Ask a Mexican Anything

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Edit: After thinking about it, I started the post as a place for the controversy regarding ethnic and cultural movements in society and their polite discussion but I think if I make another it would be about other things as well, given the jolly reception, with an opening line of a theme perhaps, as we did with this one about immigration. Is there an interest in a particular theme about Mexico and Latino related things? If yes let me know in the comment section and if not, the next post will be about food. A recipe perhaps? Odd dishes of far away local markets?

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Something I've noticed in the past five years is that some people are very touchy and yet curious about immigration matters; the nations involved and their culture and the corresponding implications in the societies of the nations involved, but most people I've tried engaging with are afraid of getting down to real talk to not offend, me or somebody else. I appreciate the gesture for sure given today's broad hysteria and conversations can get tough, but this I intend for such things to be discussed without them becoming personal.

Me? I like that immigration matters are brought to the fore after centuries of imperial immigrant abuse, but I also think that many of my fellow Mexicans and latinos here in the U.S seem to be enjoying too much the attention that SJWs have given them and turned capricious or they have been dumped by their apparent saviors and switched sides. They have good points but they also have blindspots --and some of their supporters magnify those with wishful thinking, that seems either self-sabotage or just ignorance about politics and economics. And even others, who used to favor the wall vehemently, now live in Puerto Vallarta or what not.

The image is the stunning sculpture Promerica by Polish American artist Stanisław Szukalski and it depicts his vision for the Americas: science and mysticism; engineering and magic; european and indigenous, working together. Oh, and when the wind hits it in the right way, the whole monument hums. He wanted it to be in the border between Texas ans Mexico where a university would be founded. He meant it as a mexican priest blessing an american engineer's blueprints but it can go both ways in today's America. It could very well be a Druid, Wiccan high priestess or Sioux medicine man blessing the code of an Ecuadorian software developer.

Ask me anything about being Mexican in the US; growing up in Mexico and it's history; Spanish language and mesoamerican esoterica; culture shock, food, art or religion; the differences between the US and Mexico; what I think about immigration policies, stereotypes. You get the idea, controversial, pleasant or just curious, I'll gladly answer it. You can just drop by and I'll listen too.

Comments

[methylethyl]

Oh, and a totally separate question:

How do Mexicans define the terms "Hispanic" and "Latino"?

This question nags me a lot, for a completely white-bread American person ;) But... we traveled a bit in our youth, and my first child was born in South America (so, not Mexico, but still Spanish-speaking and has dual citizenship there). In the US, lots of bureaucratic forms ask two separate, baffling questions about race and ethnicity, but they're both: Are you Hispanic? I never know how to answer that for my kid. He doesn't speak much Spanish, despite our best efforts to teach it. He's just as white as we are, and we moved back stateside when he was just a baby. But he's technically a citizen of a Spanish-speaking country, and it's clearly not a racial thing, because Latin America is wildly racially diverse, but at least in the US, everybody there is "Hispanic"-- even if their grandparents were Italian. So... is being Hispanic or Latino a language/cultural thing, a country of origin thing, both, or neither?

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No one uses them in daily talk, the term latino is more used in south america, were countries are smaller and refer to themselves collectively sometimes. Like Calle 13's song Latinoamerica. Someone saying publicly latinx would be exposing him or herself to a lot of cruel mockery.

I don't consider myself racially Mesoamerican, unfortunately for me I can't even get away with faking it, so when they ask for statistical purposes I just say white, as most people put my face as Italian or Spanish but the truth is I am genetically Mexican, but also, Peruvian, Brazilian, Swedish, Irish, Spanish and Croatian...

The Hispanic/Latino phenomenon in the US, I think to be a heart breaking and desperate longing for an identity that isn't industrial. They don't have the ties to the european families and their culture, nor the ties to the native tribes; only the memory of ancestry in their tales, and in their genes.

[methylethyl]

That's good to know. So "Hispanic" is actually an American thing? I'll keep that in mind, and maybe ignore the question on the silly forms ;)

I did notice when we were in SA that nobody talks about themselves as Latino or Hispanic. Only very occasionally as (country of origin)-- such as "Ecuatoriano" or "Peruano" or "Chileno"-- because why would you? People are much more likely to refer to themselves by the region or city they came from: cusqueñas and limeños first, Peruanos after. But it's the same in the US: we mostly identify ourselves by what region we're from, before we think of ourselves as Americans-- Bostonians, Floridians... only when we're outside the country do we really become "Americans". Mostly because nobody outside the US would know or care about the difference between a New Yorker and a Kentuckian ;)

In my hometown, the Spanish-speaking immigrants and contract workers seem to prefer being called "Spanish."