scott
Nov 22, 2002, 10:56 PM
Post #44 of 120
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You are American
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Marisol,
You're right, I don't have very much awareness about latino pride. To be honest, I didn't even know what the word latino meant until a few months ago. I also learnt the words chicano and hispanic.
I am from Canada, and admittedly have almost zero understanding of 'latino' culture in the USA. I have read a little bit on line, but I don't know much. After I saw someone get their panties in a knot over the 'two weyes going to East LA' joke, I spent several hours over the next day or two trying to learn what East LA was, and why people thought it was racist. I also learnt that apparently there is a small latino community in Toronto, which I read a bit about.
So... I had no concept of what the terms latino, chicano, or hispanic meant until a few months ago. Where I am from in Canada, I would just call you spanish. "I met this girl Marisol, she's spanish. I think she's from Mexico or something.". The word latino is totally foreign to me. Of course I have heard it many times, but never really understood it completely.
You asked how I would describe myself. I am Canadian. 100% Canadian. Sure my family must have immigrated from somewhere, at some point, but I was born in Canada, raised in Canada, and I don't think of myself in any other way. I don't go around calling myself kiwi because all of my moms immediate family are New Zealanders (citizens at least). I didn't grow up there, and would never pretend to be New Zealandish in any way. I don't even know where the rest of my family is from, and frankly don't really care a whole lot. I am Canadian, and don't try to cling to any sub culture. I think my Grandpa said he's french. I don't have a clue where my grandmothers family is from. Maybe Irish, I don't know.
If my mother had filled out a one page form, and paid $20 or something, before my birth, I would be a New Zealand citizen. If I had brothers or sisters, they would get the citizenship now. So lets just say I came thiiiiiiis close to being New Zealandish. But, I would never in a million years, having grown up in a different country, claim to be Kiwi or know anything about the countries intrinsic details. I've been there, but what does that mean. Nothing really, unless you actually grew up there or spent any significant amount of time there.
This why I think that if you were born in the United States, grew up in the United States, then you're American. It's not fair to consider yourself anything else. Your loyalty should be to the USA, you should be proud of your country, and not pretend like "I'm really Latina/Mexican but have an American passport and happen to live here". You should first and foremost consider yourself American, and refer to yourself as American. If it is absolutely necessary, in the context of the situation to state your family's background, then say they your family comes from Mexican descent, and thats why you are qualified to state your opinion.
In Canada, we are taught that we are all Canadian. And this is how it should be. Multiculturalism isn't going to work if we all feel more proud of our ancestors countries. If you think Lebanon is so great, and first and foremost associate with that country, then go back. Otherwise, be proud to be Canadian, and be proud to state that as your nationality. Most people, I would just consider them Canadian, no matter whether they are black, white, red yellow or green. But when I meet people who insist on calling themselves Lebanese, or Arab, or something, even though they totally grew up in Canada, since they were two or three, then it really hurts me. It does, because I think people should be proud of their adopted country.
To me, the term latino seems very artificial. I feel more comfortable with the word hispanic, in the same sense that you might use caucasian. But latino, its more like the word "Aryan", in such a way that when you use it, you implicitly imply connotations of pride. You seem proud to use that word. And you get away with it, because you can be thought of as a so called minority. But god forbid I called myself Aryan. Whats the difference? While you're talking about Latino Pride, what the hell would people think if I went around talking about White Pride, or Aryan pride, or American and Canadian descendents of european origin pride? Eh? All hell would break loose, and thats why I kind of have a problem with your usage of the word Latina. Just consider yourself American, please.... I would totally accept you as Canadian no matter where your parents came from. As long as you don't pretend you are really from <insert country here>, and just happen to be a citizen of this, your adopted homeland.
That drives me crazy like you wouldn't believe. Well maybe you can believe, seeing as it means enough to me to take the time to type all this out. I've just had a serious problem about this thing with people refusing to accept themselves as "Canadian", instead of their parents homeland and just happening to be citizens of Canada, for a long time. Where I am from, it was the Lebanese and Arab people who did this. We didn't have many Mexicans, or Latin Americans around. But keep in mind I am Canadian, from a South-Western Ontario city of 300,000 people, and my experiences are probably totally different than those of many Americans. But, I'm just sharing my perspective, as you said you like to hear them from other people.
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