If its germain to the story, I see no reason why you shouldn't include someones race or nationality. If a group of people are Hispanic, and they indeed are, and you are not making a generalization, I see no problem with saying that, esp if you are talking about statistics, culture, trends.

There are many times I wouldn't use those labels, esp if it makes no difference to the story/article/post. Just my 2 cents

I like to have as much description as possible when I am trying to picture characters-but I also resent the use of stereotypes in writing-don't insult my intelligence. In real life, it is difficult to know what to say sometimes. Is it insulting, for instance, for me to introduce my new neighbors to someone else by adding the info-they've just moved here from Haiti? If it was Illinois, would anyone even blink?
Several years ago on Martin Luther King Day, I was representing the Junior League at a community breakfast held at the Crispus Attucks Center in our town. The speaker addressed the issue in a way that made everyone in the room laugh. He talked about being Latino himself, and once when he used the word, being scolded by his grandmother-"You are not Latino! You are Puerto Rican! Stop putting on airs!"

Like cece, I like to know as much info about the characters as possible so I can picture them fairly accurately in my brain.

In real life, there seem to be many instances when describing/discussing/commenting on ethnic topics in a kind and intelligent manner in which people bristle and take offense unnecessarily. Celebrating our differences should be something grand, not something we are afraid to discuss for fear of retribution.

PAM

Once I was writing a novel, and I was 'hot', writing very rapidly -- too fast to include any description. You can always go back and put it in later. However I came to a point where I simply had to describe my hero. This was the first time I actually 'looked' at him with my mind's eye. I was astonished to discover that he was six feet tall and blond, quite good looking. I went upstairs and told my husband, "I am obsessed with a tall blond hunk." He is quite used to writerly ways, and just said, "That's nice, dear." So I went back downstairs and had one of the characters exclaim, "What a hunk!"

Brenda

Conversely, when a story I wrote for Cricket magazine was published, I was astounded to see the illustrations, which looked nothing like the characters I had been imagining as I wrote.

CC, as an illustrator, I'm often told what ethnicity the characters need to be. They do that to get a good balance of colors in the publication. They often specifiy things like: hispanic mexican, dark eyes, and dark hair. In otherwords, the mexican momma with two children cannot have blonde streaked hair. And it goes without saying, they must be good looking. I don't think the authors have any decison in what the editors choose unless the story is relevant to their characters. And unless the characters are pioneers, no facial hair ever.

Oh, I am never asked-and that's fine. But as I wrote the story about a young girl, I had my daughter, same age, there in front of me, and unconsciously, the character took on the appearance of my daughter in my head. The illustrations were of a different ethnicity-and very beautiful. It was just a surprise when I opened the preview mag-I just expected she would look exactly like my daughter!