RSS
Pride & being Mexican-American Part I
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
If you have read any of my previous articles it should be fairly obvious that I am very proud of my Mexican heritage. When people ask me, "What are you?' I reply, "I'm an American."
"No! No!" they say. "What are you--what is your background?"
"Ah, you mean my ethnicity?" I ask.
"Yeah, your race..."
"I'm Caucasian," I will blithely say with a hint of being deliberately mischievous.
"Dude, what are your people? You know are you Eye-talian? or Ay-rab?"
"No."
"Well, then?"
Sighing, I reply, "I´m Mexican."
"Messican_!" the person usually replies perplexed. "You sure don' look like no Messican!"
I get this a reaction all the time--since childhood. Frankly, in an American social context, I don't look like what most people think Mexicans should look like. Most often Americans and Mexican-Americans (who don't know anything about their own people and culture) think that all Mexicans' look "Indian." In English, the correct word would be Amerindian and in Spanish "indígeno¨or Indigenous.
I have to say that I deliberately take the long way of answering a person´s questions about my ethnic heritage because it is my opinion that Americans, if we are ever going to transcend our obsession with Race and racism, we need a little bit of an education. Race and ethnicity are not the same! Racially, I am "White," and ethnically I am "Mexican," that is my primary culture. I grew up with Mexican traditions h in the home. I grew up with a Mexicanized experience of being an American. And no, Spanish was not my first language; English is my first language. My parents grew up bilingual, but because of the blatant discrimination in this society towards the Spanish language, they taught us only English. I think, too, that they were also a bit lazy about teaching us to be bilingual. Even though, I had to learn Spanish to become fluent (and I am fluent), I was always taught to be extremely proud of my Mexican heritage, in spite of the fact I was not taught both languages in the home. I am fiercely proud of my ethnic heritage. Unfortunately, there are many Mexican-Americans that do not share my passion for our ancestry and culture. They are, sad to say, ashamed of their ethnicity.
In my next article, this topic will be explored in greater detail using recent comments that were posted on Facebook. Now that is always a source of endless information about the human condition, wouldn't you agree?
Unos momentos de nuestra cultura...
This is a TV commercial from Telecom Argentina for long distance calling. This ad is extremely funny because it plays on the double meaning often found in words--regardless of the language. In the case, "La llama que llama," means "the llama that calls," because "llama" is the name of the South American animal, and "llama" is the 3rd person verb conjugation of "he, she or you is calling.
There is also a third meaning here, llama can also mean a "flame," as in the fire's flame.
See the bottom of the video player for further explanation.
The 1st llama calls and asks "Is this the Parana Fire Station? Do you know who's calling? It's the llama that's calling (or burning). Double-entendres continue in the script. For Spanish-speakers, this is a delightful play on words.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
.jpg)
