I’m not even Hispanic and I get annoyed at this. There’s so many Americans that call Hispanics “Spanish”. I’ve had countless experiences of an American calling a Hispanic person “Spanish” when they are really from Mexico or Peru. Whenever I hear this I’ll often times ask “What part of Spain are they from?” And they’ll be like “Oh no they aren’t from Spain they’re from the Dominican Republic” for example. I’ve had to explain to these Americans that Spanish refers to someone from Spain. I tell them that calling an Hispanic person Spanish because they speak Spanish would be like calling Americans, Canadians and Australians English because they speak English. English people are people from England.
It also happens the other way around too. If I’m talking about someone from Spain I’ll say they are Spanish. Then some Americans will think I’m talking about a Hispanic person from Latin America. I sometimes say “Spaniard” instead to avoid any confusion. But if you are Hispanic does it annoy when you an American refers to you all as “Spanish people”. Because I find it annoying and I’m not even Hispanic. I only see Americans do this, people from other countries tend to not refer to Hispanic people as “Spanish”.
Comments
Latin Americans living in Latin America don’t encounter this issue. That sounds like something U.S. latinos would have louder opinions on.
And honestly I’ve never even seen it, unlike things like the “what is ‘America’” debate
I get much more annoyed with “latinos”. A politically-manufactured/promoted term (by french empire mid 19th century).
We are hispanic americans. A mix of amerindians, afros and people from the spanish/iberian peninsula.
Genes and culturally.
I dislike all of those “catch all” terms: Hispanic, Latino, Latinx, Mexican.
It’s not that serious
I would prefer to refer to each by their country, and stop the Latino and Hispanic things.
If it comes from ignorance and not malice. I don’t care. You can… you know, teach people, it takes a couple of seconds.
Never encountered this issue and even if I did, I don’t think I would mind personally. They refer to the language and tbf the language is called Spanish
Maybe they are telling you that they recognize your language, Spanish.
It happens a lot in New York. Even though it’s not “technically correct,” I don’t mind it since it’s just a way a lot of people group Spanish-speakers in the blue collar communities I grew up in.
I get more annoyed when you have that random person who is like “well ackshuallllyyy, Spanish refers to those who hail from the Iberian peninsula…” And usually people who do that are people who want to remind you that you don’t belong to the euro-club.
But many if not most of us have distant or recent Spanish roots and culture within us. As a Dominican I have mostly an afro-iberian mixture in my recent and distant ancestors.
r/askAnAmerican
I got more important things to worry about than getting annoyed by things like that.
When I came to the US I found it very weird af first, then I noticed they mean I come from a Spanish speaking country, it’s a weird thing but it’s not a big deal 🤷♂️
Not at all, portuguese and spanish sound very similar. Asians are probably angrier as we refer them as either chinese or japanese, so who am I to get bummed
I don’t care what Americans do or do not, and most people will share the feeling.
If someone refers to me as “Spanish”, “Hispanic”, “Latino” or whatever it will be equally weird to me. My parents gave me a name for a reason.
I feel like thats something that happens more on the East Coast, New York etc..you hardly hear latinos being called “Spanish” on the west cosst
Visited LA last week. I am an arab who speaks flunet Spanish and slightly Portuguese but many latin Americans mistake me as latin american. But nevertheless i always smile when they think i am latin american.
Yes. I also get annoyed when Brazilians refer to them as “espanos” instead of “Hispânicos”.
Hispanic comes from Hispania= España=Spain. And our ancestors come from all over the world.
Stop using racist labels.
The only non-racist label that fits all of us, from the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego to the northernmost part of the continent, is American.
Yes, I am not from Spain lol.
Don’t really care tbh. I just correct them.
I am pissed by calling the language Spanish (Catalan, Vasque, Galego, Valencian are also part of Spain) besides I never as a person interacting with people from US, Canada and Europeans have been called Spanish, and if I did, I would just correct the person saying I am not Spanish, but Argentinian.
Nah. Doesn’t annoy me.
Yeah it kind of annoys me, when they conflate the two things.
Take Spanish rice, for example. There’s nothing Spanish about it.
Not all all, I’ve grown immune.
As a white latino of Argentine nationality I’ve heard all kinds of stupid ass shit from Americans.
..here is some of the usual non-sense lol
“You are not Latino, you are white.”
“OMG I though u were white”
“Thats not Spanish u are speaking”
“Where did u learn Spanish”
“Aren’t y’all Nazis”
“Have u slept with a black girl?”
“Pinche gringo”
“f’ing white boy”
“I thought u were all racists”
etc..
being called “Spanish” is way down on the list
I got annoyed just by reading “Hispanic” lmao
No. We were 200 years ago so.
I find it funny
Annoyed, yeah. But nothing more. I’ve seen people get incredibly pressed over it, but I’ve been called worse things, lol.
Not really. I’m not pedantic enough to bitch about that. I get what they are trying to say.
This happens a because Latinos in NYC refer to themselves as Spanish. Many of those Latinos come from the Caribbean.
Many non-Latinos pick on this because that’s what they’ve heard.
When I lived in the US, it was common to hear people referring to Latinos as Spanish. Even American Latinos do it.
Yes because they don’t know anything
Look, it’s part of the lexicon. It’s not something to get annoyed about. People have referred to me as Spanish even though I’m not. And I have referred to others that I know that don’t have Spanish ancestry as Spanish.
It’s just how people talk.
I get annoyed when Americans refer to South Americans as “Hispanic”.
I live in the US, so I can answer your question. Folks here say so many ignorant/poorly informed things, that I find referring to Latinos as Spanish to be completely harmless.
