If I recall correctly, it's actually a throw back to the American Mexican war, when the war ended one of the terms of the treaty was that Hispanics would legally be white, and thus safe from things like slavery. So later when the government census wanted to know they invented "white, Hispanic".
If I recall correctly, it's actually a throw back to the American Mexican war, when the war ended one of the terms of the treaty was that Hispanics would legally be white, and thus safe from things like slavery. So later when the government census wanted to know they invented "white, Hispanic".