Good write up...
I have in the past felt that same way as you have
written.  And this is the reason I enjoy and indulge
in genealogy--to learn who I am and where I came from.

Alberto Duarte Prieto
Santa Maria,
California

--- lareina2@... wrote:


---------------------------------
The issues of acculturation and assimiliation run deep
and are painful in this land of multiethnic and
multicultural groups.  What do I call myself?  Who am
I?  Much of the pain of the generation that follows
the immigrant one often causes much confusion, and
sometimes, self-hatred and denial of ancestry.  How
can I call myself a Mexican when I can speak only a
rudimentary Spanish and only visited the birthplace of
my grandma and great-grandma once?  When I visit
Mexico, I recognize its beauty and its devastation,
and when I land in the United States, I am happy to
drive my sedan, go inside my condo, and turn on my tv
to "Law and Order."  Both my parents are of Mexican
descent, but both were born in the US.  On my mom's
side, both my grandparents were born in the US as
well.  When my maternal
grandfather was offered the
opportunity to visit deep into Mexico (not Juarez or
Tijuana), he said, "My parents left Mexico for a
reason.  Why would I want to return?"  His practical
Texan mind did not yearn for the land of his
ancestors.

I remember as a child growing up that my father
instilled a deep pride of my Mexican ancestry.  He was
a young man during the Chicano Movement, and even
attended the Moratorium in 1970.  I have never had a
negative attitude about the word Chicano/Chicana, but
as a child of the '80s, I never saw the need to be as
political as my father.  I have often told him that I
will fight in marches if I need to, but my fight
against prejudice and racism is fought in the
classroom, where I expose my students to
Mexican-American literature and topics.  For years I
have often felt like a traitor, however.  I see the
struggles of the new immigrants, but I do not
truly
understand, having been raised in middle-class
suburbia.   I feel uncomfortable when speaking
Spanish, for the words do not come easily to me in
front of an audience as they do when I am alone.  I
see people as individuals. and have often overlooked
the ethnic/racial backgrounds of people.  I have had
friends of all ethnicities, as well people whom I have
disliked from my own culture.  And then a student will
ask me "what does a Mexican know about teaching
English?" and I remember that I am different.  Yet
none of this answers the question of "who am I?"  To
paraphrase Edward James Olmos in the movie "Selena,"
"we have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more
American than the Americans."  So how can I say I am
American, when I hear a beautiful Mexican song and my
heart sings along and I love to indulge in a big bowl
of menudo with extra tripe?   

I'm sorry
for rambling, but I do not fit totally in
either culture.  I came to genealogy as a path for a
better understanding of who my family is and was, and
where they came from and for health reasons-- and I've
discovered that I am the Spanish, I am the indigenous;
I am the slave, I am the slave-owner.  I am the
conqueror and the conquered.  To hate the Spanish is
to hate a part of myself.  To deny my indigenous
background is to deny myself.  To reject the American
is to reject myself.  I am all of these, and yet none
of these, entirely.  We all must come to our own level
of acceptance or rejection of who we are and from
where we come.  I think much of my feelings are
well-stated in this famous poem by Rodolfo "Corky"
Gonzales, "I am Joaquin":  
http://members.cox.net/mechademoh/I_Am_Joaquin.html .
Look especially at the last
stanza, and my favorite
lines are at the beginning, "I am Joaquin/ Lost in a
world of confusion..."

I taught a Chicano/Chicana lit course, and as I told
my students, Chicanos/Chicanas, Mexican-Americans,
Latinos, Hispanics, Americans of Mexican descent,
Spanish, Americans, none of these labels tell us and
everyone around us who we are.  Each emphasizes a
small part of the total sum of our culture and
customs.  Each of these terms are fraught with all of
the love and hate we feel about others and about
ourselves.  So in the end, there is no answer.  We can
search for the "truth", but I have found that to be
elusive.

So, as I end my ruminations, let me just say that I
have learned to accept all who created me, and all who
influence me.  I love the Mexican culture, and I
appreciate the country I was born in and where I live.


Well, thanks for reading this far.  I hope we all can
shed
some light on this most important subject.  

