#xicano

Mexican Indigenous Truth (facebook)

Latinos, Latinas, and Latin America Latino comes from the root word Latin which corresponds to the nations that used to form the Roman Empire: Spain, Portugal, Romania, Italy, and France.

Latinos were the old Romans, because Rome was in an area called Latium (pronounced Lazium.) ... the area is still called Lazio and is a region of Italy. Moreover, there is in Lazio a large town called Latina.

So why are the Latin Americas called so and the inhabitants called Latino or Latina even though the language spoken there is Spanish?

The term Latin America was coined in the 1860s when the French Emperor Napoleon III was trying to extend French imperial control over the whole region. He and his ministers used the term to try to suggest at least some degree of cultural similarity between the region and France. The region consists of people who speak Spanish, Portuguese and French. These languages (together with Italian and Romanian) developed from Latin during the days of the Roman Empire and the Europeans who speak them are sometimes called “Latin” people. Hence the term Latin America and Latinos and Latinas.

Napoleon III wanted to expand power in the Americas. He installed an Austrian in charge of Mexico and sent troops to make sure he got that power - France invaded Mexico. Well all know how that went, that’s why we celebrate Cinco De Mayo, the Mexican defeat of France. France installed Ferdinand Maximillian Joseph of the Mexican empire in 1863. After a little under 4 years Maximillian was defeated and executed. There went their influence in America. Except that the term Latin America stuck and so did calling the inhabitants Latinos and Latinas or in other words People from France, or the Roman Empire.

I thought this week I’d take a little break from sharing a ton of links to write a little bit about what I’ve been working on this year. Blood Opal Bloom (previously Eyes of Opal) is a sci-fi/cosmic horror/folk horror story spanning several generations of women from 1773 to 2057 and follows the main characters from a desert in California to a colony on a new world. This story has been created…

Actor, Raúl Castillo 🇲🇽🇺🇸