Not all Latinos are Mexican

Because the United States shares a border with Mexico, we are surrounded
with Mexican influences. We all love our burritos, know how to wave “hola” to a friend and how to count to “diez.” Because we are raised with Mexican influences,
many Americans wrongly classify all Latinos as Mexican.
Common as it may be, this mistake is completely ignorant. You wouldn’t mistake an American for a Brit, would you? Of course not! They exchange the “o” for a “u” in mom and shout “mate” when talking to a friend. Sometimes it’s impossible to even understand a simple conversation with a heavy British accent. Sure, we all speak English, but the dialect couldn’t be more different.
Spanish is no different. Spanish is spoken across continents and in many different locations but slang words and accents change with location. A student from Mexico might not even understand a conversation between two Chilean students.
Latino refers to someone who originally came from Latin America.
For those who don’t know, Latin America is not the same thing as Mexico. Latin America stretches from the very top of Mexico to the end of South America. Mexico is only a small part of Latin America.
Latin America is more than three times bigger than just Mexico. According
to statistics powered by the organization Latin Focus, 21.8 percent
of the entire Latin American population is considered Mexican.
Junior Raquel Valdes, an exchange student from Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico, sees this label as hurtful. The president of the Latino Unidos Club, Valdes can’t help but notice the “great sense of pride [Latinos have] for their [respective] countries.” Although she herself is Mexican, Valdes finds it upsetting that people look at a Latino and without any consideration immediately
label them as Mexican. By classifying someone with the wrong home country, the false label
in a sense “strip[s] them of their identity,” Valdes said. Many Latinos band together because they share a common language and historical and cultural aspects, not because they are all from the same place. Latinos come from around the globe; it is ignorant to give such a diverse population a label as restricting as Mexican.
Senior Yasmin Khouri is a Brazilian who sees Latino as “a culture whereas being Mexican means the country you’re from.” You wouldn’t call a Brazilian a Mexican, would you? According to Latin Focus,
Brazil makes up 38.8 percent of the population in Latin America. So technically, calling a Latino Brazilian would be even better than labeling
them Mexican.
It really isn’t hard to steer clear of ignorance. Make an effort to know the different customs of select groups that make up Latinos. If that’s too much work, then don’t just assume. If you don’t know what differentiates a Latino from a Mexican, use the term that fits all of Latin America, not just 21.8 percent of the population.