What's In A Name?

Latino. Hispanic. Chicano. Spanish.




When people ask me what I am I typically say American. It usually begs a follow-up or clarifying question as to my background or ethnicity and I’ll let them know that my family hails from Mexico. Though it’s not a terribly important debate in political philosophy I think hyphens are a little silly and are very misleading. After all exactly what would make someone Mexican-American? Could someone be termed American-Mexican? And how Mexican does one have to be in order to be called both Mexican and American? And how far back to we go with ethnicity or cultural background? Mexico has plenty of people descending from natives to the land. The people were invaded or mixed with nearly every country in Western Europe, most notably the Spanish whose land was at different times dominated by Jewish people, the Romans, and the Moors. Does that also make me part African-American? The hyphens are silly and do little to accurately represent ones cultural background.



Getting away from the hyphens we have all of these other names with which to designate ourselves. Spanish seems like an odd one. Here in New York it’s the one I hear most often. “What’s his background,” someone may ask when referring to me or someone with a similar family history. “He’s Spanish,” is often the reply. I’m about as Spanish as Gary Busey is sane- it’s a place I’ve visited and perhaps share some ancient connection to it but it does little to accurately describe anything about me. Around these parts Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans, they’ll all be referred to as Spanish. That would be correct if the question was about which language they speak but not about their background. Not really, anyway. I would hardly refer to George Clooney as “that English guy.” Bill Gates isn’t considered British. And Fernando Valenzuela is not Spanish. Javier Bardem, that guy is Spanish. Julio Iglesias, also Spanish. Antonio Banderas, that guy is Spanish as well. Me? Not so much. Obviously it’s easier to say Spanish than go through the litany of possible countries from which a Spanish speaker could hail, but we do have other words which we have agreed upon for such designations.



There is Chicano. I’ve found several stories detailing the etymology of the term but the one that appears the most is that it is a shorthand way of saying Mexicano and specifically refers to people of Mexican descent. The way I hear it, “Mexicano” was shortened to “Xicano” and since no one really knows what sound the letter X is supposed to make (is it a Z? An H? does it sound like KS), people agreed upon the CH sound. Some say it was primarily used as a derogatory term but I think it was used more out of naiveté or ignorance. This was around the time words like “negro” and “colored” were being used and while it would be terribly insensitive to use these words today political correctness and cultural sensitivity were not what they are today. Calling someone Chicano was the label for the children of Mexican immigrants and it was chosen and it became a way to label someone in the simplest of terms. In any event the term took on a negative connotation but eventually came to be embraced and used for a political movement. The Chicano Movement has its roots in the mid 1800s but didn’t really gain traction until the 1950s and 60s. It’s a fascinating time and I will address it in a future post but for now we’ll have to move on. Having grown up in the 80s and 90s, just a little bit after a great era of political and cultural awareness, I personally never associated the label of Chicano with a political movement. It was just another way people referred to people like me.



The terms Hispanic and Latino are often used interchangeably but don’t always mean the same thing. “Hispanic” as a word has its history going back to both the Greek and Roman Empires where the root word was used to describe the Iberian Peninsula, the area that comprises Spain, Portugal, Andorra and part of France. It eventually became the Latin word for Spain. As such, groups that have a primarily Spanish ancestry or influence are Hispanic but aren’t Latino unless they are also part of Latin America. It is thought that Latino was originally intended to refer to someone of Latin American ancestry. Thus it is accurate to consider a Mexican either Hispanic or Latino but someone from Spain can only be Hispanic. Either way I don’t see the need to split hairs as neither term is considered descriptive of race or specific ethnicity or background. When it comes to filling out that census information, in the eyes of the government I think I’m considered white. And let me tell you, I have some cousins who look anything but white.



So is there a term that is more correct than others? Do I have a preference? Not really. I’ve heard all of the derogatory terms thrown around, too. I’ve been called a beaner and spic (though I had no idea what a spic was at the time- I’m still a little fuzzy about it). I’ve been called a wet-back. It’s extremely rare that I have heard those terms and when I do it does not make the person saying them any more powerful or vicious; if anything it makes them sound outdated or anachronistic. Those words carry very little weight because I think that mine is a culture that gives very little power to terms for which we have no use. It isn’t a matter of reclaiming pejoratives and making them our own because we don’t want or need those words. They’re silly and to use them, trying to give new meaning to them, would be a waste of effort because it would only give attention to the intended insult. But getting back to the terms like Spanish, Hispanic, Latino, or Chicano… As I stated above I think Spanish is really inaccurate. As for the others, I guess any of them will do if a label is necessary. Personally I prefer to go by Eric.

