. According to University of Maryland
(Baltimore County) political scientist George La Noue, that decision has
created legal problems. "The specific terms of what countries should
be included were really made by the Small Business Administration,"
he said. "They were made at a very low level of the bureaucracy by
people who are no longer there. And, frankly, people can't remember why
they were made. But Portuguese got included."

Last July, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a Cook County,
Ill., ordinance requiring-in a 1988 attempt to make amends for past
discrimination-that the county award 30 percent of the value of each
county government construction project to enterprises owned by women or
minorities. In Builders Association of Greater Chicago v. County of Cook,
Richard Posner, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, excoriated the
county's "laundry list of favored minorities." Posner declared,
"Persons whose ancestors came to the United States from Spain and
Portugal ... have never been subject to any discrimination by Cook
County." The judge added, "The concern with discrimination on
the basis of Hispanic ethnicity is limited to discrimination against
people of South or Central American origin, who often are racially
distinct from persons of direct European origin because their ancestors
include blacks or Indians or both."

The Posner decision appears to be in line with a 1989 Supreme Court ruling
in which the justices declared that an affirmative-action remedy for past
discrimination must be tailored to benefit only those sorts of
people-blacks, for example-who actually had suffered the
discrimination.

Although certain nationalities, such as Salvadorans and Guatemalans, are
counted as "Hispanic" under almost everyone's definition, that
doesn't translate into those groups' wielding much influence inside the
Mexican-American-dominated Hispanic community or in society at large.
"We can't get away from the fact that two-thirds of the [Hispanic]
population are Mexican," says NALEO's Gonzalez. According to the 2000
census, 59 percent of U.S. Hispanics are Mexican, 10 percent are Puerto
Rican, and 4 percent are Cuban. As a result, "Hispanic clout"
very often means Mexican-American clout. Of the 19 Hispanics in the House
(not counting two nonvoting delegates), 13 are Mexican-American, three are
Puerto Rican, and three are Cuban.

Estevan Flores, executive director of the Latino/a Research & Policy
Center at the University of Colorado (Denver), predicts that Hispanics of
Central or South American origin will have more of a voice once they've
been in this country longer. "Usually, probably the third generation
gets to really get integrated into the political system and recognized for
contributions and for paying their dues.... There are those of us
[Mexican-Americans] in the Southwest who can trace their families back
six, seven, 10 generations."

Identity politics is continuing to evolve. A sizable number of
Mexican-Americans aren't interested in deciding who's "Hispanic"
or, for that matter, who's "Latino." Instead, they want to use
terminology that honors their American Indian tribal past, not European
conquistadors. Explains Ruben Mendoza, a professor of social and
behavioral sciences at California State University (Monterey Bay) and
former president of the Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists:
The term "Hispanic" is "associated with the conquest
culture of Spain. And that's part of the ideology behind the rhetoric for
having it thrown out as a symbol for who we are as a people."

Gregg Sangillo is National Journal's fact checker. His surname is often
assumed to be Hispanic but is, in fact, Italian.

Gregg Sangillo

National Journal

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