Lusitanic - Relation With Hispanic

Relation With Hispanic

There has often been debate as to whether Lusitanics are Hispanics, as historical arguments find that the region of Lusitania was a part of Hispania - and thus, "Lusitanics" are a subset of "Hispanic." The same way Spanish-speaking South America was not a part of Hispania and the same argument can be applied: if Spanish Latin American people should be called Hispanic. Lusitania and the Lusitanians were known long before their conquest by the Roman Empire (Livy 218 b.c.) and incorporated in the Roman province of Hispania thus can not be considered a subset of "Hispanic." In the United States, the term "Hispanic" was first adopted by the administration of Richard Nixon and today is one of the several terms of ethnicity employed to categorize any person, of any racial background, of any country and of any religion who has at least one ancestor from the people of Spain or Spanish-speaking Latin America, whether or not the person has Spanish ancestry. Lusitanics are not "Hispanic" for most ethnic categorization purposes, although it is highly debatable, and there are some exceptions - for instance, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has no official position as to whether or not Lusitanic is Hispanic, while the State of Florida classifies Portuguese as Hispanic.