Latino (demonym)
In the United States, Latino refers to non-Anglo-Americans who are living in the United States of America and are of Hispanic background, typically Spanish speaking people. The feminine form of the word is Latina.
Most frequently the term Latino is restricted to immigrants from Spanish speaking countries in Latin America and their descendants. American inhabitants of Brazilian origin are sometimes considered Latinos, even though their language is Portuguese. Some define Latino as also including Spanish and Portuguese people in America. Inhabitants of the French-speaking areas of Haiti, French Guiana, and the French West Indies are generally not considered to be Latinos; they are typically thought to have more in common culturally with English-speaking West Indians than they do with residents of Mexico and Central and South America.
The U.S. Census Bureau defines "Hispanic or Latino" as having a background in a Spanish-speaking Latin American country or being of actual Spanish ancestry. Thus immigrants from Spain are considered "Hispanic or Latino", but those from Brazil are not. The label also thus includes ethnically Spanish people with roots in the United States, such as the New Mexico Spanish and Louisiana Cajuns of Spanish origin.
Latino should not be confused with Ladino (the Spanish-based language traditionally spoken by Sephardic Jews) or Ladin (a Rhaeto-Romance language spoken in the Italian Alps), even though the origin for all three names is the same.