latino

Word used by any person of Latin-American/ Spanish descent mainly, regardless of their race, to identify themselves as a member of the Latino community. Anyone from a spanish-speaking country (i.e. Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Bolivia, Spain, etc) or who embraces their cultural heritage of one of said countries is a latino. It doesn't matter if they're mestizo, black, white or indian, or if their national culture has more or less elements of either ethnic group. True latinos respect eachother no matter their origins; in fact, in the latino community, to state that you're a latino ( not only that you don't reject your heritage but that you are proud of it), makes you respectable and worthy of being treated like a brother. Being a latino is not about the differences, is about the similarities we share due to historical events and evolution and cultural interexchange throughout the years. Our idiosyncrasy is a fact, and we take pride in it. However certain stupid gringos fail to grasp this, and think that a) it's a term wrongly coined by the US administration to label groups of people with little in common and often with a sense of enmity among them, b) that the word ''latino'' exclusively refers to someone of Italian/ Spanish/ Portuguese/ French/ Romanian descent and is ignorantly being used by people of different races, or c) that being a latino means to ride dirty and dance salsa. Obviously, people who don't understand that this term acquired a whole new meaning ages ago and that it's used to show a feeling of unity, belonging and connection among us.