Yesterday, on C-SPAN, a young Portuguese American congressman (Dennis Nunes, R, CA) was gathering with a group of Hispanic Republicans, sharing objections to the Democrat’s obstruction of the Honduras born lawyer Miguel Estrada’s judicial nomination. From the context of his remarks, it seemed as if he were included as a “Hispanic” congressman. Also, I believe another Democratic Portuguese-American congressman from California (Cardozo? Coelho?) was/or is a member of the “Congressional Hispanic Caucus”.
Anyway, I believe Portuguese are Iberian, but would they be included as “Hispanics”? I know that is a broad label, but I always assumed it was officially designed to include all Latin Americans, but not any Europeans - even those from Spain. I know it is not “racial” label as some Latin Americans can trace all their ancestry to Europe or any other part of the world, but is is a geographic designation - and I never thought Portuguese people were are part of it.
If a Portuguese person claimed he was “Hispanic” I wouldn’t be too upset - as it is such a broad label - but I wouldn’t think of him as being “Hispanic” in the same way that I would Mexican-Americans, Cubans, or Puerto Ricans. Then again, I only know one Portuguese-American well, and he’s a self described “white guy” from Massachussets. Are there any Portuguese-American dopers here who identify with being “Hispanic”, or is it just the politicians?
Hispanic simply means from Spain. People from Portugal or Latin Americans who speak Portuguese wouldn’t likely be lumped into the same category even though they are very closely related.
Tony Coelho was another Portuguese-American Congressman who joined the Hispanic Caucus. He defended it on the ground that the word “Hispanic” derived from the Roman province of Hispania, which included all of Iberia.
I would suppose Portuguese politicians join the Hispanic Caucus as being the one “closest to home” so to speak. Why would they want to separate Brazil from the rest of so-called “Latin America” when they share the same overall objectives and exert such an impact on each other? That would be kind of petty.
Just as the focus of our hispanic politicians is not on Spain, I doubt the focus of our portuguese politicians is on Portugal.
As an aside, the adjectival prefix for all things Portuguese is Luso-. So a Portuguese speaker is a Lusophone; France-Portugal relations would be properly called Luso-Franco; etc, etc.
Hmm, I’m hispanic on my mother’s side and Brazilian on my father’s side. I can claim Hispanic because of my mom, but I’ve never been sure if a Brazilian could. When referring to Brazilians and Hispanics, I usually just use the term “Latinos”.
I’m half portuguese and I’ve always just considered myself a ‘white guy’. Though I guess i could claim to be ‘hispanic’ even though my family comes from the azores to be specific.