Choosing the term Hispanic or Latino as a source of identity is more complicated than just applying a label. A person whose grandparents came from Spain, a person with Indigenous Mexican heritage, and someone from a Portuguese-speaking Brazilian family—along with the roughly 19 percent of the U.S. population that might check “Hispanic” on their census form—could self-identify as both Hispanic or Latino, or neither.

To say that the history of how we use “Hispanic” and “Latino” is complicated is an understatement—the terms are both connected to controversy and confusion. Here’s how they came to be, what they refer to, and why many with historic ties to the places Spain and Portugal once colonized say they don’t apply to them.

“Hispanic” comes from