im portuguese... and amcas says im...?

[whattodowithmys]

hi all,
so i finally get around to filling out my amcas, and first of all im mixed race... 50-50. so one half of me is portuguese for which amcas doenst even have a choice. (except under "other" under spanish/hispanic, etc.)

most hispanics (and portuguese) that i know are adamant about those two not being the same. so im not sure what to enter for this. i dont want to look like a ******* either by entering portuguese under the "hispanic" section..any ideas?

thanks!!

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[hnbui]

spanish people are white.

hispanics tend to be a mixture of many different cultures and races: spanish, black, native people, and so forth.

 

[idq1i]

1 - The "race" question is one of the least important questions on the application. Why are you agonizing over it?

2 - Portuguese people are not "hispanic." Hispanic = Spanish roots

 

[Supadupafly]

If your roots are from Portugal or Spain (& not North Africa, Romani, ect., as happens), then I'd say you probably fall into the "white" catagory for race.

As for Ethnicity (Hispano, Latino, Jewish, Arab, ect. are ethnicities, not Races). It's complicated. Some demographers would consider anyone of Iberian decent to be "hispanic". Many Latinos, Sefardim, Romanis, Portugues, ect., including yourself, have valid reasons for rejecting this. It gets even more confusing, for instance, most Brazilians would readily self-identify as Latino, but cringe at being labelled Hispano. As a western Sephardi Jew, I know that a demographer would call me Hispano, but I feel more Middle Eastern (I'm also part Chicano, which is solidly Latino, while not necessarily Hispano).

So there are two things to consider for your self identification:

1. It is a self-identification. You could call yourself, Asian, African, whatever, depending on how you self-identify. There are those, for instance some Argentines, who have absolutely no Iberian Ancestry, but still self identify as Latino or Hispano. Don't feel pigeon-holed.

2. This isn't personal on AMCAS's part. They are just trying to keep the form as simple as possible (even if a bt inaccurate.) If you're not URM (last time I checked, Portugues is not), it will not affect your admissions process.

So what makes sense would be if you feel Caucasian, mark caucasian. If you feel Hispanic, mark Hispanic. If you feel other, mark other. If it makes you absolutely uncomfortable, you aren't required to self identify anything (a fellow student & friend of mine is "from Mexico", but his grandparents all migrated from eastern Europe, so he didn't feel right self-identifying as Mexican. He just left it blank & still got in to med school.)

 

[Neurolemma]

Just put down URM (the hispanic box). Its not like you're blonde and have a lot to lose by them finding out the truth.

 

[MollyMalone]

My ex-boyfriend, who was of Portuguese descent, felt very strongly about this. He always chose caucasian if he had to and left it blank if it was optional.

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

I think that if you are a peninsulare, so to speak, if you were born in Spain or Portugal, or were born to parents directly from Spain or Portugal, but not in Latin America, then you are a European Caucasian, just as if you were French, Dutch, German, Russian, etc.

On the other hand, if you are from Latin America, even if you are a "purely" Spanish/Portuguese (i.e. no Indian or black blood), then I would think that you are a Hispanic.

 

[whattodowithmys]

hmm.. seems like alot of you guys are thinking caucasian. thank you for the input. i wanted to get yalls opinions before i said what my other half was.. asian indian. so i guess alot of you may say that 1/2 asian indian and 1/2 portuguese, i should just put asian indian?
again thanks for everyones input

 

[chaeymaey]

I know an member of an adcom who always told me, "Put whatever your mother is." I don't know if that helps.

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

hmm.. seems like alot of you guys are thinking caucasian. thank you for the input. i wanted to get yalls opinions before i said what my other half was.. asian indian. so i guess alot of you may say that 1/2 asian indian and 1/2 portuguese, i should just put asian indian?
again thanks for everyones input

I would say, check off "asian/indian" (or whatever corresponds to that, and check off "caucasian." I think people who are of mixed race put down all the races that make them up, unless they wholly identify with one particular race. If I were a black, white, mestizo mix I would put down "hispanic" (your culture), "caucasian," "black," and "native american" (your races or ethnic groups).

 

[curlykid]

well aren't we all members of the human race anyways? if we trace our roots back far enough, we all come from the same ancestors anyways...

whattodowithmys, just out of curiosity is your indian parent Goan? i was just curious, a lot of my cousins have married Portuguese and Brazilians. it's funny, most people are impressed / amused by the fact that my mum and avo and most of my relatives know portuguese and we're 100% indian and lived in india for generations.

i really don't like labelling myself my race. my ancestors can be traced back many many many centuries ago to Kashmir to the Indus Valley civilization. And before then, those ancestors who settled the Indus Valley were Aryans who came from the Ural mountains (that's how sanskrit[ancient indian language] has many similarities to European languages). so i guess I am really caucasian. Though in theory, we've all come from the same common ancestor in Africa, so just one human race.

well, that my two cents, though it doesn't answer your question, does it? just out of curiousity is there a box you can check that says mixed? (sorry if it's a dumb question, I haven't seen the application yet)

 

[studentstudent]

If both your parents grew up in India (as Curlykid testify, there are plenty of portuguese still in Goa), mark Asian Indian as the main one.

If not, and you don't look asian indian (you know the stereotype), still mark asian Indian, it will make the interviewers not stereotype you. My parents don't look indian, and it's always funny to see how ppl react (surprised my dad isn't persian, and embarassed they were trying to speak spanish to my mom).

Otherwise, do whatever you feel like right before you sign your life savings to AMCAS.