Census

* I just completed the 2000 census short form. Question 7 asks if I am Spanish/Hispanic/Latino. Spain has Spanish people, so that’s easy, but what are Hispanics and Latinos? My father was born in Veracruz, Mexico. His father was a Basque who emigrated from Bilbao. My mother was born in South Dakota. Her father was of English ancestry whose forebears came to this country in the 1630s and her mother was born in this country of recent Dutch immigrants. With this background, how do I answer the Spanish/Hispanic/Latino question?

Someday, we will look back at these census forms in disbelief that the government actually classified people by race.

RICHARD DE LA SOTA

Redondo Beach