Hispanics by any other name

Tonight I was watching the 11:00 o'clock news in Spanish language channel Univision. I saw a package about the fact that Hispanics continue to identify themselves through their individual nationalities rather than under the umbrella term "Hispanic"or the similar "Latino". I thought it was interesting but I was not surprised. It is true that as a group, we Hispanics, are extremely proud but that pride only stems from joining together to share all of our differences. We are a diverse group and we recognize that we must first celebrate our individual cultural identities to then celebrate those of others within our group. I feel that it makes us all the more rich. For example, my best friend is Peruvian and through my  friendship with her I have learned about papas a la huancaina, the passionate music of musica criolla songstress Eva Ayllón and that the flag of the city of Cuzco is rainbow-colored. My mom is Nicaraguan and my father is from Spain, my upbringing and overall culture is very different from that of my friends which stem from other Central and South American countries such as Colombia, Guatemala, Venezuela and even Uruguay. Yes, we are all "Hispanic", many of us have come to love and embrace this term, which has been said to have been coined by Grace Flores-Hughes, a presidential appointee and board member of the Hispanic Foundation for the Arts. We all speak a common language and we have similarities in our music, food tastes and general flavor but we still cherish our separate flags. I grew up in a home where both of my parents told stories about "back home". My father told me about being an altar boy at the cathedral in Zaragoza, Spain. My mother told me about picking mangoes off her neighbor's trees in Nicaragua. My mom learned how to dance folklore in high school and my father only watched as the girls dressed up for las fiestas del Pilar, the regional fiesta for the virgin mary and danced "La Jota". However, when someone hears that I'm Hispanic, they can't even begin to decipher all of those details because as a people Hispanics are so culturally wealthy. It's one of the reasons I'm so proud to be Hispanic because it means so many different things...It means it's ok for me to say "I'm Nicaraguense Espanola" when someone asks me "So, What are you again? Where are you from? You're Hispanic right?"