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Linda,
I get something like that when asked what nationality I am.....one time at my
work's cafeteria, a man approached me and asked, "Excuse me, what are you, from
India? Oh no, I got it, you're polynesian...you look so exotic! (not sure
whether he was flirting or not)"....so I'm just staring at him and I said, "No,
I'm Mexican-American...." I said this with a proud smile on my face.
He looked shocked. He was like "No, you couldn't be Mexican....are you
mixed with something else?" At that point, I gave this pest my famous
"raised eyebrow" and a smirk, turned and walked away. Now mind you, I
don't know what people mean when they say, "you don't look Mexican"....I just
chalk it up to peoples ignorance.
Peggy
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
>
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