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    © 2020 by Midwest Longitudinal Study of Asian American Families

    School of Social Service Administration
    University of Chicago

    Andrew Yang and Asian American Invisibility in Politics

    December 19, 2019

    The Queen of Unease

    August 13, 2018

    The Decline of Third Generation Asian-Americans

    July 2, 2018

    Asian-Americans Score High in Admissions — Except in Personality

    July 1, 2018

    Asian-American: Immigrant vs. Nonimmigrant

    December 14, 2017

    Third Culture Cuisine

    November 16, 2017

    South Korea: Indifferent or Terrified?

    October 11, 2017

    Is Data Collection on Asian Americans Racist?

    September 11, 2017

    The 'Asian Tax' and a New Twist on Affirmative Action

    August 6, 2017

    Hopes of Rearranging the Pecking Order Under Trump

    July 24, 2017

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    Recent Posts

    "10 Reasons Why Latinos and Filipinos Are Primos"

    September 20, 2015

                                                         Filipino fashion from the Spanish colonial period, via Northern Illinois University

     

    Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15th through October 15th. Politics of special interest months aside -- sometimes referred to tongue-in-cheek as "Hispandering" when it comes to Hispanics -- several online publications have been exploring why Filipinos may also be celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month.

     

    Most interesting among these articles is Rezmecla's "10 Reasons Why Latinos and Filipinos Are Primos." Number one reason? The Philippines was part of the Spanish empire for more than 300 years (much longer than Mexico!), emerging with strong Spanish influences that could also be found in Latin America and other countries once colonized by Spain. 

     

    Beyond being highly entertaining -- and controversial, judging from the comments --  Rezmecla raises the interesting question of who's Hispanic. The Pew Research Center points out that anyone can identify as Hispanic on the Census survey if they choose to. However, government agencies such as schools and public health facilities rely on a 1976 law defining Hispanics as “Americans who identify themselves as being of Spanish-speaking background and trace their origin or descent from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central and South America and other Spanish-speaking countries.”

     

    Though Spanish was the lingua franca of the Philippines in the 19th century, today Spanish does not even make the top 5 national languages in the Philippines. Thus, Filipinos probably could not claim Hispanicity under the 1976 law. However, under the Census rules, Filipinos may self-identify as Hispanic and, indeed, 1% of immigrants from the Philippines do so.

     

    The complex history of the Philippines (which was also briefly colonized by the U.S. and Japan) extends its reach into the lives of Filipinos in America, and the researchers at ML-SAAF hope the ML-SAAF survey results will help illuminate it. 

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