Fitting that on this our inaugural issue of Our Voice/Nuestra Voz, we would tie it to the Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo and our birth as a nation within a nation that we subsequently re-named Aztlán. And, for those among us with religious bearings think of el Dia de la Candelaria.

A couple of years ago on July 1, 2023, Pew Research Center reported that our population as measured by the U.S. census had reached 65.2 million people, 19% of the US total. A year later in2024, Pew reported the Hispa nic population had reached 68 million or 20% of the total. And, 39 million of those were of Mexican ancestry, 57% of all Hispanics. Furthermore, the median age of Hispanics was 31.2, younger that any other group in the US.

The problem with the enumeration was and continues to be the question asked to identify responders. We are asked for our race and ethnicity. The response was made more difficult for us in that ever since the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued its Statistical Policy Directive 15 in 1977 we were only classified as an ethnic group, the only one in the United States. We were not a racial classification. The only races a respondent can choose given the most recent revisions are: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Middle Eastern or North Africa, White, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. This Directive 15 had been modified and revised over time, the last being on November 24, 2025. We are either Hispanic or Latino according to the OMB. Since then only 30% of us accept that designation which includes other pan ethnic designations such as Latino, Latinx and Latine. Only 1% designate themselves as American. The majority at 52% claim the family’s former national ancestry. In other words, if we are asked, “What are you?”, probably you would answer like me, “Mexicano.”

The Latino response usually comes from those who do not want to associate with any Spanish trace because of the history of genocide, slavery, conquest, and colonization of the Americas by Spain. Those who opt for Latino, thinking it is better don’t know or want to know that term comes from Napoleon III who imposed an emperor on México back in the 1860s and designated this geographic area as America Latina.  The Latine and LatinX are another issue. Basically, those who have lost much if not all of their Spanish language do not realize that the “o” in Mexicano can be for the masculine gender or the entire community.  As in the case of choosing between two emperors for our identity, these Spanglish-speakers insist on using both gender designations simultaneously, as in Latina/Latino.  But then came the Nuyorican Puerto journalist, Ed Morales, out of New York with his contribution of LatinX as the new, politically correct, term for all those who did not fit or want to fit gender-specific terms because they identified with other categories  such as transgender, bisexual, gay, queer, homosexual, lesbian, et.al.    

Some Historical Antecedents

From conquest in the late 1500s to 1821 we were Spanish. However, the Spanish reserved for themselves the 100% Spanish designation if you were born of both Spanish parents and in the Iberia Peninsula. Then, you were a Peninsular. If you had Spanish parents but were born in the Americas, you were a Criollo. If one of your parents was Spanish and the other not, you were placed on a chart with 16 Castas depending on the male and female parentage. For example, if a Spaniard mixed with an Indian woman, the offspring was a Mestizo, like that of Hernán Cortés and Malindi or Malintzin aka Malinche. A cross between a Mestizo and Spanish woman was a Castizo. The original oil painting depicting these Castas is on display at the Museo Nacional del Virreinato Tepotzotlan, México, México. This classification system was put into chaos until the official Mexican Independence Day was declared on September 8, 1821 and everyone became a Mestizo or Mexican. This is not to say that distinctions between themselves did not continue based on skin color, physical appearance, and stature. In the 2020 Census of México,  self-designation as to race, including Indian tribal affiliation was included. The numbers for various races and tribes continues to increase based on projections until there is the 2030 Census.

The Racial Question

Are Hispanics White? That has been a controversial and legal issue since the 1790 Naturalization Act which deemed that white males over the age of 26 living in what was the US were deemed U.S. citizens.  Not until February 2, 1848 did this issue rear its head once again with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ending the US war on Mexico. In that treaty, all persons in those lands ceded had one year to opt for self-removal or become US citizens. It was and is presumed by some that this conferred citizenship for those who stayed included the white racial designation from 1790. Not everyone stayed after that date and many more migrated in subsequent decades to what once was México. This continues to this day.

Others, especially African ex-slaves, women and Indians had to wait a bit longer on citizenship and voting. The 14^th Amendment granted US citizenship to African ex-slaves; 19^th Amendment gave women the right to vote, therefore citizenship and not until 1924 did Indians get citizenship. Getting citizenship did not mean much until voter repression measures were outlawed such as the Grandfather Clause (1915;1965), White Primary (1944), the Poll Tax (1966), and the Literacy tests (1970).

Many legal cases were filed to protest the segregation of Mexican children from White students beginning 1918 in Alamosa, Colorado, the Maestas vs. Shone and the School Board, and continuing until the Hernandez v. Texas case of 1954 over jury discrimination against Mexicans. This case, the first filed  by Mexican American attorneys and heard by the US supreme Court (SCOTUS), ruled that While Mexicans were considered as White they were not treated as White; henceforth, Mexicans would be considered a Class Apart, but White.

By 1960, there had been three generations of Mexican origin people residing in the US. According to Rodolfo Alvarez, a UCLA sociologist, which he termed political generations. Those being a group of people in their formative years similar in age who share social and political experiences that shape their attitudes and beliefs. The first such cohort group were those that fled the Mexican generation in 1910. Alvarez added 20 years to each cohort because he assumed persons reproduce themselves withing 20 years; hence a political generation. From 1930 to 1950, the second generation was in place; think founding of the League of United Latin American Citizens, (LULAC), in 1929 and the American G.I, Forum (AGIF). Then, the third generation era from 1950 to 1970 came. They were civil rights activists; think of the  Community Services Organization (CSO in 1947), Viva Kennedy Clubs,  the National Farm Workers Association (1962), the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA in 1960) mostly in California, the Political Association of Spanish Speaking Organizations (PASO in 1961) mostly in Texas,  Alianza Federal de Mercedes in 1967), Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO in 1967), Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (1968), Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA in 1969) and  a host of other student organizations and local community economic development entities were formed across the country culminating in the National Council of La Raza (NCLR in 1969), now Unidos US. This third generation called themselves Chicanos. They were not considered Mexicano enough by Mexicans in México or White American enough among Anglos, so they made civil rights space for themselves. Their children, however, speaking Spanglish began calling themselves Mexican-Americans by the fourth generation of 1970-1990, with a hyphen inserted, then Hispanics. Now, we are  now in the fifth, 1990-2010, and sixth generations, 2010-2030.

It was the Chicano Generation of the 1950-1970’s that chose their own identity. As Julius Cesar learned, to conquer you must first divide the enemy. Centuries later, Hernan Cortes applied the same strategy of Divide and Conquer against the mighty Aztec Empire. Today, this corollary to continue having us subjugated and colonized has been modified to be Include and Destroy. The more labels of identity imposed on us by others, the more we don’t know who we are.

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