What exactly qualifies as Carribean-Hispanic ethnicity?

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In summary, the list of names and last names for women in the Dominican Republic are: Laura, María, Lucía, Patricia, Isabel, Ana, Nicole, Claudia, Gina, Natalia, Giselle, Karla, Amelia, Sarah, Sara, Diana, Chantal, Shantal, Ligia, Michelle, Carmen, Rosa, and Lidia.
  • #1
Moonbear
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Okay, this may seem like a silly question, but...what exactly qualifies as Carribean-Hispanic ethnicity? I'm guessing this is going to include people from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba...any others?

And, if anyone can help, is there a rather generic last name that would be good to use for a fictitious person from anyone of those countries (and tell me which one)...something along the lines of Smith or Jones in the US. Actually, a good female first name would be helpful too.

No, I'm not trying to change my identity. I'm trying to develop course material with a new case for the med students, and the disorder I'm developing it around has a higher prevalence in Carribean-Hispanics, African-Americans, and Mexican-Americans. They already have some cases in the rotation that include patients of African and Mexican descent, so I thought I'd mix it up a bit and make this one a Carribean-Hispanic woman.

Multiple suggestions are appreciated (we usually have humorous titles for the cases, so multiple names to choose from might improve my chances of working it into the title).

I'm not giving details on the case because once it's developed and being used for the course, I know the students search online for information, and I don't want them coming across the entire case development in a thread here just by searching for the patient's name. :wink:
 
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  • #2
I thought people from the Carribean were mostly African, not hispanic.
 
  • #3
Evo said:
I thought people from the Carribean were mostly African, not hispanic.

That's Afro-Carribean. But that's part of what I'm trying to sort out. A simple Google search didn't help (maybe if I went through pages and pages, I might get something useful, eventually), but I know we have a diverse membership here, so someone probably can identify with this descriptor and help out. I'm not entirely clear what defines someone as Carribean-Hispanic in the first place, so I want to be sure I'm interpreting this correctly so I don't have some egregious factual error in the case. And, if it's not immediately apparent to me who this patient population would include, then it's likely not immediately apparent to the med students either, and they should learn this as well (it's not all about medicine...there are social things they need to learn too).
 
  • #4
Hey guys!,

As some of you might know by now, I'm dominican and I'm currently living in the Dominican Republic, in the Caribbean! :biggrin:.

Anyway!, hehe, here is a list of common names (for women) and last names in my country. The order in which they appear is according to my brain remembering.

Names:

Laura
María
Lucía
Patricia
Isabel
Ana
Nicole
Claudia
Gina
Natalia or Nathalie, or Natali and its weird variations :biggrin:
Giselle or Yisell or Yiselle and its weird variations, too :tongue2:
Karla
Amelia
Sarah, Sara, Zara and variations
Diana
Chantall or Shantal or with more ls at the end (Chantall or Shantall).
Ligia
Michelle
Carmen
Rosa

and probably there are more, but this i remember because i know several people having the same names with different spellings sometimes like in the case of the "Giselle".


Last names:

Cabrera (common)
Pérez (very common)
Gutiérrez (common)
Sanchéz (very common)
Díaz (very common)
Abreu (very common)
Alvarez (very common)
García (extremely common)
Rodríguez (very common)
Castillo (very common)
Guzmán (extremely common)
Fernandez (extremely common)
Gonzáles or González and its variations (extremely common)
López (common)
Martínez (common)
Mejía (very common)

and there are a couple more, let me know.
 
  • #5
On another note, the Caribbean is very diverse. The Caribbean is a mix of african, indigenous tribes (Arawak, taino, ...) and europeans (spanish, british, dutchs, ...). Therefore, "in theory" in some islands (or territories) depending on the dominant group, the population will tend to be more one of those groups (An african example is Haiti) . Althought, usually they are very mixed (An example is Dominican Republic). Note, that those countries i mentioned share the same island (Hispaniola). Another case is the absorption of an island original habitants into the european's culture. In the case of the Dominican Republic, the spanish killed most of the indigenous habitants and the rest became more spanish (some of the original words and customs survived). This means, even thought dominicans are mixed the spanish culture is the dominant one (the spanish were the smaller group).

The Caribbean is not easily put in words. The reality is that this is not a hard to explain blend in a couple of paragraphs. There are a lot of topics like unique new languages (bajan, créole,...), a mix cuisine (african, indigenous and european), and more.

Frankly, i guess the classifications like Caribbean-Hispanic, Afro-Caribbean, ... will depend more on the phenotype than the the genotype of the individuals. Most of the people born in the Caribbean are a mix of two or three groups mentioned, so even thought someone might not look african, it doesn't necessarily means he doesn't have "afro-caribbean" people in his extended family.
 
