When did Mexican become a "dirty" word?

I think it happened on the same day that black people didnt want to be called black.

They are african ..... even if they have never set foot in africa

I didn't know it was, if they're Mexicans. Now, if they're from El Salvador, or something like that, it's a different matter.

And how are they called?
The country is still named Estados Unidos Mexicanos/United Mexican States = short: Mexico, no?

The preferred term these days is Hispanic or Latino/Latina.

I don't know why Mexican is considered "bad" but you get the same reaction that you would if you used n-----.

I just don't get it.

Some of my dance buddies are from Mexico. They usually say She is from Mexico, I am from Mexico, they are from Mexico. They rarely use the I'm Mexican formulation. They say I'm from Canada, they don't say I'm a Canadian. I always thought it was a translation thing.

You never hear Hispanic, Latino/Latina in conversation here. Is it a local preference?

Hmmm.....

Maybe it is a regional thing.

I have vague memories of my mother thinking Mexico was dirty. (Don't get me going about my aunt and the japanese.) They both were troubled by Protestants..

What I am getting at is that at least in southern california in the forties and fifties, there was this whole "they're not like us" thing, xenophobia on parade. Strange in that my mother's family came to Los Angeles around 1920 - they were the newcomers. I saw that kind of attitude change in multiplying individual cases with people getting to know people. That whole xenophobia thing seems to have somewhat broken down, but then I'm not living in pockets of real ethnic hatred or even distaste.

I am picking up that here in New Mexico many people are proud of being descendants of early Spanish settlers, and not Mexican.

My own biggest pickle is capitalization. I'd rather not capitalize any country or state or origination but I knuckle under and do it sometimes, making me appear very confused.

Well, Hispania is the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, but in the United States, the term is in official use in the ethnonym Hispanic or Latino, defined as "a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race".

yeah, you don't hear that random Hispanic thing here. That would be like saying someone's European. Not a go here.

People talk about the country they are from, or that their family emigrated from.

When you look at the official Mexican embasy sites in English (that's the USA, Canada, Ireland, UK, India which I've checked), they use "Mexican" as well - though the ethnic origin is "60% Mestizos; 30% Amerindians; 9% European; 1% Other": But that's of course different to the general name of people from that country, I think, ...

Well, back in the old days, people were categorized on admissions forms to hospitals. I forget the choices but that whole thing was weird - I - an admissions clerk at seventeen, think I remember either caucasian or white, oriental, negro, not sure if I remember indian as in native american. Later, people started being categorized by many in many places so that numbers could be compiled for, I suppose, sociological reasons, or for minority assistance reasons. All sorts of ferment developed having to do, reasonably to me, with pride and justice.

Here, in my neighborhood, saying -mexican- gets you some really horrid looks.

And, frankly.. most of these people are FROM mexico.. As in a few months ago, maybe 2 years at best, they were living in mexico.

But they are not mexicans.

I think people associate the word mexican with a lower class citizen of some sort. Someone you would think of as less than, lower than, dirty..etc..
A border hopper if you will. Or 'illegal' as some call them..

I'll be interested in what JLNobody has to say on all this, if he cares to, and Fb.

we actually like to be called western britons



or northern americans

I work with a Mexican, and the topic has never come up. We accept one another for what we are and get along famously.

Me too, many times, edgarb. I think there is residual antipathy out there, though.

I'll be interested to hear what people in Mexico think about it too.

I love Mexico and can't imagine why someone would think it's insulting to say Mexican but apparently some do think so -- and not just people from Mexico, but nearly everyone, a least around here and I guess around shewolf's neighborhood.

I started thinking about this last night when Mo wanted to go out to eat "Spanish food". Yummmm.... tapas! But no, he meant Mexican food but they're told not to use "Mexican" at school.

Then I started thinking back to a time someone had asked me who had done some work on my house and I was tapping my head trying to knock the name loose and said something like "oooohhh.... it was this Mexican guy..... his name was..... <taptaptap, trying to remember his name taptaptap>....."

They were horrified.

HA!

yes. That cringe..

I get that cringe from people when they ask what I am.

I say " Im black and.."

immediate cringe.. some even ask me to repeat what i just said .