Hispanic people have been in the region which is now United States since 1565 when they landed in the area we know as St. Augustine, Florida. This is the oldest continually inhabited American city. In the southwest of the United States in 1610, the Spanish conqueror Don Pedro de Peralto settled in the present location of Santa Fe, New Mexico which is the oldest capital city in North America. The presence of Hispanic people in this country is not new. They have probably been here longer than any other peoples except those indigenous to the country, Native Americans.
Latino/Latina or Hispanic peoples are from Latin America. This land mass is the continent of South America and additionally Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean countries whose inhabitants speak a Spanish. The Central American countries are Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, the coast of Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela. In the Caribbean, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico are Hispanic countries. The Hispanic population comprises a little over 18% of the people of the United States.
Hispanic peoples are those whose countries broke away from the rule of the Spanish Empire three to four centuries ago. The domination of the Empire made Spanish their primary language; it is gender-based. Hence, the words Latino and Latina refer to the masculine and the feminine respectively. In 2018, the word, Latinx was added to the dictionary. The new term was created for persons whose origins were in Latin America and its culture; it was created to be gender inclusive. Latinx is used only in the English language in the United States and primarily by non-Hispanic persons. Most people of Latin American descent refer to themselves as Hispanic, Latino or Latina. Only 2-4% use the term Latinx.
Reflections
To open links below on List of Latin American Countries and on Hispanic Achievements: Right click – Then left click on “Open Hyperlink”
List of Latin American Countries:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/list-of-countries-in-Latin-America-2061416
Hispanic Achievement in the United States:
https://dcmp.org/media/6620-a-history-of-hispanic-achievement-in-america-emergence-of-a-unique-hispanic-culture#:~:text=Throughout%20U.S.%20history%2C%20Hispanics%20have,%2C%20in%20sports%2C%20and%20more.
Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples.
Rigoberta Menchu Tum, activist, politician – Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1992. In 2006, she and five other Nobel laureates created the Nobel Women’s Initiative to promote justice, peace, and equality for women.
For me, a better democracy is a democracy where women do not only have the right to vote and to elect but to be elected.
Michelle Bachelet – Chile’s first female president.
A few Hispanic people who have contributed to the life and culture of the United States:
*The Honorable Sonia Sotomayor – United States Supreme Court Justice
*William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) – Physician and Pulitzer Prize winning poet
*Cesar Chavez (1927 – 1993) – Labor leader and civil rights activist with Delores Huert (1930 –), a teacher, labor leader and civil rights
activist founded the first union for Farm Workers in America
*Ellen Ochoa – First Latina astronaut to go to outer space
*Emilio Azcarraga Jean III – Brought Hispanic Television to America
Next Step Associates honors our Hispanic sisters and brothers during this Hispanic Heritage month, September 15 – October 15, 2022, and every day.
Dorothy Watson Tatem, D. Min., ACC
Senior Associate
Next Step Associates, LLC
Cassandra W. Jones, Ed.D.
CEO & President