The essence of being Hispanic is the sharing of a common heritage. That cultural heritage is traced back to the rich history of the Iberian Peninsula. The Romans left the indelible seal of Christianity and the Arabs made scientific, architectural, literary and philosophical contributions. All of this peoples (Iberians, Celts, Phoenicians, Visigoths, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, and Arabs) influenced the character and the lenguage of the inhabitants of Iberia. These people eventually influenced deeply the cultures of Latin America.

TIME LINE

• The word “Latin” comes to us from a tribe in early Italy called the Latins
• The Latins lived in Latium whose capital city was Rome. Their language was called Latin.
• As Rome’s Empire grew their language, Latin, spread throughout the Roman Empire later evolving into several “Romance” languages; Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. People from these countries are referred to as Latin, their language is derived from “Latin”.
• Romans invaded the Iberian Peninsula they found a city already there called Hispalis (Seville)
• Later on the Romans annexed the Iberian Peninsula making it a province named Hispania
• Sometime later the name evolved from Hispania to España
• The word Hispania thus refers to the people and culture of the Iberian Peninsula, Spain in particular.
• The term Hispano (Hispanic) later was used in referring to Spain and its subsequent New World – New Spain, conquered territories which cover most of Latino America
• Hispanic thus refers to people whose culture and heritage have ties to Spain and, in the case of second and third generation Hispanic-Americans, who may or may not speak Spanish
• In the U.S. the term Hispanic (Hispano) gained acceptance after it was picked up by the government and used in forms and census to identify people with Spanish heritage.
• There is controversy among our community for the label Hispanic because it represents the roots of oppression from Spain. That is because Hispania was the name of one of the Roman provinces that now constitutes Spain.
• Also the label Latino is controversial because encompasses almost anyone from a culture with Latin roots. That could be Italians, Portuguese, French, and so on.
• Despite the controversy according to a survey 34% prefer Hispanic, 11% prefer Latino and the rest do not have a preference.

At the end we all are from America (North, Central or South America) and from our countries of origin (Colombia, Panama, Mexico, etc.). It does not matter how the label you, we should be proud of our heritage, culture and country of origins.

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Marketing to the New cultural Mix