When I was a kid growing up in Southern California, I never thought much about pride as it relates to ethnicity. I was always taught to be proud of myself and what I had accomplished, to work hard and never expect anyone else to take care of me. Labels like "Hispanic" weren't part of any equation for success or progress in our household.

If Toyota had launched a Hispanic-pride car-sticker campaign back then, no one in my family would have paid attention. My grandparents didn't own a car, and my Dad only bought made-in-the-U.S.A. vehicles. Besides, my parents didn't care for bumper stickers. "We should never be defined by a label," Dad always said. "They can be changed too easily. Define yourself."

Just what is "Hispanic pride" anyway? What exactly are the kingpins at Toyota trying to achieve with this marketing ploy? In fact, I wonder how the cultural gurus at the Torrance, California-based car company even decided which "Hispanic" countries to include. The company's new Spanish-language Facebook page actually says, "Busca tu país aquí" (look for your country here). Do they realize many of the names listed as countries are actually states in Mexico or cities in South America? "Busca tu lugar de origen" would have been more accurate.

And nowhere on these declarations of pride does the word orgullo (pride) appear. So what is the Hispanic-pride connection?

The word Hispanic is no creation of some politically correct wordsmith. It dates back to the Roman Empire, originally denoting a relationship to Hispania, a country located on what is now the Iberian Peninsula. The U.S. government first adopted the word during the Nixon administration, and the U.S. Census has used it since 1980. Due to the popular use of "Latino" in the western portion of the United States, the government adopted this term in 1997 as well and used it in the 2000 census.

Literally speaking though, who are Hispanics? The expansion of the Spanish Empire between 1492 and 1898 brought thousands of Spanish migrants to conquered lands, where they established settlements in places like Albuquerque as far back as the mid-1600s.

My paternal grandmother's ancestors were among those early settlers, who predated even the British influence in America. However, these Spanish-speaking persons amounted to only a few thousand people when the territory became part of the United States.

Previously, Hispanics were categorized as Spanish-Americans, Spanish-speaking Americans, and Spanish-surnamed Americans. These terms proved misleading or inaccurate. Although many Hispanics do have Spanish ancestry, most today are not of direct (non-Latin American) Spanish descent.

The Spanish conquistadores did not settle exclusively in the