Latino refers to people from Latin America or who have family origins there. Latin America includes Mexico, Central America, South America, and many Caribbean islands. Many of these countries share Spanish or Portuguese as their main language, inherited from Spanish and Portuguese colonization centuries ago.

A person whose grandparents came from Colombia is Latino. Someone born in Mexico City is Latino. A student whose father immigrated from Brazil is Latino. The term connects people across many different countries, cultures, and backgrounds through this shared geographic and cultural heritage.

Latino is often used alongside Hispanic, but they're not exactly the same. Hispanic refers to Spanish-speaking heritage, so it includes people from Spain but not Brazil (where they speak Portuguese). Latino focuses on Latin American geography rather than language, so it includes Brazilians but not Spaniards.

People use Latina specifically for girls and women, Latino for boys and men, and Latinx or Latine as gender-neutral alternatives. These newer terms are still debated within Latino communities.

The Latino community in America includes people with incredibly diverse backgrounds: some families have lived in the Southwest since before it was part of the United States, while others arrived more recently. They come from dozens of different countries, each with distinct traditions, foods, music, and history.