White Hispanic and Latino Americans

White Hispanic
*Hispano Blanco*
	File:MarisolDeluna.jpg; File:AndyGarcia1.jpgFile:Raquel welch.jpg Notable White U.S. Hispanics:; Rita Hayworth · Robert Menendez · Marisol Deluna; Andy García · Raquel Welch · Cameron Díaz ;
Regions with significant populations
	West Coast of the United States · Southwestern United States · Northeastern United States · Florida;
Languages
	American English · Spanish · Spanglish
Religion
	Predominantly Roman Catholic · Protestant, and Jewish minority
Related ethnic groups
	Other Hispanic and Latino Americans · White Americans · White Latin Americans · other Latin American groups · Spaniards · Italians · Portuguese · French · Romanians · European groups · Lebanese · Syrians · other Middle Eastern groups

A White Hispanic or White Latino is a United States citizen or resident whose race is white and whose ethnicity is Hispanic or Latino; i.e. a Hispanic or Latino White American.

The concepts of race and ethnicity are mutually independent in the Office of Management and Budget's and United States Census Bureau's definitions. Thus, every American is identified by both a race and an ethnicity. The distinction made by government agencies for those within the population of any official race category, including White American, is between those who report Hispanic or Latino ethnic backgrounds and all others who do not. In the case of White Americans, these two groups are respectively termed "White Hispanics" and "non-Hispanic Whites", the former being those who report ancestry from the people of Spain or Spanish-speaking Latin America, and the latter consisting of an ethnically diverse collection of all others who are classified as White Americans that do not report Hispanic ethnic backgrounds.

Demographic information

In the 2006 American Community Survey 23.2 million, or 52.3% of the then 44.3 million total Hispanic and Latino Americans self-identified as white, an increase from 47.9% in the 2000 census.^[1]^[2] Hispanics and Latinos who reported "Some other race" are the second largest group, at 41.2%, down from 42.2% in 2000. (The 2006 figures for the other categories are: "Two or more races" or multiracials, 3.9%; Black, 1.4%; American Indian or Alaska Native, 0.8%; Asian, 0.35%; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, 0.1%.)^[1] Respondents in the "Some other race" category are officially reclassified as white by the Census Bureau in its official estimates — ACS estimates, though widely used, are not put forth as official — so that more than 90% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans are considered white, amounting to 41 million in 2006.^[3]

White Hispanics by National Origin, 2000^[4]
Hispanic Origin Group	White Population	Percentage
Mexican	9,870,433	47.3
Puerto Rican	1,605,049	47.2
Cuban	1,060,854	85.0
Dominican	180,856	22.7
Central American	735,879	40.4
South American	838,270	59.6
"Spanish" and "Other Hispanic"	2,534,786	44.8

Mexican Americans compose the majority (64%) of all Hispanic and Latino Americans,^[5] and similarly, White Mexican Americans compose the majority (59% in 2000) of all White Hispanic and Latino Americans.^[4] The second largest number of White Hispanics are Puerto Rican Americans, and Cuban Americans are the third largest; these three U.S Hispanic groups by national origin compose the overwhelming majority of White Hispanic and Latino Americans.^[4] Spanish Americans and the majority of Argentine Americans and Uruguayan Americans are even counted in the white Hispanic group, especially the former, whose nation has been the origin of the white Hispanics.

According to the latest census data, some Hispanic or Latino national origin groups, such as Chilean Americans, are predominantly white, contrarily to the actual ethnographic profiles of their individual countries. To the exclusion of Bolivia (which has an Amerindian majority), Peru (of Amerindian plurality), Argentina, Uruguay, as well as Spain and officially, Puerto Rico ^[6] & Cuba,^[7]^[8] (of white majorities), the countries of Hispanic America are of either mestizo or mulatto majorities, where the white populations constitute minorities of different sizes, such as Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Chile where the minorities are large, or Honduras, El Salvador, and Paraguay where they are small.^[9]

White Hispanics by State, 2006 ACS^[10]
State	Population	% of State	% of Hispanics
California	6,209,981	17.5	47.5
Texas	5,096,926	21	60.8
Florida	2,727,080	15	74.9
New York	1,187,715	6	37.8
Arizona	1,072,739	16	59.5
Illinois	717,089	5.5	38.0
New Jersey	642,057	8	47.0
Colorado	534,960	11	57.3
New Mexico	496,797	25	57.7
Nevada	374,408	15	61.4

Because of the relatively high rates of intermarriage between Hispanics and White non-Hispanics, a large number of White Hispanics are of these two ancestries, including some of the people shown in this article.

White Hispanic ancestry is primarily Spanish, ultimately. The largest other ancestries are Italian, German, Portuguese, French, Irish, British, Polish, Lebanese, and Russian. Dozens more are represented as well.

Representation in the media

White Hispanics are sometimes overlooked by the English-language U.S. mass media,^{[citation needed]} and by general American social perceptions, where being Hispanic is often incorrectly given a racial value, usually non-white.^[11]^[12]

Since the early days of the movie industry in the U.S., when white Hispanic actors are given roles, they are usually cast as non-Hispanic Whites.^[11] Examples include such actors as Jose Ferrer, Benicio Del Toro, Frankie Muniz, Andy Garcia, and Cameron Diaz. Most Americans may not be aware that American movie legend Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino) was Hispanic, or that the actress who played "all-American" Gilmore Girl Lorelai Leigh "Rory" Gilmore — Alexis Bledel — is also Hispanic.

Others accuse the U.S. Hispanic media, as well as the Latin American media, of over-representing White Hispanics while under-representing the non-White population, amid claims that telenovelas or soap operas do not reflect the color spectrum of Hispanics and Latinos.^[13]