Quote:
Originally posted by unfixed
i cant find Hispania on any map.
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Hispania is the name the ancient Romans gave to the country now known as Spain. "Hispanic" would be someone whose origin can be traced to Spain or to a country whose culture derives from Spain because of discovery conquer or whatever.
Latino is derived from Latin, which is the language that (again) ancient Romans spoke and from which a lot of modern languages derive. Latino would apply to someone whose mother tongue has Latin roots (i.e. Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian). The word "Latin American" was created to include Brazilians (which speak Portuguese), which otherwise would not be covered by "Hispanic" or "Spanish Americans".
In general we Spaniards (from Spain) do not share all the phisical and cultural traits associated with "Hispanic"or "Latinos". Bear in mind that the Spanish rule over Central and South America did not completely wipe out existing peoples and cultures and that in many of these countries the percentage of population of European descent is low.