Hispanos
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (est. 1.5 million up to roughly 0.5% of the U.S. population ) |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| 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 | |
| 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) are 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.
Though the word could describe anyone of Spanish descent, it is specifically used to refer to Hispanic and Latino 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 (white Mexicans, mestizos, 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.
As the United States expanded westward, it annexed lands with a long-established population of Spanish-speaking settlers, who were overwhelmingly or exclusively of white Spanish ancestry (cf. White Mexican). Prior to incorporation into the United States (and briefly, into Independent Texas), Hispanos had enjoyed a privileged status in the society of New Spain, and later in post-colonial Mexico.
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