Dreams of a Disbeliever

[W]hen it comes to how the more than 40 million Latinos living in the United States self-identify, the possibilities are seemingly endless. According to a recent Pew Hispanic [Center] study, there is no consensus on what we call ourselves: 51 percent of Latinos indentify themselves with their countries of origin or that of their families, while 24 percent use the terms “Hispanic” and/or “Latino.” Others just call themselves “American.”
But the study only tells part of the story. Perhaps no other aspect of Latino culture is as personal yet political, as private yet public as what we choose to call ourselves. And we describe ourselves in a plenty of ways: umbrella terms like “Latino” or “Hispanic”; compounds like “Colombian American”; words with sociopolitical overtones, like “Chicana”; racial descriptors like “Afro-Latina”; or even a compilation of terms that we use according to the conversation. That’s a reflection not just of our ethnic diversity, but also of our family histories, immigration histories, bicultural lifestyles and politics.