Yes, and nfg and I are trying to point out the downsides of using the term "Hispanic" when you mean "Latin American". The terms aren't interchangeable, even though people might try to treat them as such.

It might be an academic distinction to you, but it isn't to everybody. On the flip side of your example, while teaching in an inner city, I broke up a fight that started because a kid called a Haitian "African American".