Hispanos

For other American descendants of Spaniards, see Spanish American.

Hispano

Total population
est. 1.5 million up to roughly 0.5% of the U.S. population
Regions with significant populations
Southwestern United States
Languages
American English · Spanish Spanish in the United States · New Mexican Spanish · Ladino
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic · Protestant · Agnostic or Atheist · Jewish minorities.
Related ethnic groups
Portuguese Americans · Spanish Americans · Mexican Americans · white Hispanic and Latino Americans · Native Americans in the United States to some extent.

Hispanos (from Spanish: adj. prefix Hispano- relating to Spain, from Latin: Hispānus) is a name given to people of colonial Spanish descent in what is today the United States who retained a predominantly Spanish culture. The distinction was made to compensate for flawed U.S. Census practices in the 1930s which used to characterize Hispanic people as non-white.[1] Though the word could describe anyone of Spanish descent,[2] it is specifically used to refer to Hispanic Americans who live in the Southwestern United States which was formerly the northernmost region of New Spain. They are mostly descendants of Spanish settlers (with Basques and Conversos - Spanish Jews converted to Christianity to escape persecution from the Spanish Inquisition), Mexicans (both white Mexicans and mestizo and indigenous Mexicans) who arrived during the Spanish colonial period and the Mexican period, and Mestizos of mixed Spanish and Native American ancestry. Some Hispanos differentiate themselves culturally from the population of Mexican Americans whose ancestors arrived in the Southwest after the Mexican Revolution.

Demography

Hispano populations include Californios in California and Arizona (Arizona belogned to Alta California), Nuevomexicanos in New Mexico and Colorado, Tejanos in Texas, Isleños in Louisiana (since that this state was Spanish) and Texas, and Adaeseños in northwest from Louisiana. While having integrated into mainstream American societies, Hispanos have retained much of their colonial culture of south , having absorbed several American Indian traditions. Many Hispanos, particularly those of younger generations, identify more with the mainstream population and may understand little or no Spanish. Most of them are Roman Catholic Christians.

• Californios: between 300,000 and 500,000 (estimates of Alexander V. King in 2004)
• Nuevomexicanos: Unknown
• Tejanos of settlers descent: Unknown
• Isleños Americans: 40.000 - 70.000

See also

• Juan Bautista Rael
• White Hispanic and Latino Americans
• Criollo people
• Spanish American
• Hispanic