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  • #6
Hispanic is more of a culture than a ethnicity. Blacks can be (and are!) Hispanic. And whites can be (and are!) Hispanic. I would say that Caribbean-Hispanic would refer to someone from a Spanish speaking country touching the Caribbean Sea. For instance, north coast of Colombia, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, etc. On the other hand the people from the Dutch Antilles would not even though it is in the Caribbean.
 
  • #7
wildman said:
Hispanic is more of a culture than a ethnicity. Blacks can be (and are!) Hispanic. And whites can be (and are!) Hispanic. I would say that Caribbean-Hispanic would refer to someone from a Spanish speaking country touching the Caribbean Sea. For instance, north coast of Colombia, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, etc. On the other hand the people from the Dutch Antilles would not even though it is in the Caribbean.

Very well put, wildman. I think what Moonbear is trying to refer as "Caribbean-Hispanic" may be White-Caribbean?
 
  • #8
Moonbear said:
Okay, this may seem like a silly question, but...what exactly qualifies as Carribean-Hispanic ethnicity? I'm guessing this is going to include people from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba...any others?

I lived on St. Croix for two years, and there is a large Hispanic population there.
 
  • #9
Cyclovenom said:
Anyway!, hehe, here is a list of common names (for women) and last names in my country. The order in which they appear is according to my brain remembering.

Names: Laura, María, Lucía, Patricia, Isabel ... Carmen, Rosa.
You're the man Cyclovenom. I remember most of these women too. But soft, what battleax through yonder doorway breaks? It is my wife, and Julietta is the target. Arise, fair Carmen, and mollify the envious old witch who is already sick and pale with grief that thou, her younger, art far more fair than she.
 
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  • #10
The word “Hispanic” technically just means Spanish-speaking, if you look at the 2nd definition http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hispanic" [Broken], even though they're ethnically almost entirely of African descent.

Etymologically it's the same sort of thing as saying Latin or Latino, which again just originally referred to speaking a Romance language. Though now I think it's used as a self-identification for Spanish-speaking people of mixed African, European, and South American or Mesoamerican or Caribbean descent.
 
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  • #11
Moonbear said:
Okay, this may seem like a silly question, but...what exactly qualifies as Carribean-Hispanic ethnicity? I'm guessing this is going to include people from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba...any others?

And, if anyone can help, is there a rather generic last name that would be good to use for a fictitious person from anyone of those countries (and tell me which one)...something along the lines of Smith or Jones in the US. Actually, a good female first name would be helpful too.

No, I'm not trying to change my identity. I'm trying to develop course material with a new case for the med students, and the disorder I'm developing it around has a higher prevalence in Carribean-Hispanics, African-Americans, and Mexican-Americans. They already have some cases in the rotation that include patients of African and Mexican descent, so I thought I'd mix it up a bit and make this one a Carribean-Hispanic woman.

Multiple suggestions are appreciated (we usually have humorous titles for the cases, so multiple names to choose from might improve my chances of working it into the title).

I'm not giving details on the case because once it's developed and being used for the course, I know the students search online for information, and I don't want them coming across the entire case development in a thread here just by searching for the patient's name. :wink:

Moonbear,
I used to know a lot of Puerto Ricans. Common names were Rodriguez (spelling?) and De Jesus.
 
  • #12
Thanks folks, especially Cyclovenom! Quite frankly, until I had read several clinical articles about this disorder, I had not ever heard someone make such a fine distinction on a population of people as Caribbean-Hispanic. This is why I asked here, because I wasn't sure what exactly that meant. My best guess is that the distinction is ruling out Hispanics from South America.

Mexican-American is in the list, too, which of course is also equally vague. It may simply be that the patients in the study were all US residents, so they don't know the prevalence in Mexico to say there isn't some combination of US cultural factors making it more prevalent in this population in the US.

And, it very well may be a cultural thing too. There's no claim in these studies of a genetic risk factor, that's just not known yet, and it's still present in other populations, just some features of the disorder are more common in some patient populations than others, so it could very well be that a cultural difference (i.e., diet), or even the change in diet when they move to the US, is exacerbating symptoms (this is plausible).

I haven't written one of these cases before, and have realized there's a lot of fun in building up a life story for the fictitious patient to provide a good medical history.
 
  • #13
Moonbear said:
I haven't written one of these cases before, and have realized there's a lot of fun in building up a life story for the fictitious patient to provide a good medical history.

I worked at a company once that made a medical database system and remote consultation tools. We had to populate the database with fake patients and fake medical histories to test the products, and it was indeed fun. It must be even more fun if you actually know what you're talking about!
 
  • #14
This is interesting. I looked up the ethnic profiles for you from the CIA World Facts site and the term "mulatto" was used for the majority in Cuba.

From Merriam-Webster

Mulatto

1 : the first-generation offspring of a black person and a white person
2 : a person of mixed white and black ancestry

Here's the list, but as was mentioned, how much of a mix a person has genetically, that's going to be a tough one. Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic look like your best best for a large Hispanic population. Are you looking just at islands, or the countries surrounding the Caribbean?

