Am I Hispanic? Are my kids Hispanic? (American, world, Mexican)

[va_lucky]

I know that being considered Hispanic is generally or specifically a function of ethnicity and possibly a function of language or customs perhaps?

My 23andme results have me wondering what the definition of Hispanic is and if I am Hispanic. The EEO forms of today make me wonder even more.

Here are my 23andme results in general. My browser does not allow me to seem the specific numbers, but here is what I came back with generally:

71% White (47% Ashkenazi and 6.3% Southern European)
21% Black
2.5% American Indian
1% Asian.

Facts:

Father is Puerto Rican, mother is Jewish.

I don't speak much Spanish but the above mentioned mix makes my appearance look like the status qo Hispanic in many people's minds.

My name is the most status qo Hispanic name you could ever fathom in 1 million years of thinking about it.

My wife is Scottish, her results came back 99.9% Northern European.

Are my kids Hispanic?

Thanks

[jambo101]

To simplify if you were born in the USA you are American.

[va_lucky]

Originally Posted by jambo101

To simplify if you were born in the USA you are American.

I can't argue with that at all.

Scottish family has never EVER EVER referred to me as anything but.

[va_lucky]

It has always been akward/interesting growing up. Black folks telling me that I was black. White folks telling me that I was white. Hispanics telling me that I was Hispanic. How each group would talk so nasty about the other.

[chaparrito]

Short answer, if you have significant near ancestry that hails from a spanish speaking culture you are hispanic. In the spanish patrilineal tradition, so are your kids. What you look like is immaterial.

[calipoppy]

Yes, you are Hispanic. Yes, your children are Hispanic.

[Timing2012]

If race is a social construct as it's said by the mainstream media, then how come a person's racial makeup can be identified via DNA?

[Maxwell82]

Originally Posted by va_lucky

It has always been akward/interesting growing up. Black folks telling me that I was black. White folks telling me that I was white. Hispanics telling me that I was Hispanic. How each group would talk so nasty about the other.

Your kids are 10.5% Black Hispanic.

[LS Jaun]

Could be anything you choose with that mix. My grandmother is Mexican and I don't describe myself as hispanic. I grew up in the Southwest and Southern Ca. and have many friends that are in the same boat. I have nieces and nephews and some self describe as White and others may say Hispanic. In my opinion it's totally up to the individual, especailly as mixed as many people actually are. If Bill John Baker can be Principal Chief of the Cherokee Tribe and only be 1/32 Cherokee then the OP can rationalize being anything he wants.

[Linda_d]

Originally Posted by LS Jaun

Could be anything you choose with that mix. My grandmother is Mexican and I don't describe myself as hispanic. I grew up in the Southwest and Southern Ca. and have many friends that are in the same boat. I have nieces and nephews and some self describe as White and others may say Hispanic. In my opinion it's totally up to the individual, especailly as mixed as many people actually are. If Bill John Baker can be Principal Chief of the Cherokee Tribe and only be 1/32 Cherokee then the OP can rationalize being anything he wants.

QFT. Ethnicity and race are now self-identified. There's no longer a census enumerator deciding you are black or white or Hispanic. Many people of mixed ancestry on the 2010 census chose the option of calling themselves "mixed". Likely, many other people of the same mixed ancestry identified themselves as one of their mixed lineages.

IMO, you are the race/ethnicity that you most identify with. In your case, it might be Puerto Rican or it might be Jewish. It might be neither, and you consider yourself "American". Your surname means very little, especially considering that many "Spanish" people who came to the New World in the 16th through 18th centuries were "New Christians", or Jews who had converted to Catholicism at some point. I think that Spanish surnames that end in -ez may be an indication that some ancestor was a "New Christian".