Comments on: I Am Not Latino

By: medea

medea — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 14:21:21 +0000

I get you! Bicultural (or multicultural) lifestyles are becoming more and more common, and if people continue insisting on tagging people ethnically,, they’ll end up with a mouthful of hyphens. Someone posted in a comment about the arbitrary rules for being considered “latino”. Hm. I was born and raised in Latin America from Latin American parents… however, because my english lacks an accent and I’m white, I’m not considered part of the demographic. My brothers? Born in the US from LatAm parents, raised in South America, move back to the US and get the “you are not latino enough” spiel. It’s never good enough for some. My take on it? More the power to anyone if they can skip over the border issues and speak in any and all of the languages they know, feel part of the culture, absorb it, digest it and go with the flow.

By: MAMACA

MAMACA — Fri, 20 May 2005 19:22:54 +0000

HOLA OSO
Dudas con su idioma? yo le ayudo. Me encanto su blog.

By: swervecurve

swervecurve — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 22:46:45 +0000

“how do I preserve my own identity while traveling back and forth between two very different cultures.”

At the risk of seeming un-pc, I think that this business of preserving one’s identity is kinda bunk. Hopefully, identity is a dynamic construct that is fully influentiable by experience, not some archeologic (anthropologic?) relic for the soul’s museum. Some things stay, some things go, some things taste better with chimichurri. So mix it up hermano!

BTW, fancy tooltips does not work with Safari (which I only use from work, of course). A little “?” appears that goes nowhere.

By: A Narration of Melancholic Elation » Sri Sri & Identity (part I)

A Narration of Melancholic Elation » Sri Sri & Identity (part I) — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 03:07:02 +0000

[...] tizenship), and focuses more upon the connection to a perceived shared past and culture. Oso, talks about ethnicity and defines other commonly misunderstood terms briefly on [...]

By: elenamary

elenamary — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 20:07:28 +0000

When you write about it Oso please remember you are in Northern Mexico. The USA influence (food, language, ethnicity, customs) on Monterrey is HUGE, much more so than even a few hour south of Monterrey.

By: ismael

ismael — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 18:50:53 +0000

Umm, I almost forgot.

You asked: “is it possible to distinguish Spanish, Catalans, Galicians, and Basque by appearance alone?”

Short answer: no, it isn’t.

Long answer: mainly, and quoting yourself, “the differences really come down to language and culture”. On the other hand, as you would distinguish a German from a Spanish because the former “is” tall and blond and the second short and black haired, there are some features that might give you evidence on the origin of a person. But there’s blond and tall people in Spain that are not German at all, and the features amongst spaniards are much more subtile, as Spain is quite little and people have moved a lot around the country, specially during the sixties.

So, if you believe in topics you can try and guess, but I wouldn’t bet. It normally happens the other way: you’ve been introduced to someone, you ask him or her where’s he/she from, he/she tells you he’s i.e. Baque and then you say “that’s just what my believe was”.

Basques surely have the major number of topics (tall, sharp faces, athletic, strong). Southern girls are usually described as having a very black hair and very dark eyes and their men are short and picnic. Rest of spaniards… ummm, well, I’d surely find some topics but so hard to recognise one from another.

BTW, these all are topics. And as topics, you can use them to laugh on them, to make fun on people, to hurt someone, to discriminate, etc, etc, etc. Quite a bad thing

By: oso

oso — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 00:41:36 +0000

It’s rare that I regret writing a post on here, but for some reason this one isn’t settling well with me. I feel like I didn’t really articulate well what I was thinking … or trying to say.

I blame it on not speaking English anymore. Seriously … it’s starting to get more difficult to write in English.

Anyway …

YLC,

Very good point. I think most people assume that citizenship and nationality are one and the same, but you bring up a good point … what was the nationality of a slave prior to the 14th Amendment? I’m glad your spot on Univision went well … wish I coulda seen it.

DD,

Lo que sea. I’m going to try to do one podcast a month in English y uno en español. Solamente depende which podcast you wanna be on.

Julio,

There are supposed to be quote marks around “Like, What’s Your Chicano Fetish.” As in, someone else asking me why I’m so interested in the experiences of a group of people which I’m not a part of. I don’t want to make you squirm. If it’s still offensive, you’ve gotta explain to me why. And agreed, great picture.

By: Julio Sueco

Julio Sueco — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 08:09:32 +0000

First off, I know it’s squirm and not skirm, must be some swedish interference there somewhere. This kind of typo usually comes out like a cucachara when I turn the lightswitch off …Elena, why, thank you.

By: elenamary

elenamary — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 02:14:14 +0000

Julio, I am in love with your picture.

By: Revazito

Revazito — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 07:03:56 +0000

Did I mention I like my northern cali accent