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/profileguide.html

Here are some of the Islands.

The Bahamas - black 85%, white 12%, Asian and Hispanic 3%

Barbados - black 90%, white 4%, Asian and mixed 6%

Cayman Islands - mixed 40%, white 20%, black 20%, expatriates of various ethnic groups 20%

Cuba - mulatto 51%, white 37%, black 11%, Chinese 1%

Dominican Republic - mixed 73%, white 16%, black 11%

Haiti - black 95%, mulatto and white 5%

Jamaica - black 91.2%, mixed 6.2%, other or unknown 2.6% (2001 census)

Puerto Rico - white (mostly Spanish origin) 80.5%, black 8%, Amerindian 0.4%, Asian 0.2%, mixed and other 10.9%
 
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  • #15
Evo said:
Are you looking just at islands, or the countries surrounding the Caribbean?

Beats me! I'm trying to figure out what other people mean by the term. I think it's kind of sloppy writing for someone to use an "ethnic" category in an epidemiological study and not define precisely what they mean by that category. Was it a self-reported category, one based on country of origin, something based on knowing someone has Spanish ancestry, etc.? If a particular population of people has a higher risk of a certain set of symptoms associated with a disorder, and that is of clinical value to know, then it sure would help to know how you identify that population. Clearly you can't just LOOK at a person and know this if hispanic in general isn't a risk factor, but being hispanic from a particular region is. Then you need to know what questions to ask to be culturally sensitive yet get the relevant infromation...do you need to inquire what country they originated from, or do you need to inquire about their ancestry? Does it matter how many generations removed they are from ancestors in that country? Does it matter if they adhere to cultural traditions of that country, or if they have fully adopted U.S. culture?

The simple thing is to say, okay, it's a safe bet that someone from the Dominican Republic fits with this definition and I'll make my fictitious patient Dominican and end it there. But, if I can improve upon the learning opportunities for the students by introducing some of these questions/issues regarding assessing ethnicity as a risk factor and understanding better what the epidemiologists mean when they use these terms, then I can add more value to the lesson in term of social issues beyond just the basic science issues. It's all part of developing a medical curriculum that trains physicians not just to be good diagnosticians, but also to think about the whole patient and their social and psychological needs and issues. Cultural sensitivity is part of this too.
 
  • #16
Heheh, when I was trying to find a definition of Caribbean Hispanic, I couldn't fiind one and I was thinking, boy o' boy has Moonbear got her work cut out for her!

I was surpirised to find so many medical references to "Caribbean-Hispanic" without any definition.

Clarifications like this don't help.
Since 1980, the Census Bureau has asked U.S. residents to classify their race separately from their Hispanic origin, if any. In 1990, 29.2% of Dominican Americans responded that they were white, while 30% considered themselves black. A plurality chose the "other" category--39.8% of the total.[9] The prevalence of the "other race" category probably reflects the large number of people with mixed African, European and Amerindian ancestry, usually grouped under the folk term indio in the Dominican Republic (73% of the Dominicans are mixed African, Taino Amerinidan and European descent).[10]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_American
 

1. What countries are considered part of the Caribbean-Hispanic ethnicity?

The Caribbean-Hispanic ethnicity includes countries and territories that are located in or near the Caribbean Sea, such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and the Bahamas. It also includes countries on the northern coast of South America, such as Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama, as well as the Central American countries of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.

2. Is Caribbean-Hispanic ethnicity considered a race or an ethnicity?

Caribbean-Hispanic ethnicity is considered an ethnicity, not a race. This means that people of Caribbean-Hispanic descent can have different racial backgrounds, such as Black, White, Indigenous, or a mix of these.

3. Are all people from Caribbean countries considered Caribbean-Hispanic?

No, not all people from Caribbean countries are considered Caribbean-Hispanic. This ethnicity specifically refers to people who have cultural and historical ties to the Spanish-speaking Caribbean islands and its surrounding regions. Other ethnicities present in the Caribbean include Afro-Caribbean, Indo-Caribbean, and Chinese-Caribbean.

4. Can someone be Caribbean-Hispanic if they were born in a non-Caribbean country?

Yes, someone can identify as Caribbean-Hispanic even if they were not born in a Caribbean country. Ethnicity is based on cultural and ancestral ties, so someone may have Caribbean-Hispanic heritage through their family history or cultural upbringing, regardless of where they were born.

5. What are some cultural traditions and customs associated with Caribbean-Hispanic ethnicity?

Cultural traditions and customs associated with Caribbean-Hispanic ethnicity may include Spanish-influenced food, music, dance, and language. Other common traditions include celebrating holidays such as Carnival and Day of the Dead, as well as practicing Catholicism or other religions with roots in Spanish colonization.

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