My Mexican-American friends all call themselves Hispanics. That's good enough for me. Paul >===== Original Message From SHAW-L@rootsweb.com ===== >As a writer on Latin-American baseball, I've often told people that to call >a person Spanish or Hispanic is akin to calling a Canadian or a Haitian >person "French" or calling Bill Cosby "English"- solely because he speaks >that tongue. Everyone has a nationality- a Nicaraguan is not a Peruvian, nor >is a Chilean a Venezuelan (though they can understand each other's speech) > >BCB > >-----Original Message----- >From: Marci [mailto:cilcia@bellsouth.net] >Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 3:52 PM >To: SHAW-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: Re: [SHAW] England and Migration Debate > > >Mike, > >You aroused my curiosity with the Hispanic argument, so I called my >husband's parents and asked them. Mexicans living in Mexico do call >themselves Mejicanos...Mexicans...however, there is no Mexican language. >Mexicans speak Espanol...Spanish. My father in law proudly refers to >himself as American, although their primary language continues to be >Spanish..He was born in Durango, Mexico. > >Personally, I like the way Bill Murray explained it in Stripes...We're >MUTTS! And, yes, I'm a California girl myself, born and raised in So.Cal, >transplated to the northern Caribbean...New Orleans. Thanks for all the >food for thought! >Marci > >Marci Shaw Peralez > >"If you can't get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well dance with >it." - George Bernard Shaw > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Mike Gregory > To: SHAW-L@rootsweb.com > Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 2:27 PM > Subject: Re: [SHAW] England and Migration Debate > > > To those following this thread, > > I think this thread has gotten off the path it took. It sounds to me as >some > are confusing nationality with race, or vice versa. Us humans really like > labels and tend to choose the ones that suit us best. > > Nationality: Wouldn't an Englishman, or rather English person, be one who > was born and raised in England? Just as an American is one who was born >and > raised in America, a Scottish person is one born and raised in Scotland, >and > an Irish person is one who was born and raised in Ireland? The nationality > of your ancestors does not matter! My father was the first of his >namesake > lineage to be born in the States (the rest are "English"), it would be >silly > to say he wasn't an American because of his parents wouldn't it? > > Race: Biologically, there really is no such thing as race, but us humans > like to think so that we can discriminate against others. The only true > "race" that could call themselves American's are the Indians. It is too > difficult to categorize humans by pure race unless you go back hundreds of > years in history before humans were so mobile. Even then it may be > difficult. The travel and interbreeding between different populations >makes > race a difficult concept. > > Regarding the term Hispanic... What is a hispanic? I would argue that it >is > neither race nor nationality. It is a culture that developed in America > among Americans born to Mexican or Spanish ancestry, that didn't want to >be > labeled as either three. In our discriminating times, Hispanic sounds a >lot > less offensive than "Mexican" There is no nation called "Hispania" nor is > their an Hispanic language. My wife's ancestry is from Mexico, but she > considers herself and American, and her second language is Mexican, not > Spanish or Hispanic! Something else I wondered... do those living in >Mexico > or Spain call themselves Hispanic? I doubt it. > > I have so many Nationalities in my lineage I could claim to be just >whatever > I wanted, but when I comes right down to it I'm just a plain old American. > One could even go as far as to call me a Californian, for where I was born > and raised, but that might be a different arguement entirely. > > Mike Gregory > Bakersfield, California > genealogy@bak.rr.com > http://home.bak.rr.com/mg/ > > > > > ==== SHAW Mailing List ==== > > > > ============================== > Create a FREE family website at MyFamily.com! > http://www.myfamily.com/banner.asp?ID=RWLIST2 > > > > >==== SHAW Mailing List ==== > > > >============================== >Visit Ancestry's Library - The best collection of family history >learning and how-to articles on the Internet. >http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library > > >==== SHAW Mailing List ==== > > > >============================== >Visit Ancestry.com for a FREE 14-Day Trial and enjoy access to the #1 >Source for Family History Online. Go to: >http://www.ancestry.com/subscribe/subscribetrial1y.asp?sourcecode=F11HB