Viviana Hurtado: Latino IQ Quiz: Does the GOP Hate Hispanics? a) Yes b) No c) Maybe d) Can You Repeat?

Host, Hispanic Business Today on NBC; blogger-in-chief, The Wise Latina Club, former ABC News correspondent

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This post was first published in The Wise Latina Club.

This rhetorical question has a clear answer in my head -- no. But the rhetoric during last year's Republican primaries and the election, as well as Congress' current immigration bill debate, is sending a message to Latinos that "we don't want you."

The latest "confirmation" is think tank the Heritage Foundation's latest study which argues against the proposed immigration legislation because of the $6.3 trillion cost to American tax payers.

A reporter did some digging and discovered that the study's co-author, who has since resigned in the face of public outrage, wrote a dissertation (which you can read in full by clicking here) where he makes race-based arguments favoring IQ-based immigration. About Latinos, we are stupid for generations, according to this much quoted excerpt: "No one knows whether Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against."

More on Heritage study co-author Jason Richwine's views (no apologies, either) from the metaphorical horse's mouth while a research fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Click here to watch more Richwine videos flagged by Politic365.

To be clear, this is not a report commissioned, along with its co-author, by the Republican Party. However, the Heritage Foundation, which in the past has bolstered GOP policy positions, lent credibility to what most people, including mainstream conservatives, consider fringe views. Does the buck stop, not with Richwine who "resigned" but his co-author, senior researcher Robert Rector who has years of policy papers under his belt? Should responsibility rest at the top with the think tank's chief -- former South Carolina Senator James DeMint?

The biggest loser isn't Heritage but the GOP because of its real and imagined close association with this think tank. With the exception of Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, my inbox and Twitter feed are not exploding with criticism disavowing these extremist views that seem to underpin the immigration report and overlook data that proves Latinos are as generationally upwardly mobile, if not more, than previous waves of immigrants. How does the party square its silence after launching a very public outreach campaign as a result of the beating it took in November from minority voters?

Silence is complicity and leaves Hispanics to believe that this is how Republicans view us -- as a bunch of stupid "takers" that form part of the 47 percent who voted for President Obama.

Latino voters don't forget as I write in "Heritage Immigration Report: Small Latino Brains and Long Political Memory." Despite the bruising election which spurred minority outreach, Republicans don't seem to understand that because of the growth of our electorate, the road to the White House and governor mansions goes through America's barrios, bodegas, and our public schools which are 25 percent Hispanic.

I suggest the GOP message machine begin relentlessly filling my inbox, not only with emails of Benghazi and the IRS controversies, but with a full-throated public flogging and rejection of this report and its views; with sensible improvements to the current immigration bill; and concrete policies on job creation and improving our education system. Latinos have heard carefully crafted words about inclusion. Show these voters that there is a place for them in the heart of the party through substance.

This is what wins hearts, minds, and elections.

Follow Viviana Hurtado on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@vivianahurtado

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Latino Is Not A Race, Despite The Census Debate (PHOTOS)

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More people of African descent live in Brazil than any country in the world except Nigeria.

Peru's authoritarian ex-President Alberto Fujimori is one of the 80,000 Peruvians of Japanese descent.

A massive wave of Italians, Spaniards, Germans and other Europeans immigrated to Argentina, where the population is largely white.

Ever wonder why Shakira belly dances? It's because her paternal side emigrated from Lebanon.

A majority of the people of Bolivia are indigenous, with 30 percent identifying as Quechua and 25 percent as Aymara.

About a quarter of Cuba's population is of mixed-race descent, according to government figures, generally of both European and African ancestry.

Most of the population of Mexico identify as mestizo, people of both indigenous and European heritage.

The Census Bureau has sparked debate with a proposal to redefine Latinos as a racial category. The agency’s exploration into a new classification system stems from concern over the fact that some 18 million Latinos declined to identify their race in 2010.

But whatever new system emerges from the debate won’t change one key fact: "Latino" is not a race.

The term “Latino” refers to people of Latin American origin, and the countries of Latin America are diverse, multiracial and generally racially mixed. Most social scientists agree that race doesn't actually exist -- it's a social category invented to keep people apart. The diversity of Latin America makes it clear how hard it is to neatly classify people.

From Mexico to Patagonia you’ll find white people, black people and indigenous people, and all the possible combinations -- not to mention many people of Asian and Middle Eastern backgrounds. More than 67 languages are spoken in Mexico alone. More people of African descent live in Brazil than any country in the world, except Nigeria.

To understand why so many Latinos have trouble identifying a race on the Census, it helps to take a look at the restrictive options available: white, black, Asian, Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native.

Most Latin Americans, however, come from a mixed-race background -- most commonly mestizo (a person of both indigenous and European descent) or mulato (a person of both European and African descent, more commonly referred to in the United States as “biracial.”) So it’s not surprising that 37 percent of Latino respondents ticked off “some other race” -- making the category the third largest in the country, according to Fronteras Desk.

To cite one example, people of Mexican descent are by far the largest group of Latinos in the United States. And yet, most Mexicans do not clearly fit any of these racial categories.

According to the CIA World Factbook, some 60 percent of Mexicans identify as “mestizo” -- a person of both indigenous and European descent -- and another 30 percent as either “Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian.” The same is true of most Central Americans and many South Americans.

But while race may be a more fluid concept for Latinos than it is for many Americans, racism against people with darker-skin undeniably continues to exist across the Americas. In Latin America as well as the United States, those with lighter skin hold a disproportionate amount of the wealth and political power.

As columnist Esther Cepeda writes:

Now, you need only look at pictures of my Ecuadorian father and grandparents to see there's probably some indigenous Quitu in my blood -- and hooray for that. But to claim myself as Native American on the census -- the main tool used by the government to set policy and determine investments in infrastructure -- wouldn't be very helpful or particularly accurate.

Lumping all Latinos together in the U.S. Census, however, won't make it easier to identify socioeconomic injustice. Instead, it will paper over the ethnic and racial divisions within the Latino community by cramming everyone into one category.

Get to know the Latino mosaic in the slideshow above.

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