Letter: Article muddles minority issue

Monday, Aug. 6, 2001 | 9:58 a.m.

Regarding the neighborhood division of ethnic cultural groups:

All the countries of America are becoming very multicultural with the various three races of people fused by marriage and now becoming fused by living in the same neighborhoods. Even the United States of America, including the Las Vegas Valley, is becoming ethnically mixed. I could not pass up reading your July 22 article, whose headline was in huge bold print, about the "minority shift into the suburbs."

First of all, I am still confused about the political terms of majority and minority. Can a person be a majority and a minority at the same time? Does it depend on skin color or language spoken? What about a white Hispanic who speaks Spanish and English? Are they a minority or majority?

When I was in elementary school, we were taught that there were three races of people in our world. They were Caucasian, Negroid, and Mongoloid. In your article, with your graphics, we suddenly had four races of people. When did Hispanic become a race?

Being a white Hispanic, I had to take issue with the statements in the article that, "Hispanics are less integrated into the neighborhoods" and that Hispanics do not receive a higher education and are somewhat less educated than other groups. Hispanics live all over America in all neighborhoods and many are educated and have college degrees.

The Spaniards from Spain are white Caucasians, and if you took a trip to Spain, you would be surprised to see all these white people walking around speaking Spanish. The Spaniards explored various parts of the Americas and taught their European language to the Indian people of Mexico and people in other countries. The Hispanic ethnic group today is a fusion of all three races of people.

How did Las Vegas get a Spanish name?

MICHAEL GALLEGOS BORRESEN