Rosalinda Ruiz
Southern California


-----Original Message-----
From: Arturo Ramos
Sent: Jan 12, 2006 11:55 AM
To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ranchos] Re: double surnames

Erlinda:

The whole Chicano vs. Mexican-American vs. Latin@ vs.
Hispanic debate
is a very contentious one in the United States.  I
think that all of
those terms are very politically laden such that there
is no single
one that everyone would agree with.  There is an
interesting episode
where the renowned author Sandra Cisneros balked at
being featured in
Hispanic magazine because of such a disagreement.  She
agreed only
after the magazine agreed to show her on the cover in
a profile shot
with a fake tatoo reading "LATINA" across her arm.

There is an interesting article on this:


href="http://www.hispanicmagazine.com/2000/dec/Features/latino.html">http://www.hispanicmagazine.com/2000/dec/Features/latino.html

I suppose that if you want to designate descendancy
from peoples of
Mexico, Mexican or Mexican-American would be the most
precise.  I
will leave my commentary at that lest I get myself in
trouble.

Interesting thing though, I have run across documents
where the
indigenous peoples of the area around Colotlan and
Totatiche would
refer to the indigenous colonizers from the south
(Tlaxcaltecs,
Otomis and Huastecs) as "mexicanos" designating that
they spoke the
Mexican language (i.e. nahuatl) and they did not
consider themselves
as such, since they spoke a different (Tepehuan)
language.  One of
these references appears in an interview with one of
the last
tepehuan speakers in Azqueltan, Jalisco in 1912!

I think that the term Mexican to designate all of
the
ethinicities of
Mexico was probably not adopted until after
independence.  I imagine
that those of pure Spanish descent would not consider
themselved
Mexican before that, especially when the term
specifically refered to
the nahuatl-speakers of central Mexico.


--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Erlinda
Castanon-Long"
<longsjourney@y...> wrote:
>
> I want to thank everyone for the input on double
surnames and y
versus
> de... I had forgotten that I use a double surname
too!  I felt I
> didn't want to give up my Hispanic maiden name so
just hyphenated
it
> with my married name.  That makes me Castanon-Long,
I guess in
Latin
> America that would make me Castanon y Long ... I
found at the
family
> reunion that most of my female cousins from my
generation did the
> same.  Many of us did not marry Hispanic but would
have kept
our
> maiden name regardless. Just like someone said, it's
a matter of
> family pride..
>
> One more question.. which is 'politically' correct
to designate our
> nationality of origin if we or our ancestors were
from Mexico...
> Hispanic, Latino, Mexican-American or
American-Mexican?  I find I
> really upset some people when I call myself
Hispanic. I'm told that
> excludes my Indio blood... People ask me what my
nationality is
> because I'm just brown enough to not be Anglo but
have light green
> eyes, my sister get's the same thing and she has
blue eyes and
> freckles. I still laugh when told I don't look like
a Mexican...
what
> does a Mexican look like!!!!
>
> Linda in Everett
>








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I was asked this past week at work (I'm a library clerk) by a black gentleman if I had Indian blood. I responded that I did, on my father's side but that it was so remote as to be almost impossible to name. (Moctezuma's daughters are my ancestresses.) My father's father's mother probably had Indian, but what kind, who knows?



Anyway, I wasn't insulted just surprised. The funny thing is is that my features are my Scots mother's but my coloring is a paler version of my dad's. I have salt and pepper hair like my Jerezana grandmother and her almond-shaped eyes. I have funny colored eyes...I don't think they're those eyes we were discussing earlier in December. Sometimes if my skin flushes or I'm red from being out in the sun, they're almost hazel. I DO consider myself Hispanic as opposed to Mexican because I had more Scots influence in my formative years and I'm married to a South American of Italian descent, so our family is more continental than Mexican. But I can't and don't ever deny that my father was Mexican-born, therefore, half of my being. I also cannot and will not deny my Scots half. Just can't do it to either side. Marge:)



On Jan 13, 2006, at 10:08 AM, Alberto Duarte wrote:

Good write up...

I have in the past felt that same way as you have

written.  And this is the reason I enjoy and indulge

in genealogy--to learn who I am and where I came from.



