HISPANIC AS A TERM TO CREATE A NEW “ETHNICITY” BY FEDERAL FIAT

I began to gather data about the way in which the term “Hispanic” was adopted. I was especially concerned about the fact that it was a Republican Party project arising out of the Nixon administration and the CREEP organization (Campaign to Reelect the President) of 1972. It could have the effect of making many persons of Native American race and ancestry appear to be “white” by lumping them together with essentially white Cubans in a category which implied whiteness by its very use of the name “Hispanic” which is nothing but a Latin version of “Spanish.” Thus I wished to ask questions of those functionaries who had participated in the process. Below is the questionnaire which I sent out. (It should be noted that the Bureau of the Census people were already inclined in a pro-white direction since they had previously used “Spanish” in several ways to categorize Spanish-surnamed groups.

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FEDERAL

RACIAL-ETHNIC DATA CHANGES

OF 1969-1978

This information is needed for my research. I can refer to you in my end-notes as a named source or as an anonymous source, as you prefer. Please answer all of the questions you can and skip the others.

I. In the 1973-1974 period the term "Hispanic" (as a noun and as an ethnic "name") quickly became popular with Nixon White House staff.

a) What brought about this change from previously known terms

(Spanish-speaking, etc.)?

b) Were there particular persons (or a single person) in the White House and Cabinet Committee on Opportunities for Spanish- Speaking People primarily responsible for advocating the use of the term "Hispanic"?

II. In 1974 the Federal Interagency Committee on Education established an Ad Hoc Committee on Racial and Ethnic Definitions. By October 23 it had completed a draft report which selected the term "Hispanic" over other approaches to counting Spanish-speaking groups.

a) Can you recall which members or agencies strongly favored

the term "Hispanic"?

b) Which members favored Ibero-American, Latin American

or other terms?

c) Did any members express concern that the term "Hispanic" could include Asians (Filipinos), Europeans (Spaniards), Africans (Afro-Cubans, Afro-Puerto Ricans), Arabs (Spanish Morocco, Ifni, Sahara) and persons of American aboriginal race (Guatemalans, some Mexicans, etc.) and thus be a problem in terms of collecting affirmative action data?

III. The FICE's Ad Hoc Committee also favored restricting the "American Indian" category to persons having origin in the "original peoples of North America."

a) What was meant by "North America?"

b) Why were indigenous people from South America, Mexico-

Central America, and the Caribbean not to be counted as

Indians (based on the assumption that "North America" only

included the United States and Canada)?

c) Which persons and/or agencies strongly advocated American

Indians being restricted to a North American origin?

d) Did anyone advocate a hemispheric definition for American

Indian and, if so, who took that position?

IV. From 1970 onward, the Bureau of the Census and OMB made several decisions which served to favor a "large count" for the "Spanish" category and a "reduced count" for American Indians, as in 1972 when an OMB circular stated that mixed Indian and "Spanish descent" persons would be counted only as "Spanish descent," and when the Census Bureau decided to count the children of a Spanish-speaking mother as being Spanish-speaking.

a) Why did federal officials seek to enhance the numbers of

the "Spanish" group even if this resulted in Native American

numbers being reduced?

b) Were there any particular individuals or agencies who favored

either the "large" Spanish-Hispanic group or a "reduced" Native

American group?

c) Did any individuals or agencies see a danger to Native American

interests in having as large and accurate count of all indigenous

people as possible?

V. The FICE's ad hoc committee on racial-ethnic data in 1974-75 had a "working committee" which apparently included no Spanish-surnamed persons nor any indigenous Americans. Did any indigenous Americans, aside from William Demmert, ever serve on any of the FICE or OMB committees which revised the racial-ethnic data system? If yes, who were they?

VI. Early in the Nixon years, the OMB decided to halt the collection of data which would result in a comparison of white people with non-white people. After the creation of the large Spanish-Hispanic group, which embraced Caucasians, Africans, Asians, Native Americans, and various mixed populations, it would seem much more difficult to analyze the impact of biological race or color in U.S. society, statistically speaking.

a) Did anyone discuss the importance of race and color

in relation to discrimination and poverty and the impor-

tance of maintaining racial as opposed to purely linguistic-

social-cultural categories in data collecting?

b) The FICE and its Ad Hoc Committee had originally proposed

a matrix pattern of questioning which could have recorded

both race and Hispanic or non-Hispanic "ethnicity." Do you

know why this matrix was never accepted by OMB or by the

Bureau of the Census?

Additional Comments:

Thank you very much!

I wish to remain anonymous o

My answers may be quoted and ascribed to me o

Signed:

Date:

Return to:

Professor Jack D. Forbes

Racial-Ethnic Classification Project

Native American Studies

University of California

Davis, CA 95616

FAX: (916) 752-7097