Though Felix Blanco is apart from his entire family, his sense of Latino identity and pride is as strong as ever.

"For me, as a Mexican, I feel very happy and adjusted to being here," he said in Spanish.

Blanco came to the United States 10 years ago and lives in Humboldt Park.

"There are many Latinos from all over."

Blanco says he thinks of himself first as Latino, and secondly as Mexican.

But for Jacob Delgado-Peña, 68, it’s the exact opposite. Being Latino is secondary.

"I am Puerto Rican," he said in Spanish. "Completely, 100 percent Puerto Rican."

Despite the different individual perspectives, both men are Latino, according to the United States legal definition. But for them, their cultural and ethnic identities are not simply a question of from where their ancestors hail. It is about how their heritage influences how they live and how they see the world.

The ongoing discussion about who is and isn’t Latino re-emerged following the nomination of New York federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court on May 26.

Researchers at the Pew Hispanic Center, in an article published on Pew’s Web site in late May, concluded that Sotomayor, whose parents are Puerto Rican, would be the first Latino Supreme Court Justice in history—not Justice Benjamin Cardozo, whose ancestry reportedly traces to Portugal.

Both "Hispanic" and "Latino" denote anyone who can trace his/her roots to Spanish-speaking countries. The Census Bureau asks respondents to report themselves as "Spanish/Hispanic/Latino." Thus for counting purposes, people who say they are Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino, are exactly that.

Case closed.

Rocio Iguinaga, an intern at the Chicago office of the Institute for Latino Studies, says it isn’t quite that simple.

A University of Notre Dame student and a Pilsen native, Iguinaga said she only began embracing the term ‘Latina’ after she moved out of the neighborhood.

"I’m definitely more comfortable being ‘Mexicana,’" she said. "It’s natural. It’s what I’ve been nurtured to feel comfortable with."

Being Mexican-American for Iguinaga involves tamales in December and La Virgen de Guadalupe instead of standard Catholicism. Some say being Latino, on the other hand, is merely a form of wordplay.

"The terms ‘Latino’ and ‘Hispanic’ are terms coined in the United States for demographic purposes," said Julia Medina, assistant professor of Spanish at Albion College in Michigan. "It’s the vocabulary that is used in the United States and it is what they check into the boxes."

Then again, Iguinaga says it’s possible to merge one’s national identity with being part of a larger and more general category.

Case in point: Sonia Sotomayor.

"I think there’s a sense of pride: ‘There’s someone who looks like me, in that kind of position,’ Iguinaga said. "That’s a great feeling."

The discussion hardly makes an impression on Victor Martinez.

Martinez, 47, was born in Puerto Rico and has lived in the Humboldt Park area for 38 years. What does his Puerto Rican heritage mean to him?

"It’s hard to explain," he said, shrugging. "It’s just part of who I am."