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Total population
est. 1.5 million
up to roughly 0.5% of the U.S. population
Regions with significant populations
American English · Spanish
Spanish in the United States · New Mexican Spanish · Ladino
Roman Catholic · Protestant · Agnostic or Atheist · Jewish minorities.
Related ethnic groups
Portuguese Americans · Spanish Americans · Mexican Americans · white Hispanic and Latino Americans · Native Americans in the United States to some extent.

Hispanos (from Spanish: adj. prefix Hispano- relating to Spain, from Latin: Hispānus) is a name given in the English language to people of colonial Spanish descent in what is today the United States who retained a predominantly Spanish culture. The distinction was made to compensate for flawed U.S. Census practices in the 1930s which used to characterize Hispanic people as non-white.[1]


Though the word could describe anyone of Spanish descent,[2] it is specifically used to refer to Hispanic and Latino Americans who live in the Southwestern United States which was formerly the northernmost region of New Spain. They are mostly descendants of Spanish settlers (with Basques and Conversos - Spanish Jews converted to Christianity to escape persecution from the Spanish Inquisition), Mexicans (white Mexicans, mestizos, and indigenous Mexicans) who arrived during the Spanish colonial period and the Mexican period, and Mestizos of mixed Spanish and Native American ancestry. Some Hispanos differentiate themselves culturally from the population of Mexican Americans whose ancestors arrived in the Southwest after the Mexican Revolution.[2][3]


Hispano populations include Californios in California, Arizona and Nevada (these areas were part of Alta California, along with Utah and southwestern Wyoming, which had no Hispano communities, and western Colorado, that had no Californio communities), Nuevomexicanos in New Mexico and Colorado, Tejanos in Texas, Isleños in Louisiana (since when it belonged to Spain) and Texas, and Adaeseños (of Canarian, Mexican and Amerindian descent) in northwestern Louisiana. While having integrated into mainstream American societies, Hispanos have retained much of their colonial culture, and have also absorbed several American Indian traditions.

Many Hispanos, particularly those of younger generations, identify more with the mainstream population and may understand little or no Spanish. Most of them are Roman Catholic Christians. Several linguists and folklorists have studied the culture and language of some of the Hispanic communities, including Samuel G. Armistead, who studied the Isleño communities of Louisiana, and Juan Bautista Rael, who studied the Nuevomexicanos communities.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ "B03001. HISPANIC OR LATINO ORIGIN BY SPECIFIC ORIGIN - Universe: TOTAL POPULATION". 2007 American Community Survey. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-10-01. 
  2. ^ http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/revista/articles/view/577
  3. ^ New Mexico CultureNet - Cuartocentenario
  4. ^ Alexander V. King, "Californio Families, A Brief Overview", San Francisco Genealogy, Society of Hispanic Historical & Ancestral Research, January 2004