Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, and the History of Ethnicity in the United States

Figures just released from the 2000 U.S. Census reveal what demographers have predicted for the past decade: Latinos are surpassing African Americans as the country’s largest minority group. Yet because of differences in national origin, physical appearance, historical memory, class, and religion, no single group identity exists for this rapidly growing population. In part because of this diversity, in the 2000 Census, respondents, for the first time, could select more than one racial category. Clara Rodríguez’s newest work on Latinos in the U.S. examines difficulties in categorizing this group as part of a broader discussion of ethnicity and race in the United States. She chose as her lens the U.S. Census Bureau because census categories and definitions reveal a society’s “dominant ideals and beliefs” (p. xiv) and such definitions shape how peoples and individuals see themselves and others. Rodríguez’s aim is to demonstrate through the Latino experience that race is not fixed; it is “imperfectly measured” and can lead to discrimination and misunderstanding. A sociologist by training, Rodríguez draws upon her own experiences as a Latina, on interviews, analyses of census data, and secondary works from a variety of disciplines.The difficulty in classifying Latinos underscores one of Rodríguez’s main points: definitions of race and ethnicity are subjective and dependent on context. Some public agencies consider Latinos a race, but the Bureau of the Census does not (a topic to which the author devotes ample space). Rodríguez argues that most in the U.S. conflate race and ethnicity, and see race as genetically determined and fixed (as evidenced by Census Bureau efforts to make Latinos and other groups fit the bipolar racial categories of white and non-white). Meanwhile, for Latinos, race and ethnicity are culturally determined, fluid, and contextual. As Rodríguez explains, these divergent notions of race and ethnicity came out of our respective historical experiences.Rodríguez describes the evolution of the U.S.’s bipolar racial paradigm by tracing the Census Bureau’s two-hundred-year history of shifting categories and criteria. She ably links changing racial definitions over time to broader social and political factors, and sees the Bureau’s recent efforts to more accurately categorize Hispanics as evidence that notions of race and ethnicity are undergoing further adjustment in this country.This broad treatment of Latino identity and U.S. efforts to categorize its diverse populations will complement the plethora of new works on the Latino experience in the U.S. It should prove useful also to historians of race and ethnicity in America. While Rodríguez’s arguments are somewhat disorganized and repetitive, the redundancy permits the use of individual chapters for teaching purposes. Further, although little new scholarship appears here, the author provides a relatively thorough review of the literature on issues such as Latino identity formation and acculturation. In addition, Rodríguez’s history of Census activities is also quite thorough, and the book is richly documented. Those seeking more on the historical development of notions of race and ethnicity in Latin America will no doubt be disappointed, however, given the outdated and limited resources consulted. Perhaps the real value of this work is the perspective it offers on how Latinos in this country have been perceived and how they perceive themselves. It is likely that this population group will prove quite instrumental in reshaping our ideas of race and ethnicity.