Isn’t Mexico part of Latin America?

I’ve always assumed it was.

Unfortunately, you don’t always get to pick your labels. You can among friends and family, but it doesn’t change what people that don’t know you think. And people that don’t know you are often the people whose minds need the most changing.

Hopefully posts like this reach people that need their mind changed on how identity works and what matters about it and why.

The original meanings of words change over time with usage. Though they have some overlap and some differences (Brazilians are considered Latino but not Hispanic and Spaniards are considered Hispanic but not Latino), the term Latino is generally replacing previous usage of Hispanic, though Latino is likely used more in urban and coastal regions of the US and Hispanic is likely used more in rural and landlocked regions. The usage of either term won’t always be accurate and it will be an exonym used for people who don’t call themselves by that term.

You’re free to say, “I don’t identify as Latino. I’m Mexican.” Or “I’m Mexican American.” if you’re in the US. There will be surveys and polls and forms that won’t have Mexican as a choice though since they use pan-ethnic or continental terms for wide groups of people for categorization purposes. Similar to the fact that white isn’t an ethnicity or a scientific taxonomy. It’s an arbitrary designation with historical, social and political baggage.

You were born in a Latin America country, presumably son of Latin Americans, you grew up in said country, you are a Latin American, or Latino for short.

People born in USA with USA born parents that grew up in the USA are Americans, the ones that claim to be Italian or Irish are made fun of by a actual Italian and Irish people, source I’ve lived in Italy and now live in Ireland.

Latin America is arguably one of the largest demographics in the world, since it covers essentially all of the countries in the American continent with the notable exceptions of USA and Canada. An Argentinian like me will have almost nothing in common with a Mexican like you (except perhaps we both watched el chavo del 8), or at least no more than I would have with a Canadian, yer we’re both “Latinos”. Plus I don’t see what’s the problem with being a Latino, that doesn’t mean anything, whatever prejudice someone will have for you being Latino, they will have it regardless of whether you consider yourself Latino.

I would say Mexican of Spanish heritage counts as “Latino” or “Hispanic” in the US, yes. It’s a broad category here. You are also North American of European heritage. And yes of course, identify however the heck you want.

Well, I actually know a few people irl that have an opinion that rather intrigued me. Now, disclaimer, I’m a white boy, and can’t claim to understand the full complexity of the labels and identities involved here. I’m just repeating what I heard during a long conversation about this subject. And, not everyone there at the time agreed.

That being said, the opinion that was discussed was that latino/a is a cultural descriptor rather than an ethnicity. In other words, you’re Latino if you are from that culture, and embrace it. Otherwise, you’d be “Hispanic”, or of a specific nationality/ethnicity as applies.

The counter argument to that was that it only mattered if you live outside of Latin America. Which, the group said included everything from Mexico down through south America, plus some islands, and excluding Brazil. Which was party a joke, but not fully a joke. That group leaned towards the Latino culture being partially defined by language as much as anything else, which meant that indigenous peoples wouldn’t be Latino by default, no matter where they lived.

Again, this is just something I ended up listening to and asking a few questions about, it isn’t my own opinions.

But, if that group can be taken as a basis for a useful idea, then you would be able to reject the label of Latino because it only applies if you embrace the culture associated with Spanish speaking peoples in the Americas as a whole (as opposed to regional or national cultural identities).

As far as ancestry goes, it’s pretty common to refer to it as a form of self labeling, if it’s important to the person. While I have next to zero experience with Ireland or Scotland, a big chunk of my ancestors were Scots-Irish immigrants to the area hate in the US I’m from. And there are cultural facets that still exist from that. I also have some Polish ancestry that I have no connection to in my life, so there’s no cultural influence there. So, when I’m talking about such things, I don’t identify as Polish-American at all, because it’s such a minor part of my upbringing and self. But the Scots-Irish side of things runs very strong in both sides of my family (along with german influences, which makes for some interesting potluck dinners lol), so that’s what I would likely mention first if asked about what ethnic or cultural groups are part of my identity.

Which is similar enough to what the group of friends I was talking about said. If you aren’t part of a culture, you don’t have to self label as part of that culture just because you share some similarities. The caveat being that it assumes Latino is a culture rather than an ethnicity/race.

Again, other than the part about my own ancestry, this is all what other people said, it isn’t me trying to foist my opinion on someone else.

Something to consider, even though they now speak Spanish a lot of people in Mexico aren’t descended from Spaniards, they are descended from tribes like the Aztec, Mayans and Olmec. Might be interesting to study your ancestry.

As a Mexican, you are. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not a racist term. It’s just like calling someone from France an European. Or someone from South Korea an asian.

The French guy will probably have nothing in common with a swedish, yet they happen to be both European, just like a Japanese will have a totally different culture than a Mongol, yet they are asians.

You can of course tell people to stop calling you a latino if you want to. However society automatically puts labels on people and they will call you whatever they want. If I were you, I’d just stop giving it any importance.

What do you think the term Latino means, and why don’t you want to identify as one?

Others here have answered the basic questions. However, an even better answer would come from talking about it with your family. If for some reason you are not interested or able to discuss it with your parents, what about with cousins or grandparents?