The ISU Latino Heritage Month Committee will host a discussion about the difference between the terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Gallery of the Memorial Union.

The discussion consists of four panelists of ISU U.S. Latino studies professors and lecturers answering questions and speaking on topics submitted by the committee. Panelists may also address issues they wish to discuss, and committee members encourage audience participation.

Traditionally, this has been a discussion continued throughout the years in which ISU Latino Heritage Month has been celebrated, said ISU Latino Heritage Month Committee President Cilia Maria Ruiz-Paz, junior in psychology.

“This discussion is important to promote our culture, but also to help people understand why we address ourselves the way we do,” Ruiz-Paz said.

Each year the discussion is over the same terms because there is still no set term for either Latino or Hispanic.

“Not even people in the field have been able to come up with a specific term,” said Eduardo Garcia, lecturer of world languages and cultures and panelist for the discussion. “There’s always been a discussion about terminology because the issue of identity is of interest to a lot of people.”

Ruiz-Paz, a Colombian, defines Latino as something that encompasses culture and is not specific to a language, and defines Hispanic as a term given by the government to encompass everyone who speaks Spanish, ignoring cultural and ethnic customs.

Elizalde Gonzalez, sophomore in marketing and a Mexican, defines Latino as someone closer to the United States from Mexico or South or Central America, while Hispanic is broader and includes Spain and other countries that speak Spanish.

Self-defined Hispanic-Caucasian Guillermo Fajardo, sophomore in journalism and mass communication, feels that Latino is someone of Latin heritage born in the Americas and Hispanic is someone of Spanish decent who is Spanish-speaking.

“There has always been a controversy over Latino and Hispanic definitions,” Gonzalez said. “It is important to know the difference and why people get offended if they are called something else.”

The committee hopes to reach out to the whole ISU community with this discussion to start communication between different groups to attempt to better unify every cultural background at Iowa State.

“Everybody stays in their own group at ISU because everyone is afraid that they’re going to offend someone or they just aren’t interested or even aware [of events],” Ruiz-Paz said. “Not learning the true meaning of these words and their significance on the Latino/Hispanic population will only cause more alienation amongst the groups.”

Fajardo, who has lived in Spain, Canada, Mexico and the United States, feels that the Latino Heritage Month celebrations cause more isolation than unity.

“With racial issues, people should know and not be ignorant about it, but isolating a group [through events] causes more separation,” Fajardo said. “Defining is good for educational purposes, but I don’t see how that helps create unity.”

Fajardo said he never had to deal with racial issues until he came to the United States.

“I think this country amplifies race more than it needs to be,” Fajardo said. “If race and heritage wasn’t such a huge issue, we could work more together on being American.”

Fajardo gave an example of a black man in Britain defining himself as British, not black.

“To me color is never a big deal, but I get grouped all the time,” Fajardo said.

Ruiz-Paz said she hopes that Wednesday’s discussions will branch into all types of different issues with different races and also how they view Latinos.

“With the Latino events occurring throughout the month, we are trying to share and educate in order to stay away from this erroneous mislabeling and stereotyping,” Ruiz-Paz said. “This will hopefully create a more united campus.”