Hispanic/Latino: Contested Tensions and Possibilities from the 2030 U.S. Census Changes

• In Event: Division J Vice Presidential Session: Planning for 2030: Critical Tensions and Postsecondary Possibilities with OMB’s Racial/Ethnic Classification Revisions

Abstract

The terminology used to name our racial and ethnic identities continue to evolve, either because the government creates new terminology/changes existing categories or because people adapt new labels to better represent themselves and their communities. This dynamic is clearly captured with the dynamic Hispanic/Latino category. Starting with as early as 1940 to present day, the U.S. Census has gathered varied data on “Persons of Spanish mother tongue” or “Spanish surname” to individual national origins groups (e.g., Mexican, Puerto Rican) and later “Hispanic” and “Latino” (Gómez, 2022; Rodríguez, 2015). As a constructed category, “Hispanic” was used and adopted by the U.S. government during the presidency of Richard Nixon (Delgado-Romero et al., 2007; Rodríguez, 2015; Salinas, 2015). Hispanic derives from the Latin word for Spain “Hispania,” which later became España (González & Gándera, 2005). Later, in 2000, for the first time, the U.S. Census used the term “Latino” and since then, governmental agencies have adopted it to define individuals of Mexican, Latin American, or Caribbean heritage living in the United States (De Luca & Escoto, 2012; Gómez, 2022). Both Hispanic and Latino are pan-ethnic terms that refer to “a cultural and ethnic group, not a race. Indeed, people of Latin American descent comprise various races, depending on ancestry and context” (Salinas & Lozano, 2019, p. 303). This alteration of terms used by U.S. Government to label our identities has created inconsistencies and ambiguity to name our realities, particularly in higher education (Garcia et al., 2021).

The U.S. Census has long been a critical instrument for tracking and understanding the demographic composition of the U.S., and it plays a pivotal role in shaping public policy, allocating resources, and ensuring representation. A significant development anticipated in the 2030 U.S. Census is the reclassification of Hispanic/Latino identity from ethnicity to race. This change is poised to have implications for how Hispanic/Latino populations are recognized and understood in the context of U.S. demographics, how Hispanic/Latino individuals self-identify, and how organizations collect and report data, especially for Hispanic/Latino people who identify with other races. Therefore, this paper will focus on contested tensions and possibilities in the 2030 U.S. Census changes and particularly implications for higher education, such as counting enrollments for Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) designation.

This new way of collecting race/ethnicity data might be challenging for people who identify with two or more races due to potential confusion in distinguishing between race and ethnicity. For Hispanic/Latino individuals who may identify as both Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino (i.e., Afro-Latino), there is a risk of undercounting or overcounting, leading to inaccurate data and difficulty distinguishing Afro-Latinos with long histories of mixing (e.g. Afro-Cubanos) from a first-generation multiracial student with one African American parent and one Latino parent (Garcia-Louis, 2016). These tensions underscore the need for more intentional counting and comprehensive data collection practices that adequately reflect the complexity of these identities, which will be outlined in this position paper.

Authors

• Cristobal Salinas Jr, Florida Atlantic University

• Orkideh Mohajeri, West Chester University of Pennsylvania