Victor Landa: Voters’ rights shouldn’t hinge on little hyphens - (Do Latinos have hyphens in their names?)

Posted on: May 19th, 2008
Filed Under: [ Politics ] [ Commentary ] [ Eye Openers ]
Tags: population
Knowledge is Power!

I hadn’t thought about this until the federal government forced me to, but I’ve realized Latinos don’t have hyphens in their names.

I may be wrong, and I’ve done no in-depth research on the matter, but I can’t recall ever seeing a Latino name with a hyphen. This doesn’t mean there are no hyphenated Latinos; there are plenty. What I’m saying is that hyphens are not a Latino thing. The hyphen is a quick and visual way to join disparate things in writing; Latinos like their disparity slow and implied.

I know this runs contrary to a long used argument against cultural homogenization; Latinos are accused of being “hyphenated” Americans because they use hyphens to differentiate themselves from the rest of the American population. But there are several problems with this idea. First, Latinos didn’t choose to hyphenate themselves, Congress and the U.S. Census did that, and we comply. And second, if they truly wanted to differentiate themselves, Latinos would take it a step further. For instance, I’d be Mexican-Hispanic-American, as opposed to, say, Dominican-Hispanic-American. In this wonderful country, things could get out of hand.”*