Asian Hispanic

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Asian Hispanic (Spanish: Asiático Hispánico) is a term for Hispanic Americans having Asian blood and for those Hispanics who consider themselves or were officially classified by the United States Census Bureau, Office of Management and Budget, and other U.S. government agencies as Asian Americans.

[edit] Demographics

Asian Hispanics number about 0.3% of the Hispanic American population. Most Asian Hispanics are Peruvian Americans, since Peru has large and important Asian minorities (both Chinese and Japanese). The next largest Asian Hispanic groups are Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, Paraguayan Americans (Paraguay has large Japanese minority), and Panamanian Americans (Panama has large Chinese minority).

Most countries of Hispanic America have Asian minorities. Because of this, most Asian Hispanics are not distinguished from non-Hispanic Asian Americans because of their physical appearance, but they may be distinguished from non-Hispanic Asian Americans by Spanish fluency, Spanish surnames.

There may has been increasing rates of intermarriages between non-Hispanic Asian Americans and Asian Hispanics or non-Asian Hispanics, and because of this, large numbers of Asian Hispanics are of these said ancestries.

[edit] Representation

Like black and white U.S. Hispanics, Asian U.S. Hispanics are sometimes overlooked in the U.S. mass media and in general American social perceptions, where being "Hispanic" is often incorrectly given a racial value, usually mixed-race, such as mestizo or mulatto.

Since the early days of movie industry in the U.S., when Asian Hispanic actors were given roles, they usually cast as non-Hispanic Asians, given the reason of their appearance that is similar to the non-Hispanic Asian Americans and no trace of Spanish accent in their spoken English. Those who were given roles as Hispanics have 2 conditions: roles as Asian Hispanics were given to Asian Hispanic actors whose Asian appearances are seen and who can speak Spanish with Spanish accent in their English and roles as non-Asian Hispanics or white Hispanics to Asian Hispanic actors with partial Asian blood and Asian appearance is unseen and who can speak Spanish with Spanish accent in their English. Some Asian Hispanic actors were given roles as non-Hispanic non-Asian or Caucasian to Asian Hispanic actors whose Asian appearance is unobvious and not fluent in Spanish.

Those who claim that Asian Hispanics are not allowed to play Hispanic roles in the U.S. say that this unfairly leads the masses of viewers to the assumption that there are few, if any, Asian Hispanics. Further, some Asian Hispanics are categorized as non-Asian and misunderstood by the media as having some innate knowledge of indigenous culture, e.g., in terms of customs, food and music, which is an individual inclination and not necessarily confined to Hispanics in general.