So What's Up With This Arizona Law?

One of the big issues concerning Mexican Americans lately is the passage of the immigration reform law in Arizona. Needless to say plenty of people having been asking EricV123 just what he thinks of the law and what it means to Mexicans on this side of the border both here legally and illegally. Now, I do not want to make this a political blog, nor do I wish to advocate one side over the other but to ignore the subject all together would be an egregious oversight on my part.
So let’s examine what the argument it. The text of the law, in its entirety, can be found here: http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf. It’s only about 17 pages and half of that is filled with superfluous language. The gist of it is this: if police are stopping someone for a crime or violation of the law, this could be an infraction, misdemeanor, or worse, if after detaining someone for committing an offense then if the officer suspects the person of being in the country illegally the officer may and shall demand proof of legal residence which should be carried on the person. The law clearly states that race must not be the sole consideration.



Sounds fine, right? I mean, after all, the innocent have nothing to fear, am I right?



Except that they do. Now I’ve got pretty fair skin and speak English with no discernable Mexican accent. But I’ve got some friends and family who have darker skin than I do and speak with a different cadence, say words with a different inflection that makes their English sound a little more Mexican. Say one of these people was to suddenly have a craving for a delicious, cool, refreshing bottle of Gatorade on a hot Arizona day. It’s 105 degrees out and they’ve been sitting around in their shorts all day. The 7-11 is just two blocks away so our friend grabs a five dollar bill off the counter and shoves it in his pocket and jumps on his bicycle to pedal just a few hundred yards away. On the way he slows at the intersection and when he doesn’t see any cars in either direction he scoots across, just like he’s done a million times before, just like you me, or anyone has ever done. Whether the light is red or green, especially here in New York or in every suburb across America, when there aren’t any cars around you just go. But this time there is a cop sitting behind the billboard so he jumps out to write up a ticket. No ID, no wallet, just a $5 bill in your pocket… you’ve got dark skin and use a different syntax in your English that he does… now the cop wants to see your green card. But you’re a citizen, you tell him. You live right down the street. Oh yeah? Prove it. Maybe the cop happens to be having a good day and is nice enough to drive you over to your house and knock on the door- but you already told him no one is home. And he is not about to enter a house without cause on the word of a suspected illegal alien. So guess what, we’ll just take you to jail until we can sort this thing out. Maybe a few hours, maybe a couple of days later you get to go home. Sorry for the inconvenience, sir. Have a nice day.

This sort of anecdotal story has already happened to friends of friends and is likely to happen more often in the weeks to come… But racial profiling is against the rules according to the law. And the policeman wasn’t racially profiling but had a suspicion after he saw the young man riding his bike across an intersection on a red light.

Here’s the problem- the letter of the law seemingly has no racial prejudice. The letter of the law says nothing about skin color or national origin. Theoretically if a British tourist crosses the street having left his passport in the hotel he could very well be deported. But let’s all be honest with ourselves, the spirit of the law is targeting Mexican immigrants. The law is intended to root out Mexicans who may be here illegally- and even that I don’t have to big a problem with. I would prefer that people who were here illegally were given greater opportunity to integrate fully and become either legal residents or American citizens because for the most of these people, their crime is not being able to wait long enough or have enough money to bribe a corrupt government (Mexico’s) and so they came looking for a better life and greater opportunity. But I’m realistic. The means and the structure to welcome people in droves- the way we did at Ellis Island so many years ago, just doesn’t exist.

No, for me the problem is that this law forces law abiding, tax-paying, hard working citizens, to be treated as second class citizens because of how they look or speak. Sure the law says race alone cannot be the only consideration but it stipulates the use of “reasonable suspicion” which is entirely up to the officer. The law does not specify what “reasonable suspicion” entails. So if someone who looks or sounds different happens to forget her purse at work, leaves his wallet at the gym, and crosses the street at the wrong place… he or she is shit out of luck until they can prove they have the right to be here. Any officer will tell you (especially Highway Patrol), if watch someone long enough, probably just a few minutes, there will probably have a reason to pull them over. Police officers have a very unique power. They have the power to remove someone’s freedom. We grant them this power to do their job effectively along with several other powers. When someone if breaking the law we expect our police force to act accordingly. Is detaining for several days a guy going to the corner store without his wallet an appropriate use of that power? Especially if he actually is a US citizen?

This is different from wire-taps on people who are communicating with known terror connections. This is different from racial profiling at the airport because face it, we get more people trying to blow stuff up from certain countries in the middle east than we do from Switzerland. In those cases there is an immediate danger of the wanton killing of innocent people. Arizonans have every right to secure their international border when the Federal government fails to do so. And they should. And when someone commits a crime, not spitting your gum out into the gutter or jay-walking, but a real crime, and it turns out the person is here illegally, then, by all means deport his ass.

But forcing our American Citizens to “carry papers” at all times is just as morally reprehensible to the internment of our Japanese citizens during World War 2.

Many Jim Crow laws said nothing about race. Saying you have to pass a reading test to vote, that doesn’t say anything about race. Saying you are exempt from those types of tests if your grandfather could vote… nothing about race there either.
EricV123 says, let’s stop playing verbal gymnastics and getting into semantic arguments when we all know that this law violates the liberties of American citizens on the perceived basis of national origin and that is simply, plainly, totally, wrong.

I'm Supposed to Appear Mexican

I’ve been told I don’t look Mexican.

I suppose I don’t carry many of the characteristics that come to mind when one thinks of the physical attributes of our cousins south of the border. Usually when one thinks “Mexican” one thinks of any of the following traits: tan skin, dark eyes and hair, probably on the shorter side, Mexicans are not known for being particularly thin or large when it comes to body types, and I could go on. As for myself, I have the dark eyes and hair but definitely not the tan skin. I’m not tall but not all that short. On the occasion we’d stop by the Calimax in Tijuana I felt like I could be on the Olympic basketball team. When people do take a stab at guess where my forefathers come from I typically get guess from the Mediterranean like Italian or Turkish or Israeli. I’ve gotten many countries from South America, the Caribbean and even the generic “white”.

Perhaps I don’t carry many of the stereotypical traits, I’m no Eric Estrada or Don Francisco, but then neither is Linda Carter (and Wonder Woman just happens to be half Mexican). I’ve touched on the many influences on Mexican people plenty of times before when it comes to food and celebration but not the physical traits of the people. What is a Mexican supposed to look like?

My closest friends, like me, are the children of Mexican immigrants. One of them has skin that, while not as light as mine, is still pretty fair. He’s 6’3”. The other is about my height but has reddish brown hair almost as red as his mother’s who also happens to have green eyes. Anyone remember that show Gilmore Girls? The girl who plays the daughter, Alexis Bledel, is a very fair skinned young woman has very very blue eyes. These are just a few examples of different Mexicans can appear. We could be that blond haired dude with the green eyes. We could be that guy with the dreadlocks who might be black (that’s actually my cousin Eddie). We could be in your kitchen right now!

So where do all these different looks come from? All over! Obviously there were the indigenous people who already lived what we call Mexico and the western United States all the way down through South America. These were different cultures with their own varied physical traits and aspects and are the reason I can barely grow facial hair today. Without getting in a big demographic and anthropological analysis I can say that these indigenous peoples greatly influenced the idea of what a prototypical Mexican is supposed to look like. Since it is Spanish that is mostly spoken in Mexico (each of the specific native groups still thriving in Mexico has their own language) we tend to only think of people from Spain who colonized the land. When they decided to go native, akin to John Rolfe and Pocahontas, we called their progeny “mestizos”. The word is derived from the Latin word for “mixed” but its use was synonymous with calling someone a bastard. The connotation of the word has changed since then and now simply refers to one who is of both European and native ancestry.

Even when we look at the Spanish we can clearly see that they do not look Mexican. For all intents and purposes they are white, Europeans. That just leads to more and more lines of ancestry as Spain was at various times dominated by Jews, Moors, Romans etc… A not uncommon Mexican last name is Delao (or De La O) which comes from the Irish who came to Mexico. There were Germans, Portuguese, and even Chinese who travelled south from San Francisco once the railroads were built. If America is a melting pot then Mexico is a thick soup. I like to think of it as a nice fondue set filled with nacho cheese.

Anyway, Mexicans clearly come in all shapes and sizes, shades and colors. We’re not just tan and exotic looking like Selma Hayek, we’re also svelte and fair like Alexis Bledel. But we can also be exactly what you think. Like Paul Rodriguez.