Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Who is Latino/Latina/Hispanic?


I was reading about President Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. Many of the headlines refer to her as the first "Latina" or "Hispanic". Then one reporter, I can't remember which, pointed out that some might consider Judge Sotomayor as being second to Benjamin N. Cardozo, who served on the high court in the 1930s. Cardozo was descended from Portuguese Jews.

Benjamin N. Cardozo, Supreme Court associate justice, 1932-1938

It all comes down to semantics. I found a WikiAnswer to the question, "Are Portuguese people Latino?" It explains all the angles.

The last sentence is true despite the absolutely ridiculous grammatical errors. Hopefully anyone sitting on the nation's high court will agree.

"
American standard to qualify peoples race/ethnicity are absolutely ridicuous."

1 comment:

Somerled said...

I'm in absolute euphoria about Judge Sotomayor's nomination. After all, I'm a diabetic, a wee bit Hispanic (mixed in with Norse, Mongol, Celt, German, Saxon, English, Gallic, Cherokee, Dutch, and God only knows what other blood), somewhat plump, and I like girls, of which Sonia is one.