Todas las clasificationes raciales son mierda del toro. 
Caca de toro would be better.
In their native country they are latinos; if they move to the US they would be hispanic (although fellow latinos would probably still call them latinos).
Here in Panama there are lots of descendents of Europeans of all nationalities. The descendents of the very earliest Spanish settlers are mostly now mixed with Indians and blacks. But there are lots of descendents of Spaniards who came over within the last century to work on the Canal, and they are mostly white.
The upper class here has a greater percentage of European ancestry. They are popularly known as rabiblancos, or “white butts.”
Right or wrong hispanic is definitely used as a racial identifier in pop-culture here. The problem is as a racial identifier it’s such a convoluted term it’s has no real meaning.
Hell, due to the way censuses are conducted here people can actually qualify as both white AND hispanic, and that’s why in some states like New Mexico if you add up the % of all races you get greater than 100%, because many hispanics self-identify as white AND hispanic.
On that count, it’s about as bad as “white” as a racial identifier.
Maybe less so, though, since “hispanic” at least, implies the person either speeks Spanish or is one generation removed from Spanish-speakers.
I remember I had this revelation one day when I was in my late teens. I was like “What the F does hispanic mean??” After looking around encyclopedias and dictionaries I started to realize it’s a horrible inaccurate and useless term and try to substitute it for “Cuban” “Panamanian” “Mexican” et cetera whenever I possibly can.
Wow! Finally a thread related to one of my pet peeves!
I am of Spanish descent. My father’s family came to California when he was a child.
I am white.
I consider myself “white”.
I am NOT “hispanic” or “latino”. Those terms do not apply to people from Spain.
BTW, nor am I caucasian. My family does not originate in the caucasus mountains. I firmly believe that “caucasian” is abused even more than “literally” and “decimate”.
/rant
Wow! Finally a thread related to one of my pet peeves!
I am of Spanish descent. My father’s family came to California when he was a child.
I am white.
I consider myself “white”.
I am NOT “hispanic” or “latino”. Those terms do not apply to people from Spain.
BTW, nor am I caucasian. My family does not originate in the caucasus mountains. I firmly believe that “caucasian” is abused even more than “literally” and “decimate”.
/rant
When does hamster season open up around this place? :mad:
One of my grandfather’s brothers went to Argentina rather than Pennsylvania from the Old Country.
It amuses me that my Argentine cousins, who are fully as pale, big-boned, and clumsy as the rest of my extended Eastern European family, might be considered somehow less “white” than those cousins still in the Caucasus.
clasificaciones, mi amigo. 
Argentina is the “whitest” country I’ve ever been to (including France and the UK). I had been riding the subways in Buenos Aires for about a week before I saw someone who appeared to be non-European in ancestry. Most people are of Spanish and Italian descent, and those who aren’t are mostly Welsh, German, or some other European nationality.
I’m Costa Rican, and I’m both hispanic and white. I was born pasty white, which did not go unnoticed by predators such as the sun, my natural enemy.
Personal history: My grandfather was Spanish , the same as his entire line. My father and my brother look more arab, though (which may or may not involve an ancient Moroccan rape). My mother and I share a much closer resemblance and she comes from the same gene soup most Costa Ricans share. Costa Rica is “whiter”, in general, than other Central American countries. I think the answer can be found in the 1500-1700s period, where our natives were either “butt-ugly” or “too damn hot” in the looks department.
I don’t know and I don’t care. It’s silly to talk about “race”.
That still doesn’t fly. You would have to say “caca de toro” for it to work in that context, and it still sounds silly which is the exact reason why I used it as a joke insult for the longest of times.
What still doesn’t fly? The original spelling was wrong. Somone had already corrected the “bullshit” part… I was just fixing what was left.
Remember that all that land was parceled out to Spanish settlers (subsequently known as “grandees”, whatever their social standing back home). Indeed, there have been a few lawsuits (mostly in Texas, IIRC) by their descendants over (relatively - by comparison - small pieces of) the lands won in recent years. Someone from the southwest is likely to know more about them, and be better able to find cites. Their ancestors definitely objected to the Anglos who were coming in and settling on “their” land.
Understand, I’m NDN on my mother’s side, and I don’t see where either of them had the right to move in and claim the land. On my father’s side, I’m descended from one of the Arizona grandees, via Montreal in the early 1600s. 
14 years ago this summer, I went on a four week retreat. An engaged couple - Southern white male and Hispanic female from some Latin American country were also there. I commented something about Native American ancestry, as she looked pure NDN to me (both skin tone/color and features). He came to me later and told me that she was pure Spanish. :smack: I didn’t argue; I apologized, but there ain’t a Spaniard in the world who would agree with them. :sigh:
Some “are,” some “aren’t.” Speaking for myself, I am a nonwhite-identified Sicilian. I’m not black either. I’m of ambiguous racial identity. Can human beings handle ambiguity? Or do all us boundary-transgressors have to be chased back into our little labeled cubbyholes and locked in?
“Amen, sister!”
In the past, weren’t some European immigrant groups considered non-white in America? I’m thinking specifically about Irish people, but I’ve got a vauge nagging idea that swarthy Spaniards might have been included. Am I misremembering something?
I’m reasonably certain that under the pre-integration Jim Crow laws down south any Spanish national I’ve ever met would qualify as white.
I don’t know about them being considered non-white, but there was a time (IIRC, late 19th, early 20th century) when it was common for people to talk about “the Irish race” or “the Italian race” or “the German race”, but that was more in terms of identifying mental characteristics. For example, “the Irish race” might have been thought to be prone to meloncholia-- they produce a lot of good poets, but not any real thinkers or doers. They tend to drink and fight a lot. There was a belief that these stereotypes were not only true, but genetic.
Un toro? O muchos? Hay mucho mierda para un toro…
Caca de toro. Unless it hits the fan.
Yes, prejudice does not stop at discrimination based on skin color.
I was told that one of my father’s siblings was roundly castigated by his German-born parents for going on a date with a person who “looked Italian.” Not was Italian, just looked like it.
I also know that the children of a former neighbor of mine were classified for school assignment purposes (there was a program in place to assure that one school didn’t serve mostly dark-skinned children and another serve mostly light-skinned children) as Hispanic because the family’s last name was common in Hispanic cultures. The children, however, sure looked northern European to me, the family was in no particular economic crunch that would have warranted any special classification, the father’s name was Adolph, and the mother was as Irish-looking as anyone I’ve ever seen, pale skinned with bright red hair.