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Hispanic Origin?


By scompton - Posted on 10 December 2014

When I'm filling out forms that ask for ethnicity I always feel a bit conflicted when I check "White" and leave the "Hispanic Origin" blank. AncestryDNA (autosomal) reveals that my heritage is 17% Iberian Pennisula and 3% Native American. So technically, my origins are about 20% Hispanic (Mexican great grandfather). However, the rest of my DNA is mostly English, Irish and Scandinavian and my cultural roots are definitely working class, Methodist, English speaking, etc. No one in my family spoke Spanish at home or identified themselves as Mexican. As a young adult 40 years ago I learned to speak and read Spanish, lived in Nicaragua for 2 years and then worked with a Mexican social service agency in the US for 5 years, partly in an effort to recapture some of my lost heritage.

Now that I'm retired I suppose it doesn't really matter, except in some statistical sense. But, I'd be interested in hearing what other folks on this forum think about the Hispanic Origin question.