Hispanic attitudes survey probes the differences between Hispanics who consider themselves white and those who say they are of some other race.

Hispanics who view themselves as white are more likely to be better educated, earn more, register to vote and vote Republican…

Regional differences

…in California, only 42 percent of U.S.-born Mexican-Americans identified themselves as white, compared with 63 percent of their ethnic counterparts in Texas.

For instance, 81 percent of Puerto Ricans living on the island identified themselves as white in the 2000 census, while only 46 percent of those living on the U.S. mainland did so. And among Cubans, those living in Florida were much more likely to say they were white than those living in California.

Latin American culture

In many Latin American countries, race is a flexible concept and can change with a person’s status in society. Historical and contemporary evidence shows that a Latin American strain of racism favors lighter-skinned over darker-skinned people, but as an old Caribbean proverb says, “Money bleaches.”

U.S. Hispanics

In the United States, Hispanics are an ethnic group made up of people of different races, often mixed, and from a variety of ancestral homelands. In the 2000 census, they mainly selected two racial categories to describe themselves. Forty-eight percent identified themselves as white, and 42 percent chose “some other race.”

Hispanics who perceive themselves as white appear to feel that their place in American society is more secure, the report found.

…Hispanics who said they were white were more likely to describe themselves as American than those who said they were of some other race.

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