Enrique Fernandez, features editor of The Miami Herald, had an excellent opinion piece in the January 26, 2003 issue, entitled "What's in a name: what can divide?" He discusses a lot of complexities and ambiguities about terms such as Hispanic, Latino, Anglo, Black and even Gringo! Excerpts follow.

"In the U.S. roughly half of the majority minority is more fluent in Spanish than English, while the other half is vice versa. Language dominance would be curving towards English if it were not for a constant flow of immigration-of various degrees of documentation..."

"Another curious factoid is that Spanish is the most taught foreign language in the U.S. That means that if I suddenly break into Spanish, a great many of you putative Anglos entienden todo lo que escribo."

Looking for jobs, not an identity

"So, now we are the majority minority. Not that we ever set out to be anything other than working people who didn't have to fear la migra. We were not groping for an identity. But we've been dropkicked into it. We were not looking for a name; we were looking for a job. And we're still not sure what language to use. Still. We're not stupid, and we've learned that if we can use both, that job quest gets easier."

"You all might learn that lesson as well, all of you, regardless of what box you checked in the census form. Perhaps all of us need to pay less attention to identity and more to language."

We need to tango in the tangle

"We need to tango in the tangle. We need to jam. We need to start talking to one another. If we're smart, in more than one language."

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