Hispanics

Many people in the Davis Community identify as Latin@. US government data, however, classifies them as Hispanic. Hispanics are a small minority on campus. As of Fall 2005, they made up roughly 11% of the Undergraduate student population, 4% of the graduate and 7% in the professional field.

The Census Bureau reports that 25.9% of Yolo County's Population is Hispanic.

In the City of Davis, 9.6% of its residents are Hispanic.

The closest neighboring cities to Davis have notably higher percentages of Hispanic residents; Dixon with 33.6%, Woodland with 38.8%, and West Sacramento with 30.0%

1990 Census Map showing national distribution of Hispanics in the United States.

Latin@ Resources

• La Familia - a support group for Chicano/a, Latino/a students that also identify within the LGBTQIA community
• Davis Bridge Educational Foundation - dedicated to improving the academic achievement of low-income Davis students, particularly Latinos from Spanish-speaking households in grades K-12.
• La Raza Pre-Law Student Association - for undergraduate students interested in careers in law
• Yik'al Kuyum - branch of the Student Recruitment and Retention Center

• do the latin@ communities support their being labeled as hispanic? i understand the government views them as such, but what does the community have to say about it? —JessicaRockwell
• I don't have a problem with it. I prefer it to Latino. — CarlosOverstreet

2007-04-08 19:36:44   I prefer Latino/Latina, but I don't mind Hispanic. It sounds a little awkward, though. When I first saw this wiki page's title, I thought... meh. —TaniaG

possibly people could go to the chicano studies department and see what people think. i recognize this is a specific population and they don't represent everyone, but it would be interesting to see what they think. in my experience, i have found many people prefer to be called chicanx o latinx, whereas hispanic is used mostly for those of direct Spanish descent. but i could be totally wrong. —JessicaRockwell

2007-09-11 19:53:25   Latino is fine but Mexicans like me often desire the label Mexican. I don't really like "hispanic". —GregWebb

2007-09-11 22:10:15   I went to some "Chicano Art" show at SF Moma and there were videos of people complaining about the term hispanic... because in their view it evokes their status as a previously conquered people. By the way, this page is kind of weird. —DanielWorthington

2007-10-13 13:08:04   i think it's interesting to see that most people on the wiki are linking "Latin@" or "Chican@" to "Hispanic", and not just using "Hispanic". Obviously the people being represented on the wiki don't identify as Hispanic, but as Latinxs and/or Chicanxs. —JessicaRockwell

• Yes, Hispanic is more a term that other people use. Government organizations love it because they're the ones who decide what "Hispanic" means, and that's useful to them. The problem is that neither Hispanic nor Latino are races; they're ethnicities. Hispanic = ancestors from Spain. Latino/a = ancestors from Latin America. The reason that statistics collectors avoid "Latino," I think, is because Latin America has had an influx of people from all sorts of places (European conquerors, African slaves, Asian immigrants, and so on) all through its history. "Latino" often overlaps with other ethnicities. You'll find, for example, people who are racially Chinese but ethnically Latino because their grandparents immigrated to Mexico and then their parents immigrated to America. It gets complicated. The CIA World Factbook uses this excuse no exclude both Hispanic and Latino. It causes me no end of grief, because then I have to pick between the categories they left and I don't really fit into any of them. I hate the CIA World Factbook. :(
• But anyway, to get back on topic... I'll answer to Hispanic, but I never use it myself. I'll identify generally as Latina. However, like Greg, I'll identify personally as Mexican or Mexican-American (technically the latter, but it's kind of a mouthful so sometimes I'll use the former). Chicano/a is awesome, too, but I'm not as used to it. —TaniaG

2008-01-31 17:35:02   The fact of the matter is that if you have a significant amount of indigenous American descent (as the majority of "Latinos" and Xicanos do), you are not a "Latino" or "Hispanic"; those are terms that refer to people of predominantly Southern European ancestry. If you have a great deal of Indigenous blood then you are indigenous (or as I would call it "Nican Tlaca'"), end of story. To be of Indigenous descent and to call yourself "Latino" or "Hispanic" just because you speak the Spanish language that was forced upon your ancestors is as ridiculous as a black person calling himself an Anglo because he speaks English. —Maitl

2014-08-15 09:24:32   "In a recent study, most Spanish-speakers of Spanish or Latin American descent do not prefer the term "Hispanic" or "Latino" when it comes to describing their identity. Instead, they prefer to be identified by their country of origin. However, over twice as many Spanish-speakers of Spanish or Latin-American descent prefer the term Hispanic over the term Latino."

Study Cited http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/04/04/study-most-hispanics-prefer-describing-identity-from-familys-country-of-origin/ —CarlosOverstreet