Why Latino?

[bigsteel15]

OK, so I'm watching World Cup and somebody mentions something about a Latin American country.
Gets me to thinking, why do they call them Latin American. Obviously I get the American part, but why Latin? Why Latino? Everyone that is considered Latino speaks Spanish, not Latin.
Latin was never the language of Spain to my knowledge. Or was that another history lesson that I missed?

Maybe I'm just an ignorant Canadian, being that we don't have many "Latinos" up here.

[Eric]

I believe it's the languages

I believe it's the fact that they speak Spanish and Portuguese which are based on Latin.

Kind of on the same topic:

I saw something in the Smithsonian magazine, or history channel that was talking about how if Rome was able to conqueor the Germananic peoples they would probably be speaking a Romantic language. That's when it clicked to me that Spanish and French aren't called romantic languages cause it makes the women's knees weak.

[Tequila]

"Latin America is the region of the Americas where Romance languages — those derived from Latin — are officially or primarily spoken."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_america

"Latin Europe is composed of those nations and areas in Europe that speak a Romance language and are seen as having a distinct culture from the Germanic and Slavic parts of Europe."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Europe

[bigsteel15]

"Latin America is the region of the Americas where Romance languages — those derived from Latin — are officially or primarily spoken."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_america

"Latin Europe is composed of those nations and areas in Europe that speak a Romance language and are seen as having a distinct culture from the Germanic and Slavic parts of Europe."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Europe

Now I know. Good links. Thank you Tequila.
I see a mention of French speaking Canada (Quebec).
I don't think anyone outside of Quebec would consider a Quebecor to speak a romantic language. Have you heard our French Canadian politicians speak English?

[dwolsten]

I still think it's pretty weak, as Spanish and Portuguese have changed a lot from Latin over time, and there's no one in "Latin America" speaking Italian, the primary descendent of Latin.

I think it should be called "Iberian America" instead. After all, Spain and Portugal are both on the Iberian Peninsula. Instead of "Latinos", we can call them "Iberios". :-)