Hispanic or Latino

[Francis Asis]

PLease could someone explain to me the difference between Hispanic and Latino?
thanks

[Buenchico]

'Latino' is a word exclusively used to refer to Latin-American inhabitants of the USA.

'Hispanic' is a more general word, referring to anyone coming from a country where Spanish or Portuguese is the main language.

So someone whose family origins are in Mexico, but who currently lives in the USA, is both 'Hispanic' and a 'Latino' but if he moved to the UK he'd only be 'Hispanic'.

Chris

[Francis Asis]

So its like the difference between English and British?

[Buenchico]

Er, not exactly.

You can be 'British' or 'English' anywhere in the world but the word 'Latino' is exclusively used in the USA (to describe people from South America who are living in the USA). 'Latino' doesn't feature in British (or International) English so it's meaningless to refer to someone as 'Latino' in this country.

'Hispanic' is a word which is used wherever English is spoken, to refer to someone from a Spanish or Portuguese-speaking country, irrespective of where they're living. All Spaniards are 'Hispanic'. All Portuguese people are 'Hispanic'. Everyone from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, etc is 'Hispanic', and so on.

Chris

[Clanad]

To be unashamedly pedantic, 'Latino' would only apply in the case of a male of the species... 'Latina' would be a female of the kind Chris describes...

[jno]

is that noun, adjective or both, Clanad?

[Francis Asis]

OK, i think i've got it. So, an Argentinian living in America would be referred to by Americans as Latino (or Latina) OR Hispanic. An Argentinian living in Argentina would be Hispanic.
is that right?

[Buenchico]

Yes, that sounds right to me.

Chris

[Francis Asis]

By jove she's got it.
Thank you for the help