I hate it too but for some reason a lot of carribeans and people from the east coast say it like it’s the truth lol
I live in California and rarely hear it & when I do it’s odd. We don’t refer to ourselves as Spanish either
I find it pointless. In Argentina and Uruguay we call spaniards “Gallegos” (Galicia is a region of Spain), italians as “tanos” (from Napoli), middle easterns as turks, anyone from eastern europe russian or polish, all asians are chinese.
It’s just names, nobody cares. You call me spanish and I will probably say “Ostias chaval, onda vital a todo gas” and laugh it off. Americans are just a tad more ignorant, but it’s not mean-spirited.
I’m curious how many Americans are aware that there’s a large number of Hispanics who don’t even speak Spanish lol
No but I have a friend living in NY that has been asked “What are you, really?” we guess because our spanish accent sounds weird to them
I’ve actually only heard this from my partner who is Peruvian-American who refers to themself and others in their family as Spanish. And no, their family isn’t originally from Spain.
> There’s so many Americans that call Hispanics “Spanish”
I’ve been asked if they speak “Mexican” in Colombia by some people in the US lol
So I mean for me it’s more shocking (than annoying) at the sheer ignorance of some Americans…
It’s something weird english speaking people do. In spanish you would never call an American “English”, english people are only from england and Spanish people are only from Spain in Spanish.
I hate it also. But what bothers me the most is Hispanics calling one another Spanish. I mean, it really shows the ignorance in Americans and our own ppl. I’ve given up on non-Hispanics calling us Spanish, but I still correct Hispanics using the term.
I dont get annoyed because i know they dont know any better
For me there’s Spanish people and Latinos. I never use the word Hispanic
Very. I get even more annoyed when hispanic people allow themselves to be called Spanish or worse call themselves Spanish.
Brazilians don’t let people call themselves Portuguese and you better not call me French.
Don’t care. We are all South Mexicans
In Canada 🇨🇦 this happens to me all the the time, specially on the French side ⚜️.
I’ve gotten used to it, but after seeing your post I think I’m going to start calling people out more often:)
Technically this is correct, and it wouldn’t stand up if you were writing for publication, but people who are not very well-informed probably just think that Spanish is the right word for people who speak Spanish, or speak with an accent, or have Spanish names. You might even find the same thing in England. People would not necessarily know the difference between somebody from Spain and somebody from Peru.
I get annoyed about the people in the US referring to people of latinoamerican descent as Hispanics. it’s like they’re trying to make a new race
Yes.
I’m Brazilian and black, I went on exchange, I worked in my field of training which is chemistry and I lived in the USA until I obtained my citizenship normally, but one day a supremacist moved into the building and with a gun in his hand shot randomly shouting get out of my building you damn Spanish, Mexicans, Creoles, Jews and Chinese shit.
Since then I hate the USA, not the people but the fact that it’s legal for people to behave like that, spreading prejudice and thinking they have the right to do such an atrocity.
No one was hurt, he was fined and he repeated this about 5 times until a gang of white Americans “betrayed” him by forgiving a guy’s debt if he was arrested and said he was the drug dealer, the guys hid drugs in his house and he was arrested.
Everyone knew about it in the building, yet all the tenants and even owners moved, some even across the country, as is my case when I returned to my home country.
Well I have Spanish ancestry, so guess not.
I get annoyed when gringos refer to themselves as Americans.
Yes, and it’s mainly people from the East Coast that do that.
Personally I don’t care
Not precisely annoyed but I’d respond with “Oh so you’re English right?”
I could not care less
No, both words mean the same: related to Spain.
Very common in the US by Americans. It is annoying but nothing I put much thought into. One time I told a guy I was Mexican and he said I wasn’t because I’m more “Spanish looking” so be said by blood I wasn’t Mexican. I explained to him that Mexican is a nationality and there’s Mexicans of all races and colors but he insisted I was Spanish and not Mexican lol.
It’s annoying but we don’t take it in a bad way because we know it is because of the lack of education. But if I could have 1c for the amount of time they have offered me tacos because I’m Hispanic. I’d be rich. I’m Dominican, tacos is not part of our culture. But Mexican food is awesome, so I’ll take the tacos anyways.
In my experience, this is mainly a New York thing.
Who cares.
Uhh idk i dont care
idgaf how someone call us, im chilling
No, its just practical, akin to Hispanic. Could be way way worse.
Latin american that has lived in the US: yeah it’s annoying cause we’re not from spain lmao, it’s the same logic as calling americans “english” just cause they speak english or quebecois “french” just cause they speak french (and they would actually riot lmao)
It’s so ignorant and dumb, like how can you be that stupid when we’ve had the internet for 20+ years now?!?
Kind of annoying but not too much for me, as I get a lot of second hand embarrassment from people in my country calling “gringo” to anyone who’s white and tall. I saw this lady one time at an art exhibition, she saw this group of men coming in and she threw herself at their feet to greet them with a very broken English, turns out the men were Argentinians. lol.
The only Americans who say this are Latinos from the east coast USA. New York Latinos for example. When I was living there my Latino friends called me “Spanish” and every time I had to get into the whole “the Spanish people literally colonized my ancestors” debate with them. It’s unbearable.
I’m not gonna lie Haitians do often call hispanics “panyòl” lmao.
But we know the difference between a Spaniard and a hispanoamerican obviously.
Yes, big time, especially when you’re born and raised in the USA, White Americans always referring people of color by their appearance of country of origen.
My family in Central America always called themselves Spanish first. It had much to do with our Spanish surnames.