Hispanics also have an obvious linguistic identity, unless you are suggesting that they all speak only English. And again, they may self-identify as white ( I seriously doubt that). But white Americans don't identify them as fellow whites.

If they did identify Hispanics as fellow whites, the whole illegal immigration issue would not have existed. There are 12 million Hispanics who live daily under the fear of being deported.

As for Cruz and Rubio, they were Cuban Americans. The Cubans have a different treatment in the US as opposed to other Hispanics (they get automatic immigration as soon as they reach US soil).  In the case of Cruz, he is half Cuban American. Probably a good reason why he didn't get the nomination.