The term “Latino” was introduced to differentiate from the label “Hispanic,” which is used in the United States to refer to individuals whose heritage is primarily from one or more Spanish-speaking countries. According to the US Census Bureau, a person is Hispanic if their ancestry is Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Dominican, or from other Spanish-speaking countries of the Caribbean, Central or South America or Spain. Political and social groups have long criticized the term Hispanic, claiming that it does not account for the varied socio-cultural experiences, as well as political, economic and social histories of the groups that compose this population.

The term Latino is the newest in a 160-year-old conflict of terminology. The term Latino is a condensed version of Latin America, which can be traced back to 1856. The phrase “Latin America” was used to refer to what was known as Spanish America in an effort to ignore the region’s connection to Spain, as well as its indigenous and African heritages. Ironically today the term Latino is used to embody all of the legacies it was first used to disregard. While Latinos still includes the groups identified by the Census Bureau, it also embraces individuals from all Latin American nationalities, in addition to second- and third-generation English dominant American citizens and various non-Spanish speaking indigenous groups.

Latinos in the United States are a diverse sociocultural and demographic population.

Most Latinos in the United States are either immigrants or the children of immigrants, with the exception of Puerto Ricans, who are the only group guaranteed US citizenship from birth through the Jones Act of 1917. While Latinos reside all over the United States, the majority live in California, Texas, New York and Florida, with a disproportionately high number living in urban areas. With the fastest population growth, it is estimated that by the year 2000 Latinos will be the largest minority in the United States. In the United States alone Latinos represent 11 percent of the population, an estimated 31 million, including 3.5 million in Puerto Rico. Of all the groups, Mexicans (64 percent) account for the largest number of Latinos in the United States, while Central and South Americans (22 percent), Puerto Ricans (12 percent) and Cubans (5 percent) compose the remaining Latino population.

Despite their divergent political, economic and social histories, Latinos found a way to converge in the late 1960s and early 1970s through participation in such social-activist groups like the Young Lords Party and the Brown Berets. Latinos fought against the economic and social injustice in their communities. With the Latino agenda being much more extensive today Latinos are a growing force in the formal political arena, representing their communities at the local, state and federal levels to earn respect for their people, culture and tongue.