Re: double surnames

["Arturo Ramos" <arturo.ramos2@...>]

Erlinda:

The whole Chicano vs. Mexican-American vs. Latin@ vs. Hispanic debate 
is a very contentious one in the United States.  I think that all of 
those terms are very politically laden such that there is no single 
one that everyone would agree with.  There is an interesting episode 
where the renowned author Sandra Cisneros balked at being featured in 
Hispanic magazine because of such a disagreement.  She agreed only 
after the magazine agreed to show her on the cover in a profile shot 
with a fake tatoo reading "LATINA" across her arm.

There is an interesting article on this:

http://www.hispanicmagazine.com/2000/dec/Features/latino.html

I suppose that if you want to designate descendancy from peoples of 
Mexico, Mexican or Mexican-American would be the most precise.  I 
will leave my commentary at that lest I get myself in trouble.

Interesting thing though, I have run across documents where the 
indigenous peoples of the area around Colotlan and Totatiche would 
refer to the indigenous colonizers from the south (Tlaxcaltecs, 
Otomis and Huastecs) as "mexicanos" designating that they spoke the 
Mexican language (i.e. nahuatl) and they did not consider themselves 
as such, since they spoke a different (Tepehuan) language.  One of 
these references appears in an interview with one of the last 
tepehuan speakers in Azqueltan, Jalisco in 1912!

I think that the term Mexican to designate all of the ethinicities of 
Mexico was probably not adopted until after independence.  I imagine 
that those of pure Spanish descent would not consider themselved 
Mexican before that, especially when the term specifically refered to 
the nahuatl-speakers of central Mexico.


--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Erlinda Castanon-Long" 
<longsjourney@y...> wrote:
>
> I want to thank everyone for the input on double surnames and y 
versus 
> de... I had forgotten that I use a double surname too!  I felt I 
> didn't want to give up my Hispanic maiden name so just hyphenated 
it 
> with my married name.  That makes me Castanon-Long, I guess in 
Latin 
> America that would make me Castanon y Long ... I found at the 
family 
> reunion that most of my female cousins from my generation did the 
> same.  Many of us did not marry Hispanic but would have kept our 
> maiden name regardless. Just like someone said, it's a matter of 
> family pride..
> 
> One more question.. which is 'politically' correct to designate our 
> nationality of origin if we or our ancestors were from Mexico... 
> Hispanic, Latino, Mexican-American or American-Mexican?  I find I 
> really upset some people when I call myself Hispanic. I'm told that 
> excludes my Indio blood... People ask me what my nationality is 
> because I'm just brown enough to not be Anglo but have light green 
> eyes, my sister get's the same thing and she has blue eyes and 
> freckles. I still laugh when told I don't look like a Mexican... 
what 
> does a Mexican look like!!!!
> 
> Linda in Everett
>