Alberto Duarte Prieto

Santa Maria, California



--- lareina2@... wrote:





---------------------------------

The issues of acculturation and assimiliation run deep

and are painful in this land of multiethnic and

multicultural groups.  What do I call myself?  Who am

I?  Much of the pain of the generation that follows

the immigrant one often causes much confusion, and

sometimes, self-hatred and denial of ancestry.  How

can I call myself a Mexican when I can speak only a

rudimentary Spanish and only visited the birthplace of

my grandma and great-grandma once?  When I visit

Mexico, I recognize its beauty and its devastation,

and when I land in the United States, I am happy to

drive my sedan, go inside my condo, and turn on my tv

to "Law and Order."  Both my parents are of Mexican

descent, but both were born in the US.  On my mom's

side, both my grandparents were born in the US as

well.  When my maternal grandfather was offered the

opportunity to visit deep into Mexico (not Juarez or

Tijuana), he said, "My parents left Mexico for a

reason.  Why would I want to return?"  His practical

Texan mind did not yearn for the land of his

ancestors.



I remember as a child growing up that my father

instilled a deep pride of my Mexican ancestry.  He was

a young man during the Chicano Movement, and even

attended the Moratorium in 1970.  I have never had a

negative attitude about the word Chicano/Chicana, but

as a child of the '80s, I never saw the need to be as

political as my father.  I have often told him that I

will fight in marches if I need to, but my fight

against prejudice and racism is fought in the

classroom, where I expose my students to

Mexican-American literature and topics.  For years I

have often felt like a traitor, however.  I see the

struggles of the new immigrants, but I do not truly

understand, having been raised in middle-class

suburbia.   I feel uncomfortable when speaking

Spanish, for the words do not come easily to me in

front of an audience as they do when I am alone.  I

see people as individuals. and have often overlooked

the ethnic/racial backgrounds of people.  I have had

friends of all ethnicities, as well people whom I have

disliked from my own culture.  And then a student will

ask me "what does a Mexican know about teaching

English?" and I remember that I am different.  Yet

none of this answers the question of "who am I?"  To

paraphrase Edward James Olmos in the movie "Selena,"

"we have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more

American than the Americans."  So how can I say I am

American, when I hear a beautiful Mexican song and my

heart sings along and I love to indulge in a big bowl

of menudo with extra tripe?   



I'm sorry for rambling, but I do not fit totally in

either culture.  I came to genealogy as a path for a

better understanding of who my family is and was, and

where they came from and for health reasons-- and I've

discovered that I am the Spanish, I am the indigenous;

I am the slave, I am the slave-owner.  I am the

conqueror and the conquered.  To hate the Spanish is

to hate a part of myself.  To deny my indigenous

background is to deny myself.  To reject the American

is to reject myself.  I am all of these, and yet none

of these, entirely.  We all must come to our own level

of acceptance or rejection of who we are and from

where we come.  I think much of my feelings are

well-stated in this famous poem by Rodolfo "Corky"

Gonzales, "I am Joaquin":  

http://members.cox.net/mechademoh/I_Am_Joaquin.html .

Look especially at the last stanza, and my favorite

lines are at the beginning, "I am Joaquin/ Lost in a

world of confusion..."



I taught a Chicano/Chicana lit course, and as I told

my students, Chicanos/Chicanas, Mexican-Americans,

Latinos, Hispanics, Americans of Mexican descent,

Spanish, Americans, none of these labels tell us and

everyone around us who we are.  Each emphasizes a

small part of the total sum of our culture and

customs.  Each of these terms are fraught with all of

the love and hate we feel about others and about

ourselves.  So in the end, there is no answer.  We can

search for the "truth", but I have found that to be

elusive.



So, as I end my ruminations, let me just say that I

have learned to accept all who created me, and all who

influence me.  I love the Mexican culture, and I

appreciate the country I was born in and where I live.





Well, thanks for reading this far.  I hope we all can

shed some light on this most important subject.  



Rosalinda Ruiz

Southern California





-----Original Message-----

From: Arturo Ramos

Sent: Jan 12, 2006 11:55 AM

To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com

Subject: [ranchos] Re: double surnames



Erlinda:



The whole Chicano vs. Mexican-American vs. Latin@ vs.

Hispanic debate

is a very contentious one in the United States.  I

think that all of

those terms are very politically laden such that there

is no single

one that everyone would agree with.  There is an

interesting episode

where the renowned author Sandra Cisneros balked at

being featured in

Hispanic magazine because of such a disagreement.  She

agreed only

after the magazine agreed to show her on the cover in

a profile shot

with a fake tatoo reading "LATINA" across her arm.



There is an interesting article on this:



http://www.hispanicmagazine.com/2000/dec/Features/latino.html



I suppose that if you want to designate descendancy

from peoples of

Mexico, Mexican or Mexican-American would be the most

precise.  I

will leave my commentary at that lest I get myself in

trouble.



