Latinos Increasingly Identifying As Indians

¿Eres indio?

That seems to be the question on the minds of many Latinos these days, if a recent New York Times article is to be believed. The gist of it is that many Latinos are increasingly identifying themselves as Indian on their Census forms. On the one hand, interesting trend piece, on the other, who cares? Latinos have been identifying themselves as indigenous for a long time, just because it pops up on a Census form it doesn’t necessarily point to sociological or cultural changes. The Times reported:

…the 2010 census, which showed an explosion in respondents of Hispanic descent who also identified themselves as American Indians.

Seventy percent of the 57,000 American Indians living in New York City are of Hispanic origin, according to census figures. That is 40,000 American Indians from Latin America — up 70 percent from a decade ago.

The trend is part of a demographic growth taking place nationwide of Hispanics using “American Indian” to identify their race. The number of Amerindians — a blanket term for indigenous people of the Americas, North and South — who also identify themselves as Hispanic has tripled since 2000, to 1.2 million from 400,000.

I had a conversation about this last night. If someone feels like they are indigenous enough to identify as indio, then I say go for it. I’m not going to tell anyone how to identify themselves; personally, if I could identify myself on the Census as I pleased, I would be a pocha. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy dancing with the Aztec matachines in the Zócalo in Mexico City, but I don’t feel like that really qualifies me to mark that on the form.

Anyways, in a lot of ways I feel like this is a non-story, but perhaps it’s meaningful to you, what do you think? Do you, like my friend last night, identify as mestizo-indio? Did you mark “Aztec” or “Maya” on your Census form? Thoughts?

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD