Well, we can all see with our own two eyes that Hispanics are growing in number, but the question remains - how did the NY Times come up with these figures, when the US Census Bureau doesn't have a category for "Hispanic", and requests that anyone who falls into that group checks another box?
The census treats the cultural Hispanic category separately from the biological race category and asks for information on both. On the 2010 census form (http://www.census.gov/schools/pdf/2010form_info.pdf) Hispanicness is question 8 and race is question 9 (questions 5&6 for people other than the primary one) :
NOTE: Please answer BOTH Question 8 about Hispanic origin and Question 9 about race. For this census, Hispanic origins are not races.8. Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?
_ No, not of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin
_ Yes, Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano
_ Yes, Puerto Rican
_ Yes, Cuban
_ Yes, another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin — Print origin, for example, Argentinean, Colombian, Dominican, Nicaraguan, Salvadoran, Spaniard, and so on.
________________________9. What is Person 1’s race? Mark one or more boxes.
_ White
_ Black, African Am., or Negro
_ American Indian or Alaska Native — Print name of enrolled or principal tribe. __________________
_ Asian Indian
_ Chinese
_ Filipino
_ Other Asian — Print race, for example, Hmong, Laotian, Thai, Pakistani, Cambodian, and so on. _____________________
_ Japanese
_ Korean
_ Vietnamese
_ Native Hawaiian
_ Guamanian or Chamorro
_ Samoan
_ Other Pacific Islander — Print race, for example, Fijian, Tongan, and so on. ___________________
_ Some other race — Print race. ______________