thing , '' he said . From a census standpoint , being of Hispanic or Latino origin means a person identifies himself in one of four listed categories : Mexican , Puerto Rican , Cuban or `` other Spanish , Hispanic or Latino '' origin . In the latter more open-ended category , respondents can write in specific origins , such as Salvadoran , Argentinean or Dominican . According to a Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation survey in 2002 , that is how most Latinos choose to identify themselves . When asked which terms they would use first to describe themselves , 54 percent said they primarily identify themselves in terms of their or their parents ' country of origin . About one quarter choose `` Latino '' or `` Hispanic , '' and 21 percent chose `` American . '' But the broader terms -- Latino , Hispanic -- are the ones tossed about when the media want to discuss a `` trend among Latinos , '' or when a politician appeals to the `` Hispanic vote . '' The U.S. government came up with the term `` Hispanic '' in the 1970s to generally refer to people who
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Hispanics are described as the largest minority group in the United States , as a burgeoning force in the electorate and as an untapped frontier of the business market . Yet these descriptions belie the complexity of the 44 million people to whom they refer . Susana Clar , with daughters Vanessa -LRB- left -RRB- and Virna -LRB- center -RRB- , says the labels `` Hispanic '' and `` Latino '' are limiting . Even the terms used to name them -- Hispanics , Hispanic-Americans , Latinos , Latino-Americans , the Spanish-surnamed -- too tightly package the people categorized by those definitions , some observers say . `` We are mixed and we are many things , '' said Phillip Rodriguez , a documentary filmmaker . Many of his films , such as `` Los Angeles Now '' and `` Brown is the New Green : George Lopez and the American Dream , '' explore the experience and identity of Latinos in the United States . Latinos `` very often do n't share language , do n't share class circumstances , do n't share education ; it 's very difficult to speak about them as one