So what exactly is a Hispanic?

In today's bean-counting world, when your ethnic heritage matters more than your own actions, we have now come to the point where the New York Times has to take up the weighty question of how you can define the "first Hispanic on the Supreme Court." Is Sonia Sotomayor the first to be nominated or should we consider Benjamin Cardozo, who was put on the Court by Herbert Hoover, to have been the first Hispanic. Cardoza was descended, reportedly, from Portuguese Jews who came to America in the 18th century. So are the Portuguese considered Hispanic? Does someone with European descent count or must that person have descent from a Latin America country?

Most Hispanic organizations and the United States Census Bureau do not regard Portuguese as Hispanic.

But Tony Coelho, a Portuguese-American congressman from California, was a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus when he was in the House, and Representative Dennis Cardoza, Democrat of California, whose ancestors came from the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago, is still a member.

The executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, Arturo Vargas, said the contemporary political definition of Hispanic in the United States would definitely not include Cardozo. The practical definition he uses, Mr. Vargas said, includes people who are “descended from countries in the Americas” with a Spanish-language heritage. It does not even include those from Spain itself, he said.

So you Brazilians just don't count.

And does being of Puerto Rican descent count as much as being from Central America? Already American Hispanics are regretting that their particular group didn't get the nod.

“Of course, it would have been great to have someone of Central American origin,” Mr. Cerna said. “But she got picked, and I think it’s very good.”

Other Hispanics also lamented that the first Supreme Court justice of Hispanic ancestry did not have roots in their own community. Here in Miami, Ana de Pozo, 24, finished her rice and beans at El Palacio de Los Jugos, and said, “We are waiting now for a Cuban.”

In Los Angeles, Mario Trujillo, president of the Mexican American Bar Association, said he had sent a letter to the Obama administration on behalf of Justice Carlos R. Moreno, a Mexican-American on the California Supreme Court who had been among those considered for the United States Supreme Court.

But this whole debate is so silly. I see that she prefers the term "Latina" rather than Hispanic indicating that her background comes through Latin America rather than directly from Spain. Historically, the word Hispanic includes the Iberian peninsula, but who cares about history any more? We've got beans to count!