US got its initial Latino population from conquering bits of Mexico; and while in the US Latinos were a separate ethnic group from Anglos, the internal "racial"

US got its initial Latino population from conquering bits of Mexico; and while in the US Latinos were a separate ethnic group from Anglos, the internal "racial" divisions in Mexican society between criollos and mestizos were important enough to collect data on. (And criollos considered themselves "white" and were unlikely to mark themselves as "Hispanic" if it were presented as a separate option.) US ethnic relations are weird.