Languages and Linguistics

And for better or worse, it is "male-dominated" in that any male plural noun (if it has a feminine counter-part) can refer to a mixed masculine/feminine - or when you think about it any gender identification - group. For instance, los estudiantes hispanos de la escuela - the school's Hispanic students - would encompass everyone who identified as Hispanic regardless of gender identity even though the los and the o in hispanos, traditionally are male.

I have a degree in Spanish, and one of the first things I learned in college (especially after seeing a Paraguayan student go off on a guy who called her Mexican) was how someone preferred to be referred to because Latino tends to refer to those from Latin America while Hispanic tends to refer to Americans (United States). Chicano is more of a political identification. Individually, I would always go country first (he's Venezuelan; she's Mexican-American) as heritage is very important. And if talking to both groups, I would be sure to say Hispanos and Latinos. I remember a meeting in college between the Hispanic Student Association and Latin American Student Association, and the HSA president kept saying Hispanic when talking about both groups, and the LASA members became increasingly upset the longer he talked.

If anything, I think this pride in heritage extends to their language. While open to adopting non-Spanish words (like sandwich), the x might be too big of a change, and you're dealing with around two dozen countries to adopt it.