A Place to Stand:
Identity and diversity within the Latin@ population
By Ernesto R. Escoto and Gonzalo Bruce

“Not a Latin@, but a Mexican@.” “Not a Hispanic, but a Chicano.” “A Peruvian-American.” “A Cubana.” “A Puertorriqueño.” “Always a Texan”...When asked, “what would you tell others about your people?,” most individuals of Hispanic/Latin@ heritage are likely to say: “Tell them we are not all the same…”

Writing about Latin@ cultural, ethnic, racial and social diversity and the implications for Latin@s themselves and other groups/communities is not easy, and examining the characteristics of groups sharing some common characteristics (e.g., language, some history, and, in many cases, religion) can be very educational. While concepts such as familia and personalismo may capture broad and wide-ranging values among some Latin@s, these easy generalizations overlook a complex tapestry of commonalities, tensions and cultural wealth among the various groups tracing their ancestry to the predominantly Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Latin American and Caribbean worlds.

Due to the mixture of racial and ethnic groups amongst Latin@s, the implications for identity considerations are as varied and complex as the racial, cultural and linguistic experiences of Latin@s. To demonstrate this complexity, let us examine possible complications stemming from the use of names such as Latin@ or Hispanic to describe members of these groups at a post-secondary educational institution like OSU. The use of these general names, nouns, or adjectives may conflict with a student’s identity development and, particularly, the student’s relationship with her/his own ethnicity.

A case in point is that of Berta Camacho. Upon her arrival to OSU from San Bernandino, Calif., anthropology major Camacho, struggled to make sense of the name Hispanic, which she found was used by many others to refer to individuals of Latin@/Hispanic heritage. “See, in the area of Los Angeles most people prefer more specific names [e.g., Mexicano, Guatemalan-American, etc.] than those that conflate groups and their respective cultures,” she says. Finding a student organization to help her extend her social support network on campus was not easy, because those organizations reflected an apparent preference among Midwesterners for the word Hispanic.

What we have found is that two main factors tend to affect a college student’s ethnic identity and her/his relationship with family culture. First, the length of time spent in the United States influences the adolescent’s ethnic identity. Several studies have supported the notion that first-generation students, or those who were born in another country and migrated to the United States during their childhood, tend to identify more closely with their own family culture, and particularly with their country of origin. For them, the terms Hispanic or Latin@ do not necessarily relate to their ethnic identity. Rather, identity development is the result of their individual balance of values and beliefs between their predominant family culture and that of the dominant U.S. society. On the other hand, students born in the United States, whose parents have a Hispanic/Latin@ heritage, may feel more comfortable with the terms Latin@ or Hispanic, as they implicitly suggest a “third culture,” one that synthesizes some elements from the family culture, in conjunction with those of the mainstream U.S. society.

A second factor that may impact a student’s ethnic identity stems from his or her own experiences in the United States, particularly the region in which he or she has lived. Students like Berta, who come from areas where the Latin@ population is a critical mass (more than 30 percent of the total population), tend to develop a strong Latin@ identity, or a strong identity with the ethnic groups within their communities, reflected daily in the neighborhood or “el barrio,” and in their relationship with their peers. A student’s ethnic identity is highly influenced by her/his immediate culture, which in some areas in the United States (e.g., Southwest, south Florida) may be dominant in relation to other ethnic identities. In such cases, the student’s upbringing takes place within some cultural “assumptions,” such as the use of Spanish, the familiarity with Spanish names, and celebration of native holidays (e.g., Cinco de Mayo for Mexican@s and Chican@s). This is not the case for students who grew up in areas where the Latin@/Hispanic population is not a critical mass. In such cases, the student’s ethnic identity is more influenced by the dominant culture and hence, their relationship with the Latin@ culture is seldom expressed beyond the private spheres.

What is clear is that students with Latin@/Hispanic heritage who come to the Midwest, and particularly to OSU, are not all the same. They bring a rich and diverse background of cultural experiences as a result of balancing two or more cultures, a balancing act that likely constitutes a large facet of their lives. For example, the experience of a student, originally from Chimaltenango, Guatemala, who speaks Cakchiquel, Spanish, and English fluently and is a direct descendant of the Mayans is likely to be very different from that of a second-generation Colombian-American student whose parents left Colombia in 1981 for the United States.

Both of these students may relate to the regimen of racialization within U.S. society, or the understanding that Latin@s can be Americans (in the hemispheric sense), black, white, Asian, or any possible combination thereof. Yet some may identify themselves as Latin@s (a more ambiguous, though more inclusive, and recent term), while others may prefer Hispanic, reflecting pride in his or her heritage as the child of criollos (descendants of Spaniards born in Mexico, Central or South America). This choice of language may reflect nuances of their personal and collective identities. Whereas one may prefer to speak solely in one language (Spanish or English), the other may feel more comfortable using a fusion of languages, such as Spanglish, mostly utilized among friends and family.

At OSU, a predominantly white institution, students with Latin@/Hispanic heritage are likely to strive to establish a place of their own, a place to stand, where their personal and collective identities are in congruence as a result of having created a safe and nurturing social world for themselves. This “place to stand” is where students feel safe from the erroneous looking-in perspective of “they are all the same.”

Ernesto R. Escoto, Ph.D., is a senior counselor with the Office of Counseling and Consultation Service at the Younkin Success Center. Gonzalo Bruce is a Ph.D. student in the School of Educational Policy and Leadership and the Graduate Administrative Assistant at the Office of Hispanic Student Services, The Multicultural Center.