Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 12 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 22 years, 8 months ago by
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Why do many people in the South think all Hispanics are Mexican? Why do people find it hard to believe Hispanics come in all colors?
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Name : Clemente, Gender : M, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Santeria, Age : 23, City : Velasquez, State : SC, Country : United States, Occupation : College Student, Education level : 4 Years of College,I don’t think its just the South where people think all hispanics are Mexican, but all over. Maybe because there is a large hispanic population in the south. Anyways… In the hispanic population in the U.S, the majority of hispanics are of Mexican ancestory. So people often assume that all hispanics here are Mexican, since they are the majority. Most of the time, the ‘majority rules’, as in thats what most people think of. I think it is a bit of ignorance, but most of the time not intentional, just lack of knowledge. Also pertaining to the comment in the south- take Texas for example. Texas is in the south, and the majority of hispanics in Texas are from Mexico, so when people see a hispanic they automatically assume Mexican.
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Name : Jennifer30871, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Hispanic (Mexican & Irish), Religion : Catholic, Age : 18, City : Arlington, State : VA, Country : United States, Occupation : secretary, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class,For many in the still largely agricultural South, their first and probably only exposure to any Spanish-speaking person was a Mexican migrant farmworker. This is particularly true in rural areas. Also, Mexico is the only Spanish-speaking nation bordering the U.S. so people tend to assume you have come across that particular border. Lastly, the average Gringo-American cannot distinguish between differing Spanish accents (or even between Spanish and Portuguese, for example). My wife is Mexican and we live in Florida, that has a high concentration of Cuban immigrants. In the country, people always assume she is Mexican. In the city, they tend to assume she is Cuban. I’ve gotten to where I can actually tell the difference by the accent (Cubans talk REALLY fast compared to Mexicans). I notice you are in SC – most of the people you meet have probably only heard Spanish or a Spanish accent from Mexicans. Educate them that you come from a different culture – as different (or more) than the U.S. is to England or Australia. It just may not have occurred to you that you are something else!
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Name : Hugh Brown, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 34, City : Tallahassee, State : FL, Country : United States, Occupation : Attorney, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,The majority of Latinos who enter the Southeast U.S. come from the Southwest U.S. Of course, Mexicans and Chicanos live throughout the Southwest. Therefore, for these white Southerners, Mexicans are the only Latinos they’ve ever known. And when 99.9% of the Latinos they’ve ever met with Mexican, when they meet the few people who are Latino but not Mexican what do you think they’ll expect you to be? It’s like if you lived in New York, people may tend to think you are Puerto Rican because they are the largest Latino ethnic group in that area and we have been for decades.. If you live in south Florida, especially Miami, everyone (including Latinos) will automatically assume you are Cuban for the same reason. Now for the ignorance part: there are some ignorant white people who think Latin America solely consists of Mexico and that anyone who speaks Spanish or has brown skin is from Mexico. I once heard from a Latino friend in Chicago about one white midwesterner grumbling about Puerto Ricans leaving Chicago to live in smaller towns. He said, ‘Why don’t these damn Puerto Ricans all go back to Mexico?’
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Name : Daniel, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Secular Humanist, Age : 23, City : Queens, State : NY, Country : United States, Occupation : Reporter, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,It’s simple. People down there are not very educated about the world around them. The only thing they know is what is inside their borders. Outside of it, they don’t know anything. Hell, you could tell a Southerner that there is a country in South America called the Republic of San Pedro and they would believe you! That’s how stupid they are.
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Name : star-struck, City : Houston, State : TX, Country : United States,A lot of people who live in rural southern towns have industries that bus in Hispanic people who lived in Mexico on work visas to fill some of the jobs because the towns don’t have enough locals. Mexican people are the only Hispanic people those folks have ever met. Also, not many rural southern towns have Hispanic people who aren’t from Mexico. Ergo, they relate Hispanic with Mexican. It’s out of ignorance, not malice, that these people make the assumption.
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Name : J-Reed, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 45, City : Clinton, State : MS, Country : United States, Occupation : Legal field, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,i guess guess people assume that mexico is pretty close. i’m not sure its generally known what all different places hispanics can come from. Plus whenever anyone in the news complains about immigration, they talk about people coming over the u.s.–mexico border, so i think folks must just assume thats where all hispanics are coming from.
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Name : Emily25373, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Methodist, Age : 24, City : Memphis, State : TN, Country : United States, Occupation : seamstress, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,I’ve found the same thing all over the US, not just in the South. Americans in general seem to find it impossible to understand that speaking Spanish, or coming from a Spanish-speaking background, in no way influences your skin colour. I’m Spanish (as in ‘from Spain’) and spent all the years I was living in America being told that I ‘couldn’t be’ Spanish because I’m quite obviously white! Apparently, no one has yet pointed out to them that Spain is actually located in Europe. I spend a lot of time trying to explain that Spanish-speakers come in all sorts of colours and from all sorts of cultures.
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Name : Malores, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Atheist, Age : 38, City : Cardiff, State : NA, Country : Wales, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Maybe you need to live in a more liberal city in the South. If you come to Miami, for example, you as a Latino will be in for a culture shock. There are Cubans, Mexicans, Dominicans, Italians, Spaniards, South Americans, Puerto Ricans, everything. And I’m sure these types of major cultural mixes exist in a hundred other places that I’ve never heard of.
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Name : Erin, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Baptist, Age : 20, City : Fort Lauderdale, State : FL, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Social class : Middle class,Many people aren’t exposed to differences in people from Spanish-speaking cultures. This country’s education system isn’t really gung-ho about including people of color in their curriculum, whether it’s talking about American Black people beyond slavery or darker skinned people anywhere else in the world. It’s just ignorance, like assuming all Asian-looking (whatever that is) people are Chinese. A friend from Trinidad got dirty looks after 9-11 because people thought he was from Afghanistan. People are ignorant on so many levels. All we can do is educate.
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Name : Pat Rice, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Christian, Age : 21, City : College Park, State : MD, Country : United States, Occupation : teacher/ student, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,The south, with an exception to Florida, isn’t very diverse. There are only seven hispanics in my school and they’re all mexican. I think we southerners are just ignorant. I’m attracted to hispanic men and every time I’ve told one of my southern freinds about this, they’ve been disgusted. It’s just pure ignorance.
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Name : Brandy19410, City : lexington, State : KY, Country : United States,I don’t know about the south, but here in California, we usually think of Hispanic people as being Mexican, because most Hispanics here ARE mexican! I keep a open mind about it, but there aren’t really any other hispanic groups around here, so many people think of them that way. Its like white people. You probably assume we’re all of English descent, right?
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Name : Christina32046, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Baptist, Age : 21, City : Long Beach, State : CA, Country : United States, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,i live in florida (down south) and if your hispanic you are usually asked ‘are you cuban or puerto rican?’ i’ve never been asked if i was a mexican (i’m puerto rican) it all depends on which part of the south you live at.
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Name : EVE25276, Gender : F, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Christian, City : tampa, State : FL, Country : United States,
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