75% Caucasion, 25% Hispanic -- What race am I?

entomom
Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:51:11 +0000

sunnyone,
I’m not sure that wlm was referring to your post specifically. There was a lot of emotional misinformation being bandied about earlier in this thread because the OP was started on the general College Admissions forum, that’s why I moved it here as we try to keep things more to the factual aspects of Hispanics and college admissions rather than opinion.



Now - what is my child?
Father: Guam - native peoples
Mother: 1/2 Mexican, 1/2 Caucasian



The Common Application asks optional, separate questions about ethnicity and race. They first ask if the applicant is Hispanic/Latino (Y/N); if the answer is yes, you indicate your background, from the following options:

Central America
Cuba
Mexico
Puerto Rico
South America (excluding Brazil)
Spain
Other----blank box comes up if checked (“if Other please specify”).

So, your child would check Yes and indicate Mexico.

Next, regardless of what you indicated for ethnicity, they ask you to indicate any race(s) that apply and background. The options are:

American Indian or Alaska Native (including all Original Peoples of the Americas)
Asian (including Indian subcontinent and Philippines)
Black or AA (including Africa and Caribbean)
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (Original Peoples)
White (including Middle Eastern)

It seems like your child would mark NH or Other PI (Guam), White (where ever the mother’s ancestors are from), and if it applies, AI or AN (Mexico). The last indication is debatable because the AI/AN category addresses “all Original Peoples of the Americas” which would indicate many people from Mexico, CA and parts of SA where a large percentage the population are a mixture of native peoples and European lineage. The problem comes because there is not the documentation in these countries as there is in the US with AI & AN tribes. And I know that some schools do ask for verification from candidates that indicate AI/AN on their applications. I have not heard anything one way or the other from adcoms on how they recognize and consider other Original Peoples of the Americas who are outside the US.