Do you also never know what to fill out in race and ethnicity questionnaires? Race and ethnicity are two very different things. While ethnicity encompasses ethnic and cultural background, race is based on physical characteristics and skin color. The ethnic identity of Hispanic/Latine is a social construct created by the U.S. government to categorize people whose unique experiences of social inequality, language, and culture could not be labeled as “white.” But, Latine communities are so diverse and colorful ethnic and racial labels cannot possibly define who we are. ⁠ ⁠ This is due to our history of racial erasure and racial hierarchies in the United States and Latin America. Due to histories of colonization across several Latin American countries, our roots have been lost; our racial and ethnic identities have been erased. This erasure is also highlighted by U.S. racial and ethnic categories that lump together different groups of people in terms of race, culture, language, politics, a...