Interesting thing though, I have run across documents

where the

indigenous peoples of the area around Colotlan and

Totatiche would

refer to the indigenous colonizers from the south

(Tlaxcaltecs,

Otomis and Huastecs) as "mexicanos" designating that

they spoke the

Mexican language (i.e. nahuatl) and they did not

consider themselves

as such, since they spoke a different (Tepehuan)

language.  One of

these references appears in an interview with one of

the last

tepehuan speakers in Azqueltan, Jalisco in 1912!



I think that the term Mexican to designate all of the

ethinicities of

Mexico was probably not adopted until after

independence.  I imagine

that those of pure Spanish descent would not consider

themselved

Mexican before that, especially when the term

specifically refered to

the nahuatl-speakers of central Mexico.





--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Erlinda

Castanon-Long"

<longsjourney@y...> wrote:

>

> I want to thank everyone for the input on double

surnames and y

versus

> de... I had forgotten that I use a double surname

too!  I felt I

> didn't want to give up my Hispanic maiden name so

just hyphenated

it

> with my married name.  That makes me Castanon-Long,

I guess in

Latin

> America that would make me Castanon y Long ... I

found at the

family

> reunion that most of my female cousins from my

generation did the

> same.  Many of us did not marry Hispanic but would

have kept our

> maiden name regardless. Just like someone said, it's

a matter of

> family pride..

>

> One more question.. which is 'politically' correct

to designate our

> nationality of origin if we or our ancestors were

from Mexico...

> Hispanic, Latino, Mexican-American or

American-Mexican?  I find I

> really upset some people when I call myself

Hispanic. I'm told that

> excludes my Indio blood... People ask me what my

nationality is

> because I'm just brown enough to not be Anglo but

have light green

> eyes, my sister get's the same thing and she has

blue eyes and

> freckles. I still laugh when told I don't look like

a Mexican...

what

> does a Mexican look like!!!!

>

> Linda in Everett

>

















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Good write up...
I have in the past felt that same way as you have
written.  And this is the reason I enjoy and indulge
in genealogy--to learn who I am and where I came from.

Alberto Duarte Prieto
Santa Maria, California

--- lareina2@... wrote:


---------------------------------
The issues of acculturation and assimiliation run deep
and are painful in this land of multiethnic and
multicultural groups.  What do I call myself?  Who am
I?  Much of the pain of the generation that follows
the immigrant one often causes much confusion, and
sometimes, self-hatred and denial of ancestry.  How
can I call myself a Mexican when I can speak only a
rudimentary Spanish and only visited the birthplace of
my grandma and great-grandma once?  When I visit
Mexico, I recognize its beauty and its devastation,
and when I land in the United States, I am happy to
drive my sedan, go inside my condo, and turn on my tv
to "Law and Order."  Both my parents are of Mexican
descent, but both were born in the US.  On my mom's
side, both my grandparents were born in the US as
well.  When my maternal grandfather was offered the
opportunity to visit deep into Mexico (not Juarez or
Tijuana), he said, "My parents left Mexico for a
reason.  Why would I want to return?"  His practical
Texan mind did not yearn for the land of his
ancestors.
 
I remember as a child growing up that my father
instilled a deep pride of my Mexican ancestry.  He was
a young man during the Chicano Movement, and even
attended the Moratorium in 1970.  I have never had a
negative attitude about the word Chicano/Chicana, but
as a child of the '80s, I never saw the need to be as
political as my father.  I have often told him that I
will fight in marches if I need to, but my fight
against prejudice and racism is fought in the
classroom, where I expose my students to
Mexican-American literature and topics.  For years I
have often felt like a traitor, however.  I see the
struggles of the new immigrants, but I do not truly
understand, having been raised in middle-class
suburbia.   I feel uncomfortable when speaking
Spanish, for the words do not come easily to me in
front of an audience as they do when I am alone.  I
see people as individuals. and have often overlooked
the ethnic/racial backgrounds of people.  I have had
friends of all ethnicities, as well people whom I have
disliked from my own culture.  And then a student will
ask me "what does a Mexican know about teaching
English?" and I remember that I am different.  Yet
none of this answers the question of "who am I?"  To
paraphrase Edward James Olmos in the movie "Selena," 
"we have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more
American than the Americans."  So how can I say I am
American, when I hear a beautiful Mexican song and my
heart sings along and I love to indulge in a big bowl
of menudo with extra tripe?    
 
