From: cortese@skid.ps.uci.edu (Janis Maria Cortese)
Subject: Re: stereotypes - and a request
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Keywords: Viva la difference! Viva la raza!
Date: 30 Jul 92 03:42:41 GMT

In article <12569@inews.intel.com> pharvey@mipos3.intel.com (Paul Harvey) writes:
>I do not rank sexes or cultures. There are differences and similarities, as for
>me I say viva la difference! Y viva la raza!
>
>>Most of the differences you believe in are only cultural.
>
>Yes, I do believe in cultural differences. And I say this is good. Viva la raza!
>Someone pointed out that statement as used by Latinos may be racist or 
>anti-European. I would like to remind that person that Spanish is a European
>language and most Latinos have European blood. La raza is in fact the human
>race, of all shades of melanin, of all languages. Viva la raza!
>

Most of the hispanics in this country are not of Spanish descent.  Most
are Puerto Rican, Costa Rican, Cuban, or Mexican, in other words,
INDIAN.
There are also many
others who are from South America and other places in Central America. 
THIS is what is meant most often when hispanics use the phrase "la
raza."  CHICANOS and LATINOS, not Spanish, are the people who are the
most uniformly shit-on.  You can see it any day in Irvine, where the
students are Anglo or Asian, and the people who sweep up and change the
trash bags are Mexicanos, usually with Indio faces.  This dichotomy can
most clearly be seen on any given day in Tijuana.  The people who are
the poorest, begging from the turistos on the streets, are invariably
the most Indian-looking of anyone you'll see there.  The poorest latinos
have the least European blood.  The people who are the most disciminated
against aren't Spanish; "spic" does not mean "person from Spain."  It is
an insulting and typically American way of referring to anyone
dark-skinned and speaking Spanish.  (I say "typical American way"
meaning that this subsumation of race is the same kind of thing that
gets Korean immigrants called japs.)  

The hispanos who are the most discriminated against are those from
Spanish colony countries with the least European blood.  A friend of
mine from Colombia with a VERY indian face said that he even has trouble
getting scholarships from La Raza because he isn't the "right kind" of
hispanic; he is VERY Colombian-looking.  (Those of you who know what I'm
talking about can visualize him; tilted eyes, jet-black straight hair,
and round face.)  

Espanoles are EUROPEANS, and are treated as such.  They have skin no
darker than any other European culture, on the average.  In fact,
natives of Galicia and Asturias in the north are more likely to be light
and freckled.  The more indian a Spanish-speaker looks, the more likely
they are to be discriminated against.  If a person comes not from Spain,
but from a conquered Spanish colony, they are more likely to be
discriminated against (and dirt-poor as well).  

Again, I say that  HISPANOS WHO HAVE THE MOST PROBLEMS WITH
DISCRIMINATION HAVE THE LEAST EUROPEAN BLOOD.  Hispanos who have the
most problems are the MOST INDIAN ones, natives not of Europe, but of
conquered European colonies.  

Blessings,
Janis