This Month's Bookshelf

By George Puro

Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism

A lawyer and sociologist shines a spotlight on how government institutionalism continues to micromanage the identity of more than 60 million Americans.

In 1980, for the first time, the US Census began counting the Hispanic population. This count “fundamentally transformed” how Latinos think of themselves and how they are thought of, according to the new book Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism, by Dr. Laura E. Gómez. Dr. Gómez, a professor of law, sociology and Chicana/Chicano studies at UCLA, examines this switch and other critical changes in earlier Censuses in assessing the Latino identity today.

But first, Dr. Gómez relates the origin story of Latinos. The story begins with Spain’s colonization of “The New World.” Spain sent soldiers and missionaries to the Americas, where they came in contact with some 80 million Indigenous people. Just 10 million survived. This caused what the author calls “an acute labor shortage in the Spanish colonies.” To solve that, the Spanish brought 11 million slaves from Africa to Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America between 1551 and 1770. But sexual and marital union between Indigenous people, Blacks, and Spaniards was allowed. In a chapter entitled “The Elusive Quest for Whiteness,” Dr. Gómez examines the ongoing dilemma for Hispanics that resulted: “In the American racial order, where do they fit?”

From a demographic perspective, the concept of where Hispanics fit has depended on who is making the decision. For census purposes, this decision was undertaken for most of the Census’ history by enumerators.

The 1850 Census―taking place after Texas became a state (1845) and the Mexican Cession (1848) of much of the present-day southwestern US, which instantly changed thousands of Mexicans into US citizens―was the first in which Latinos were counted. But whether they were counted as white, Black or “mulatto” depended on the enumerator. In New Mexico Territory, for example, Spanish-speaking enumerators were hired and Mexican Americans there were marked as white.

In 1860, the Census began counting Indians living outside of Tribal Nations. This time, many Mexican Americans may have been counted as Indians. By 1930, the Census had added the term “Mexican” as an option for “color.” The 1940 Census attempted to clear things up with these instructions: “Mexicans are to be returned as white, unless definitely of Indian or other non-white race.”

Finally, in 1970, the Census took the labeling decision out of the hands of enumerators and entrusted a household member to identify the race of all members of the household. Interestingly, the American Indian population jumped 48% in that Census, compared to 18% for the entire US population. The author attributes the jump both to enumerators’ poor ability to classify Native Americans in previous censuses, as well as “the identity-expressive function of some whites who claim a distant Indian ancestor.”

This desire to capture the Hispanic identity more accurately brings us to the next Census in 1980. The 1980 Census added an “Hispanic ethnicity” question to be asked next to the existing question about race. As Dr. Gómez notes, the 1980 Census was transformative, leading to “mainstream recognition that Latinos existed.”

Latinos moved from being thought of as regional groups to a nationwide minority, marketed to as one group, often around three cultural traits: Spanish language, Catholicism, and the family.

But a separate question about Hispanic identity has introduced other issues. Since the question was introduced, Hispanics have chosen the non-descriptive “other” as their race between 37 and 43 percent of the time, instead of white, African American, Native American, Asian American, or a combination of those.

Puerto Ricans also have a varied response to the questionnaire. In 2000, 80% of the inhabitants of Puerto Rico identified themselves as white. But among Puerto Ricans living on the mainland, only 47% identified as white (with the rest identifying as other (40%), Black (6%) and two or more races (8%).

The Census Bureau tried to remedy that situation by dropping the Hispanic ethnicity question for the 2020 Census and instead including Hispanic as an option for the race question. (The Census proposed adding a Middle East/North African choice as well). Testing of this new format resulted in less than 1% choosing the “other” option.

Despite this, the Trump Administration decided in 2018 to keep the separate-question format from 2010. “The decision to ignore years of research and the expert advice of scientists is a blow to science and the collection of the best data possible,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, in a written statement at the time.

As such, the way we count Latinos stays largely the same as it has since 1980, and, the author would argue, still does not give the Hispanic population the accurate count and representation it deserves. Indeed, Dr. Gómez advocates eliminating the Hispanic ethnicity question and including Latinos in the race question for the 2030 Census.

The Hispanic ethnicity question in 2020: