Expert: Ken Rapoza Cruz - 3/24/2007

Question
Hi Ken,

I am doing an assignment for school, and I am trying to find a good web-site on Brazilians living in America. I have to cite my resources. Also are Brazilians considered hispanic. Do know a good site that has current information?

Answer
Ill answer your second question first. The question of "hispanic" is really a matter of symantics in the US. I know Portuguese people, American Portuguese, who got college scholarships by declaring themselves Hispanic. They got away with it cuz of their last names and their look.

The term "hispanic" means people from Hispaniola, which includes Mexico, Central America and most of the Caribbean and part of north South America.  Chileans, Brazilians and Argentines would not consider themselves HIspanic. They would consider themselves Latino, however.  These countries dont really get into the labelling like we do in the US. Now, if you want to know how the government classifies these groups, you will have to call the press office of the US Census Bureau and they can find someone to help you. Census labels people the way they -- the people beign interviewed -- define themselves. So if a Brazilian immigrant says he is Hispanic, then the census bureau will call him Hispanic. If Tiger Woods says he is Asian, then he is just onne more Asian in America.  See what I mean?
How a person's ethnicicty is listed, by the federal government's standards, depends on the US CENSUS BUREAU, and you can confirm what I told you if you call them yourself and tell them you are a student doing research. You will have to call the press office and you can find that on their website.

You can also call state government's that compile similar statisticus, though I will not know what those individual departments will be called.  The two states I would try, for Brazilians, would be New Jersey and Massachusetts.

To find out about how many Brazilians are living in American, call the Brazilian Embassy in Washington and they will have the number.

Of course, this is not an accurate number, cuz most Brazlians living in the US are living there illegally and are completely off radar.

When you call the Brazilian embassy in the US, somethign a quick Google search will find for you, you will once again call the press office and tell them you are a student on a research project looking for an official figure on how many Brazilians are estimated to be livign in teh US.  They will tell you teh same thing I just told you...how hard it is to calculate. But get them to give you a ball park figure.  If they dont know it, ask them who will know it? Will the US govt know it? Which department (probably US State Dept)?

Good luck.