Making Hispanics: How Activists, Bureaucrats, and Media Constructed a New American

by G. Cristina Mora

How did Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and Cubans become known as “Hispanics” and “Latinos” in the United States? How did several distinct cultures and nationalities become portrayed as one? Cristina Mora answers both these questions and details the scope of this phenomenon in Making Hispanics. She uses an organizational lens and traces how activists, bureaucrats, and media executives in the 1970s and '80s created a new identity category—and by doing so, permanently changed the racial and political landscape of the nation.

Some argue that these cultures are fundamentally similar and that the Spanish language is a natural basis for a unified Hispanic identity. But Mora shows very clearly that the idea of ethnic grouping was historically constructed and institutionalized in the United States. During the 1960 census, reports classified Latin American immigrants as “white,” grouping them with European Americans. Not only was this decision controversial, but also Latino activists claimed that this classification hindered their ability to portray their constituents as underrepresented minorities. Therefore, they called for a separate classification: Hispanic. Once these populations could be quantified, businesses saw opportunities and the media responded. Spanish-language television began to expand its reach to serve the now large, and newly unified, Hispanic community with news and entertainment programming. Through archival research, oral histories, and interviews, Mora reveals the broad, national-level process that led to the emergence of Hispanicity in America.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Sociology, Race, Politics, Latinx, Social Issues

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 7, 2014

Reviews

[celia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mora gives a really interesting, easily accessible overview of the creation of a government-recognized pan-ethnic "Hispanic" label. There's a talk/presentation that exists that gives an overview of this book, though, that includes some graphs and other visual representations of her data that I'm not entirely sure as to why they weren't included in the book, though.
Really helpful read for anyone who is interested in the topic, or for who is doing any work with identity formation and/or labeling.

[Eleanor Kallo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fundamentally academic and therefore rather dry, but so chock full of information & beautiful intersecting arguments that it is still a fantastic read. Without literally studying it, I don't feel that I could internalized more than a quarter of this information, but it still left me with an overarching understanding of the creation of a panethnic latin american ethnic/racial identity (Hispanic). It also shed light on a few things I'd always been confused by, like the difference between Hispanic & Latino/a/x, if Hispanic is an ethnic or racial group, why forms so often have a separate question for Hispanic heritage, etc. Overall it was an incredibly illuminating book!

[Angie Gutierrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read this book multiple times and assign this book to my classes. It gives such a great overview as to how Hispanic and Latino started being used in the US and why Spanish media, NGOs, and government agencies benefited from the creation and use of panethnicity.

[Adam Gutschenritter]

Interesting study on how the term Hispanic and the idea of a panethnic identity came about between the 1960s-1990s.