I believe it has to do with heritage tied to Latin America, which Spain and Portugal have but Italy (despite Columbus) does not. I suspect that a fellow from Madrid, Spin would not regard himself as Latino, either. I may be corrected.
So can an Italian be considered Latino only by being born in Argentina and then immigrating to the USA? Then magically he is considered Latin (or Latino) while his fellow Italians born in the USA are not?
A guy like Keith Hernandez has never referred to himself as Latino. His dad’s family came from Spain. Same with Lou Piniella. You don’t see the Portuguese from Provincetoen or New Bedford referring to their community as Latino. I believe you are correct that it involve central and south America and , to keep their racial props, mixed blood of native and European
What do you call a Mexican dating your daughter?
A Spaniard
I think the problem is the words LATINO & HISPANIC:
It is NOT a race of people. There are very white, very black, all shades of brown, Mestizo, Indians etc.
It is NOT a language. They throw the Brazilians in there, and include south American Indians who do not even speak Spanish
It is NOT a religious group, there are many religions in South America
It is NOT a nationality
The closest thing you could say is that they were conquered by the Spaniards, BUT even that does not fit because the Brazilians were not conquered by the Spanish.
The Philippines, which WERE conquered by the Spanish are NOT considered Latins or Hispanic.
It’s all very confusing