Your story of growing up in a multi-ethnic community sounds so much like
mine. My husband and I were brought to San Jose as small children in 1947,
me from New Mexico and my husband from El Paso, TX, and we grew up in an
Italian neighborhood (the old Goose Town area -that flooded often---near Sacred
Heart church--between Willow Street and Alma Street), went to school with
Japanese and Filipinos; I later worked with new Cuban and Vietnamese
immigrants when our country opened up to refugees from those countries. I
still feel close to Italian and Japanese culture, and remember fondly all their
customs and festivals there in the Valley. Perhaps that is why we learned
everything Italian, and we consider it our second adopted
ethnicity. Although not all the Italians initially were friendly to us,
they more than the Anglos eventually embraced us due to being Catholic, and the
similarity between our languages. We know of some of those Italians
who snubbed not only Mexicans but their own people and even dropped the final
vowel at the end of their surname to make it sound more Anglo--Diridondi became
Diridon). That is very sad in a culture that is normally very
family-oriented and proud of their ethnicity, as are the other groups I
mentioned.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 10:38
PM
Subject: [ranchos] Cultural
Identity
Linda,
Just to put in my dos centavos. I personally could not tell anyone else
how or what they should tell someone their nationality is, each one of us is
responsible for that very personal reply.
From a personal persepctive If I were US born I would say I was a US
citizen and only if I chose to go into more detail would I feel compelled
to tell anyone anything other than that.
I was not US born and was born in Mexico and brought here when I was two.
Most people don't think of asking when I am alone but when with my husband who
is moreno they might ask. We then both reply that we are Mexican if asked.
Whenever we go to restaurants, hardware store, grocery store or any other
place where we interface with Mexicans or latinos we always go out of our way
to speak spanish or to deal with them in our first language. Aside from making
us feel better as well as making them feel good that they are spoken to in
their language, we get preferential treatment. Occasionaly we are mistaken
regarding their ethnichity or sometimes some people who are of Mexican/Latino
descent and do not speak spanish will get offended that we spoke to them in
Spanish.
Again, I don't believe there are any hard fast rules. I am more than
happy to say that I am Mexican, my oldest daughter is not so happy about it.
We know that she would rather not let people know she is Mexican. Her name is
Cristina Maria and she puts it down as Christina Marie. Nothing we can do
about that, it is her choice. Our middle daughter I think straddles the fence,
sometimes Mexican and sometimes not and our son the youngest embraces his
Mexican heritage. So you see, to each his own, who am I to dictate what they
should say and how they should feel. Of course I would rather they were proud
of their ancestry and their heritage but that is not always the case.
I personally feel such pride in my people, language, food, music, family,
land etc that sometimes I can feel it bursting inside of me. Just like with
anything in life there are certain things where I do not feel pride, when I
see the culture of heavy drinking, spousal abuse and ignorance but those are
things I despise in any culture be they Mexican, American or otherwise.
If we each get comfortable with who we are, we may not feel the need to
explain it. If we do need to explain it do so in a way that feels right for
you and don't let anyone dictate to you who you should be and how you should
say it.
Our culture is not the only one struggling with these issues it happens
in all cultures. I have a very dear friend who is American born of Italian
immigrant parents. Her parents were Peach and Almond ranchers in the
Central Valley of California. They worked very hard all their lives to raise
their two children a boy and a girl. They gave them both a very good education
and they lived very comfortably in an old farmhouse in Modesto. The son grew
up to be a local politician in Modesto and was always ashamed of his parents
and distanced himself from them as much as possible. The daughter embraced her
Italian ethnicity to the max.
When the parents died they owned much land along with the old
farmhouse. Because of the estrangement from the son and daughter-in law
everything was left to the daughter. The father died first with Parkinson's
disease and in his will he had left everything to his wife so she could leave
it to the son upon her death, after all he was the only living male
heir.
The son would not be caught dead with his father in public. His dad
was a farmer till the day he died, rough hardworking hands, flannel shirts,
jeans and workboots. He made his own wine which the son would not drink.
Keep in mind that the son had been favored over the daughter most of his
life because he was the only male heir but ultimately when the mother had a
stroke and just before she died she transferred all her assets to her daughter
to do with as she pleased. The daughter has two children a son and a daughter.
Her daughter who is tall and beautiful was sent to Italy before finishing high
school to model in Milan. Upon her return she attached herself to her uncle
because he had more prestige and she assumed would soon have more money as the
grandmother was very ill and near death. They all assumed they would inherit
big bucks..........boy were they wrong. My girlfriend who is the happiest
Italian I know and who does not really need the money had the last laugh. She
always attended the Italian Feasts with her mother in the church and Italian
clubs, family events etc. and has never felt anything but pride in being who
she is. Of my girlfriend's two children her son is like her and her daughter
is like the brother.....go figure, so you see Linda, it happens in all
cultures.
I know I made this too long but all my life most of my friends have been
of different ethnicities. Of my dearest friends one is Italian, the other
Japanese, Vietnamese, East Indian, Persian and Chinese. I have always
been told by all of them and by many other people that I am very
accepting of their accent, language, foods and traditions. When I was
still working they always came to me for advice and for assistance with issues
that were new or different to them. I guess that comes from being an immigrant
myself and having to assist family who was coming in from Mexico as an
interpreter, filling out forms and documents and as a child even going to
court and to doctors appointments with them as an interpreter. I grew to know
them as people first and secondly as immigrants.
Ya Basta.....I will stop now............Alicia
Edward Serros <ed@...> wrote:
---
In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Erlinda
Castanon-Long"
<longsjourney@y...> wrote:
>
> I want to
thank everyone for the input on double surnames...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
Linda,
I have debated for a number of days responding
to this and I wish to
offend no one. In trying to figure out what to say
I decided that I
would simply try to bring attention to a book published
in 1919 that
struggled with the idea of cultural identity, amongst many
other
things. The book was originally written in Spanish by Vicente
Blasco
Inañez. It was called "Los Cuatoro Jinetes de Apocalipsis" and is
more
commonly known by its English translation "The Four Horsemen of
the
Apocalypse". Ibañez does a fine job in presenting the confusion
which
may arise in subsequent generations when the "founder" moves from
one
country/culture (Europe) to another country/culture (Argentina).
The
conundrum is presented in a very entertaining manner. Needless to
say,
in typical latin fashion, the end is death.
In the book one
of the characters, Julio Madariaga, an immigrant
Basque, makes a fortune
in the Americas (Argentina) and has many
children, legitimate and
illegitimate, brown and fair. His son-in-law
is an immigrant Frenchman,
Marcelo Denoyers, who says something in
relation to cultural identity
which I will never forget. You or others
in this group may not
necessarily agree with it but I quote the
paragraph from the
book.
"Where a man makes his fortune and raises his family, there is
his
true country," he said sententiously, remembering
Madariaga.
Reread the quote. For what it is worth, Desnoyer's rich
son returned
to France to find a majestic country, cultural isolation,
personal
guilt, and finally death on the battlefield.
Ed
by Date 
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