I am not speaking out of bigotry nor do I mean to be offensive but I am aghast how the great classical Latin name and now corrupted into Latino is being used almost exclusively within the past few decades for Spanish and Portugese speaking peoples mainly of the Western Hemisphere and made into a separate racial identity for themselves when the vast majority of them are not of the Latin stock, nor did Latin come from them, neither did they ever speak it, and most of them except Argentina and Uruguay are mestizos and mulattoes. Anyone with a decent knowledge of history would know is that Latin, by language, culture, and tribes originated in Italy itself and Italians are the true original Latins since its their historical and cultural legacy for over 2000 years and was the language of Rome when Christ walked the earth. If the excuse is made that Spanish derived from Latin then what about the other Romance speaking peoples such as the French and of course Italians themselves which is the closest to it. And just because they speak Spanish doesn't make them Latin just as just because an American speaks English which is derived mainly from Germanic doesn't make him or her Germanic. It is very baffling to me how this is allowed and no one with a decent knowledge of history doesn't set the record straight for one of the worlds most profound heritages. Latin came from the Roman Forum and not from Puerto Rico or Mexico.
Latin Used Exclusively By Hispanic Peoples
- Thread starter Myles
- Start date
The countries in the New World to the south of the United States are called Latin America because the prevailing languages are of Latin origin. France, Spain, Italy and Portugal are called Latin countries from the fact that their languages were influenced more by Latin than were the languages of other countries. For the same reason French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are sometimes referred to as the Romance (Roman) languages. Spanish is the principal language of Latin America, which includes Mexico, Central America, South America and the West Indies. Portuguese is the prevailing language in Brazil, while French is spoken in French Guiana and a number of West Indian, islands belonging or formerly belonging to France. For convenience Latin America generally includes Dutch and British Guiana, British Honduras, the British Dutch islands in the West Indies and Puerto Ricos.
Thanks for the info, but I know all that already. What my point is that Latin is now used almost exclusively by Central and South Americans and made into a racial category for themselves to the exclusion of other Romance speaking peoples, and Italians should reclaim it over any other people since it originated and developed in their land. And for that matter we don't call North America "Germanic America" since English is as yet the predominate language there so why should these people take the "Latin" title for themselves. If Italians had more sense of their history and more pride in their culture they would have never allowed this to happen the way other people riot if you offend their religion or identity. I am not meaning to be offensive to any one but I am just defending historical facts.
