Sacramento, California – October 15, 2025- As Latine/Hispanic Heritage Month closes and Native American Heritage Month approaches, it is important to reevaluate the history and ongoing discourse around identity labels. The central issue is how imposed categories—ethnic and racial—shape, limit, and sometimes erase individual and group identities. Ethnicity describes shared cultures, languages, and histories; race groups by physical characteristics. For those classified as Latine or Hispanic, these broad terms often obscure significant diversity and complexity. Considering the impact of dominant culture, legislation, data collection, and historical narratives, it becomes clear that identity is often contested and politicized.
Latin Americans are from various countries, made up of all races, but that truth is not always widely embraced. The caste system is a racist hierarchy that puts white skinned Europeans at the top, those of mixed race in the middle, and those of Indigenous and Black descent at the bottom. The whiter a person’s skin, the higher they place on the social scale, and the darker it is, the lower. Things have gotten better and worse over time, depending on where you look, but this power struggle and hierarchy still influence our global society today. When we get into labels that are forced onto us, identity can become a tool for oppression. One example is by trying to unify a nation but only representing a single race in the media and denying the existence of a whole other racial group. Another example can be by imposing a new identity on an existing one. Such is the case for some “Hispanics” and “Latin Americans.”
Latin refers to a group of people from Latium, Italy, whose language was Vulgar Latin. When the Romans conquered Spain, they took control of the land from the Carthaginians, Celts, Iberians, and Celtiberian peoples, among other tribes who coexisted in the Iberian Peninsula at the time. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the language evolved into what we now know as Italian. The Latin spoken in the Iberian Peninsula became Spanish and Portuguese due to the influence of Native tribes of this region. Later, the Germanic language of the Visigoths and Arabic-speaking Muslims, the Moors from North Africa, also influenced the Spanish language. When the Spanish conquistadors came to the Western Hemisphere, they brought with them their language and culture, forcing Indigenous communities to assimilate. Spanish has continued to evolve into other dialects influenced by the various regions and Indigenous people of those lands (https://blog.duolingo.com/history-of-spanish/).
The term Hispanic centers Spanish origin, perpetuating a hierarchy that erases Indigenous populations and oversimplifies histories in the Americas. It is used to unify people who speak Spanish, including the European country of Spain, however, this label refutes the existence of Indigenous populations in the Western Hemisphere. Not everyone in North America, the Caribbean, Central, or South America can trace an ancestor back to Spain, and even if they can, if a person is mixed race, their connection to Spain is not their entire identity. Yet, this label presumes that our roots began at 1st contact. The Spanish came to the Americas in 1492, but this hemisphere already had massive civilizations and various cultural identities established hundreds of years before that. Official labels like ‘Hispanic’ and later ‘Latin American,’ adopted for census and political purposes, attempt to unify diverse peoples under one category but often ignore their complex backgrounds.
The label “Latin American” was officially adopted by the US in 1997 to correlate with the term Hispanic. Not all conquered countries speak Spanish, such is the case for Brazil, who were conquered by Portugal. This label is a little more tolerated, as it dissolves the notion that all Latinos from the Americas originated in Spain and instead connects the Americas through our shared history of colonization, regardless of language spoken. Still, this ongoing effort to homogenize Latin American identities in the U.S. creates challenges for accurate representation and understanding. Latin Americans are a mosaic of countries, each with distinct worldviews, languages, food ways, and traditions, further complicating simplistic labels.
The Spanish gendered terms, Latino and Latina, have also continued to evolve over time to include gender neutral forms such as Latinx and Latine. Not all Latin Americans agree with the use of this new terminology, however, and it is typically rooted in xenophobia and transphobia. Younger generations continue to push the boundaries and demand broader gender inclusivity in the Spanish language. This resistance ties back into the dominant culture of coloniality and the erasure of Indigeneity and cultural understandings of gender expansiveness.
In the case of Tribal communities whose Tribal lands are on the US-Mexican border, the burden of a physical reminder ripping through the land weighs heavily. One day, finding themselves indoctrinated into a nationality, either a United States citizen or a Mexican citizen. For a lot of people, generations removed from these first efforts to erase Indigeneity; regaining, revitalizing, and reconnecting to that loss of culture has become a way to heal that generational trauma. The border wall disrupted natural patterns of migration and even severed ties between Tribal communities on either side. On the US side, Natives became Mexican immigrants, stripping away their autonomy, cultural identity, and connections to their Tribal lands. Mexicans, regardless of race, caught on this side of the border also suffered the same fate and became immigrants on lands they had occupied for generations. California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, and even parts of Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Kansas were all part of New Spain before the Mexican War of Independence, which ended in 1821. Later, these same territories were part of Mexico before the Mexican-American War ended in 1848.
Spanish-speaking people have been on this continent for some time now, and before that, warring tribes aside, Indigenous people moved freely on this continent, bartering and trading with each other. American Spanish-speaking people went through a process of becoming Hispanic and Latin American that further removed them, whether intentionally or unintentionally, from their Indigenous roots; however, remnants are still there. In the dialect of Spanish spoken, in the ways crops are grown and harvested, and in the foods and recipes themselves. And especially in the Indigenous communities that continue to fight for recognition (https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-guadalupe-hidalgo).
In 2019, here in the United States, 37.2 million people identified as being born in Mexico or could trace ancestral roots to Mexico. Mexican immigrants, Mexican Americans, and Chicanos are the largest subgroup of the 62.1 million Hispanic/Latino population in the United States. Since the last census (2020), Pew Research Center found that New Mexico was no longer the only state with the largest Hispanic population, but that California ranked equally high (https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/06/14/a-brief-statistical-portrait-of-u-s-hispanics/).
A changing census has taught us that identity is complicated, and that numbers can change based on imposed labels and data collection methods. Last year, the U.S. Census Bureau updated its race and ethnicity standards to include, “seven co-equal minimum categories for data on race and ethnicity: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Middle Eastern or North African, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and White.” In addition to this expansion in categories, the Census Bureau has also turned the two separate race and ethnicity questions into one single question, “encouraging respondents to select as many options as apply” (https://www.census.gov/about/our-research/race-ethnicity/standards-updates.html).
Many people have begun to reclaim Indigenous heritage, and with the changes to the census, the data will continue to increase. According to census.gov, “between 2010 and 2020, the ‘Latin American Indian alone’ category saw an increase of 344.7%, and the ‘Latin American Indian alone or in any combination’ category saw an increase of 390.4%. The ability to identify as multiple ethnicities and races allows for a more comprehensive representation of the diverse populations in the United States.” This small step forward can lead to greater understanding of lived experiences and help fill gaps in cultural competency, language barriers, and connections to resources. With quality representation, the needs of our communities across the nation can be more apparent and hopefully will lead to inclusive progress.
To learn more about Latino History:
https://latino.si.edu/learn/latino-history-and-culture/latino-history
Sacramento Native American Health Center is a non-profit 501(c)(3) Federally Qualified Health Center committed to continue and share the legacy of a healthy American Indian / Alaska Native community based on cultural values delivered through a traditional, innovative and accessible patient-centered health home. SNAHC offers primary care, oral health, behavioral health, specialty, and supportive services in Midtown and South Sacramento plus a school-based health center. We are open to all, and all are welcome. For more information on SNAHC, visit www.snahc.org or call 916-341-0575 for an appointment.
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