I'm sorry for rambling, but I do not fit totally in
either culture.  I came to genealogy as a path for a
better understanding of who my family is and was, and
where they came from and for health reasons-- and I've
discovered that I am the Spanish, I am the indigenous;
I am the slave, I am the slave-owner.  I am the
conqueror and the conquered.  To hate the Spanish is
to hate a part of myself.  To deny my indigenous
background is to deny myself.  To reject the American
is to reject myself.  I am all of these, and yet none
of these, entirely.  We all must come to our own level
of acceptance or rejection of who we are and from
where we come.  I think much of my feelings are
well-stated in this famous poem by Rodolfo "Corky"
Gonzales, "I am Joaquin":   
http://members.cox.net/mechademoh/I_Am_Joaquin.html . 
Look especially at the last stanza, and my favorite
lines are at the beginning, "I am Joaquin/ Lost in a
world of confusion..."
 
I taught a Chicano/Chicana lit course, and as I told
my students, Chicanos/Chicanas, Mexican-Americans,
Latinos, Hispanics, Americans of Mexican descent,
Spanish, Americans, none of these labels tell us and
everyone around us who we are.  Each emphasizes a
small part of the total sum of our culture and
customs.  Each of these terms are fraught with all of
the love and hate we feel about others and about
ourselves.  So in the end, there is no answer.  We can
search for the "truth", but I have found that to be 
elusive.
 
So, as I end my ruminations, let me just say that I
have learned to accept all who created me, and all who
influence me.  I love the Mexican culture, and I
appreciate the country I was born in and where I live.
 
 
Well, thanks for reading this far.  I hope we all can
shed some light on this most important subject.   
 
Rosalinda Ruiz
Southern California


-----Original Message----- 
From: Arturo Ramos 
Sent: Jan 12, 2006 11:55 AM 
To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com 
Subject: [ranchos] Re: double surnames 

Erlinda:

The whole Chicano vs. Mexican-American vs. Latin@ vs.
Hispanic debate 
is a very contentious one in the United States.  I
think that all of 
those terms are very politically laden such that there
is no single 
one that everyone would agree with.  There is an
interesting episode 
where the renowned author Sandra Cisneros balked at
being featured in 
Hispanic magazine because of such a disagreement.  She
agreed only 
after the magazine agreed to show her on the cover in
a profile shot 
with a fake tatoo reading "LATINA" across her arm.

There is an interesting article on this:

http://www.hispanicmagazine.com/2000/dec/Features/latino.html

I suppose that if you want to designate descendancy
from peoples of 
Mexico, Mexican or Mexican-American would be the most
precise.  I 
will leave my commentary at that lest I get myself in
trouble.

Interesting thing though, I have run across documents
where the 
indigenous peoples of the area around Colotlan and
Totatiche would 
refer to the indigenous colonizers from the south
(Tlaxcaltecs, 
Otomis and Huastecs) as "mexicanos" designating that
they spoke the 
Mexican language (i.e. nahuatl) and they did not
consider themselves 
as such, since they spoke a different (Tepehuan)
language.  One of 
these references appears in an interview with one of
the last 
tepehuan speakers in Azqueltan, Jalisco in 1912!

I think that the term Mexican to designate all of the
ethinicities of 
Mexico was probably not adopted until after
independence.  I imagine 
that those of pure Spanish descent would not consider
themselved 
Mexican before that, especially when the term
specifically refered to 
the nahuatl-speakers of central Mexico.


--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Erlinda
Castanon-Long" 
<longsjourney@y...> wrote:
>
> I want to thank everyone for the input on double
surnames and y 
versus 
> de... I had forgotten that I use a double surname
too!  I felt I 
> didn't want to give up my Hispanic maiden name so
just hyphenated 
it 
> with my married name.  That makes me Castanon-Long,
I guess in 
Latin 
> America that would make me Castanon y Long ... I
found at the 
family 
> reunion that most of my female cousins from my
generation did the 
> same.  Many of us did not marry Hispanic but would
have kept our 
> maiden name regardless. Just like someone said, it's
a matter of 
> family pride..
> 
> One more question.. which is 'politically' correct
to designate our 
> nationality of origin if we or our ancestors were
from Mexico... 
> