ABSTRACT
The central themes of identity and community require a word about nomenclature. Although we include all persons of Latino or Hispanic descent, there is no all-inclusive, politically neutral term to describe them (de la Garza, Falcon, Garcia, & Garcia, 1992). The Latino population is composed of many groups which consider themselves culturally distinct. We include men from all Spanish or Portuguese speaking nations of the Americas. In addition to thinking of themselves as culturally distinct, Latinos consider race to be a continuous rather than fixed set of categories. In terms of race, the three main groups are Euro-African Latinos, Euro-Indigenous-Latinos and European-Latinos, but usually self-reference is based on national origin rather than racial characteristics. These facts of ethnic and racial identity create problems of communication and understanding between Latinos and non-Latinos and even among Latinos themselves, all of which are important to the study of sexual conduct and identity.
