Growing up, my family never liked or referred to themselves as “Hispanic”. I had never given much thought to why this happened until recently, when I began to learn more about the history of Spanish colonialism.
Every year from September 15 to October 15, the US celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month to recognize the colorful history and culture of the Hispanic people.
This holiday began because several Latin American territories such as Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica gained independence from Spain on September 15, 1821.
Whether or not “Hispanic” should be the term used in Hispanic Heritage Month has long been debated within the community. “Hispanic” includes all those from Spanish-speaking populations, and (get it)
Spanish colonization of the Americas began in 1493, with Columbus establishing the settlement of Isabella in what is now the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Many conquistadors followed Columbus to find gold and convert the indigenous people to Catholicism.
The encomienda system was one in which indigenous people were enslaved to strip their land of its natural resources and die in the process. In exchange for silver mines, the Spanish gave them protection from other settlers, a chance to become Catholics, and fatal diseases that killed 90% of the indigenous population.
This led to the massacre of the natives, enslavement and dispossession of whatever was left. Women were forcibly married to Spanish men in an attempt at religious conversion and assimilation into Spanish culture.
Anyone who rebelled against the atrocities of the Spanish was brutally tortured and killed. Courts were notorious for allowing the torture of slaves and indigenous people for the purpose of interrogation.
Colonization is not something that people can just get over. It has had lasting effects on the environment, culture and economy.
Economic inequality in Latin America is so extreme that it is widely considered one of the most economically unequal regions in the world. The top 10% own 54% of national income, according to the World Inequality Database.
For these reasons, I have found “Hispanic” to be an inadequate term. The grouping of Latinos with their colonizers is more or less disappointing. There is weight behind the words and “Hispanic” has on its figurative shoulders the whole weight of Spanish imperialism.
Although, “Latino” and any other variation of the term also reflects an incredibly problematic past, and it’s an identifier I’ve struggled to use for myself lately.
French intellectual Michel Chevalier coined the terms “Latin” and “Latin America” to group all colonial subjects under a collective label and push Eurocentric ideologies into that group. The goal was for the indigenous people to adopt the “Latin” culture and abandon their own.
The French had colonies in Brazil, Haiti and the Caribbean in the 16th and 17th centuries, and by the 19th century they had conquered Mexico.
The French conquest of Mexico was motivated by their desire to colonize and influence Latin culture before the Germans or Slavs.
The concept of making Latinos, or any other people of color, more “refined” runs deep in our history.
Choosing whether to call yourself “Hispanic” or “Latino” becomes an internal conflict to decide which is the lesser of two evils.
The European oppression of Latinos has – for lack of a better term – stripped us of our identity and culture. We do not have a single word about ourselves that does not have a colonial past.
It is difficult for us to find where we came from and what to call ourselves when our oppressors have done their best to erase our history. History that is barely taught in schools, despite the large Latino population in the United States.
Whole tribes were destroyed and the Latinos were forced to assimilate into the Spanish and French way of life.
Everything I’ve learned about my history I’ve gotten either from my family’s stories or from my own research. Due to cultural erasure it is a forgotten topic, but necessary to learn.
Even though the very names we call ourselves are rooted in some of the most evil acts done to humanity, that should not stop us from pushing for change. Learn your history, find meaning in it, and be outraged that even our own people do not know the extent of the atrocities committed against us.
