When did Mexican become a "dirty" word?

I'm not Hispanic, nor an expert, but I have been around the states a bit.

my opinion only.

the southern half of the country uses latino labor much like the old south used black labor.

It is cheap, easily replaced, and especially easily kept contolled, cuz some of it is illegal...(wink)

Prolly not up to defending this tonight...

Not disagreeing, RH.
It can be complicated. An old boss, sharp man with a masters in planning from a major university, is second generation japanese american - born in a camp during WWII. He was raised spending a lot of his time with a bracero family that started a nursery.. that became quite prominent in the area.
I count some people that could be called latino labor among my friends, but that sounds too much like the old nugget that "some of my best friends are". That's a famous clue to a superiority complex - at the same time I think friendship is a path that could be walked more often. Realistically, probably harder to do from the side of the person in the immediate "lower" circumstance.

But, then, what is lower?

In the Anglosphere outside North America it is common to call citizens of the USA 'Yankees' or 'Yanks'. This is probably as offensive to Southerners as calling them 'Mexicans'.

Perhaps the issue is about a difference between the 'from' and the 'I am' ie 'I am from Mexico' (a place), but ' I am a Latino' (an ethnicity). You get the same distinctions elsewhere, I might drink whisky that is 'Scottish', but I will drink it with a 'Scot' not someone who is 'Scottish' - another fellow might be from 'Britain', but he says that he is 'English'.

Yeah, totally know what you mean.

Like if you say "that mexican guy other there" well, ****, that's what he is, ok?

Ok, from some conversations I've had with mexian/hispanic co-workers that I've gotten friendly with other the years, and relating it to different groups as a whole.....

Ana......We were really friendly, she was funny, caring, etc., and proudly Mexican, even though she was born right here in Austin. Once we were talking I said "Well, as an Hispanic person, what to you think blah blah blah" She said "Chai, I wish you'd call me Mexican. I'm not ""hispanic"", I'm a Mexican" Ana associates her heritage with the warmth and strong feelings about her family, Mexican traditions, her food, her religion, etc.

It reminded me of when I was dating this guy and said something about "Jewish people". He said, "It's annoying when someone calls me a Jewish person. I'm a Jew. It not so much my religion, but who I am. Call me a Jew, that's what I am"

A guy I office with now, Gabriel is throughly American. But, when he went to Scotland with his then financee, he got a real kick out of an item on a menu in a restaurant. He said there were surprisingly a lot of Italian restaurants in Scotland, and they went to one with all of his GF's relatives. On the menu, to give choices to those who didn't want Italian food, there was a "Mexican Plate.....made of 100% Mexican" He was like "hey, is this why you people got me here? I see what you're up to, you've run out of Mexicans to eat in this country, huh?"

When we've talked in general about both our heritages, he said he doesn't identify with Spain at all, since Mexicans look very different from Spainards, because of the Indian (oh, sorry, Native American) blood mixed in, what is it, the Aztecs, or the Incas, or both?

I guess it has to do with your assurance in who you are. I've heard Mexicans laugh off others comments that sound, well, really ignorant.

We hired this nurse a while back who'd just moved her from PA. She didn't last very long. She walked into the break room where 2 employees, the only ones in the room, were having a conversation in spanish. BTW, in my experience, the vast majority of the time if 2 bilingual people are having a conversation in spanish and a non spanish speaker walks in the room, they automatically switch to english out of courtesy. It's not like they're hiding something. Anyway, the 2 people didn't even have a chance to start speaking in English, because this nurse had heard them from the hallway and walked in and said "Stop speaking Mexican!!!!"

oh God, I laughed so hard at that. Mainly because the mexican who told me that story was laughing so hard.

A couple years ago I had to go to New Jersey for business, and I was talking to another person from the company, and said something about a mexican. His eyes did that squinty squinty shift shift thing, and he responded "Well, as a LATINO, I would have to say that blah blah blah."

