Hispanic

Hispanic (Castilian Hispano, Portuguese Hispânico, Catalan: Hispà, from Latin Hispānus, adjective from Hispānia, the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula) is a term that historically denoted relation to the ancient Hispania and its peoples. However, when the modern day country of Spain was created in the 15th century, it inherited the term, and thus, since then, Hispanic is also related to Spain, its people and its culture. In this process, Portugal was excluded from the term, despite the fact that the territory that nowadays covers was also in the former Hispania^[1]. Instead of Hispanic, Portugal adopted the word Lusitanic for the same purposes (in reference to the former Roman province of Lusitania, which was a part Hispania; ultimately, regarding to the Lusitanians, one of the first Indo-European tribes to settle Europe). With the expansion of the Spanish Empire, the peoples from Spain spread all over the world, creating new colonies and giving place to the Hispanophone. This expansion was mainly concentrated in the Americas, especially in what is called the Hispanic America, which comprises all those countries from the Americas that once belonged to the Spanish Empire and where the Spanish influence is still present (Brazil not being included since it was settled by the Portuguese, the separation between the terms Hispanic regarding to Spain and Lusitanic regarding to Portugal was already effective). These countries, inherited the cultural and ancestral legacy of the Spaniards, and in consequence, their peoples and their cultures are also considered as Hispanic. Nowadays, the peoples from Hispanic America who live in the United States have developed their own identity with an unquestionable Hispanic substrate, and are also considered Hispanic^[2]^[3].