One of the best ways to begin to understand the cultures of the Latina/o populations of the United States is to consider the term as it has been used and appropriated over time. The term "Latino" (Spanish Latino Americana), according to David Bushnell 0970: 3) was first used by the Colombian publicist Jose Maria Torres Caicedo in 1856 (Miguel Tinker Salas, personal communication, 2001). "Latin" was used in the United States, especially in films from the 1920s through the 1960s as a cover designation that masked the origin of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans superseding the word "Spanish" to accomplish the same function.