I ain't shy, so I asked "Latino? Where're you or your family from?" He said "Puero Rico". So I reply, "oh, well the people I'm talking about are mexicans, not puerto ricans." Yeah. Growing up in New Jersey, I remember puerto rican being used as a derogatory word, when it's really really where you are from.

So, not an isolated issue.

That of course has to do with if you buy into someone's innuedos when they say the word mexican.

In my experience in L.A. it was more what (edgar?) referred to above... that anyone brown-skinned is called "Mexican" even if they're actually Peruvian or El Salvadorean or whatever. And each nationality does NOT enjoy being lumped with the other.

But, Stilly, there was also some dumping going on, derogation... at least in my mother's time. And certainly between gangs now, but that's another whole thing, or if not entirely different, additive.

I remember my mother being very frightened when I first went to Mexico in the mid sixties.

('twas Roger.)

In Texas, Mexicans are frequently getting caught and sent back these days. Lots of talk that they don't belong here. I personally think they do. My youngest half brother absolutely hates all Mexicans. He says the troops ought to be stationed with rifles to pick them off as they come across the border. You can't touch the heart of a true bigot.

This is just my opinion. It might just have a history of being used in a pejorative way like calling someone "Jew" (I am Jewish, so the analogy came to mind). Plus, with our new President, all undocumented workers might soon find themselves on the road to citizenship. So in the not too distant future we may be able to correctly call everyone, in any neck of the woods, American.

And, we will be a stronger country for that inclusiveness, I believe.

The whiskey is Scotch. Remember the distinction thusly: Bad English is regrettable, bad Scotch is unforgivable.

Probably when the MCT first printed this story:

Tis true. My error. Your error is that whisky comes from Scotland and whiskEy comes from Ireland. Right back atcha, Ratboy!

Spelling is my only claim to originality.

Down here in southern California, we call them Mexicans. What else?
If they're a group of people from Mexico, Chile, Brazil etc. I would call them
Hispanic, otherwise people from Mexico are Mexican, period.

Foofie, we're talking about nationality and not religion. You are American
and you're jewish by religion, period.

Can't confirm that is true, but it is ridiculous on its face.

Having married a Puerto Rican woman, and having travelled throughout Central and South America, I can tell you that none of these people are happy about being grouped together.

The Cubans look down their noses at all the groups. The Puerto Ricans hate the Cubans and look down their noses at the Mexicans (Much the way Northerners look down their noses at Southerners for their comparatively slow dialect). No one likes the Central Americans, but, all but the Cubans, are OK with folks from the North of South America, excepting the Brazilians who don't speak Spanish.

Argentinians are not emmigrating to America in any sort of numbers and so they rarely come into conflict with the other Spanish speaking immigrants, but I suspect that if they did, they would look down their noses at all of them, and that even the Cubans would have to defer to them.

Nevertheless --- They all are quite happy to call Spanish speaking immigrants (legal or otherwise) their "people" as long as they fall below them in the social pecking order.

This only means that, no matter what language we speak, we are all the same.

cj, reread my post.

I've known a lot of people if you asked them "what are you?" would say "i'm a jew" and it having nothing to do with religion.

Finn, you're right, cubans, puerto ricans, cubans, colombians, etc. all want their own identities.

The point, of course, is that focusing on the names others give you is ridiculous.

Can someone explain to me why "African-American" is preferable to "Afro-American?"

You can call me White if you want because my ancestors lived in Ireland, England, Norway, Sweden and Germany.

But what are you going to call my children?

Why does it matter except for silly ass political gains?

I'll tell you why it does. I got government subsidies on my kids' tuitions because they were "legally" able to classify themselves as "hispanic."

Not so good a reason though, is it?

It's all politics and politics is all about personal gain.

We're all out there competing with one another and looking for whatever edge we can get.

Chai, but only the American Jews do that. I have a friend from Israel, and
she's obviously jewish, but she'll tell you that she's from Israel or "I am Israeli"
and that's that.

Well, I always try to be ANTI-p.c.,
but that 's just me. I suggest u be ruled by your own logic.






David

But then you would call Brazillians "hispanic."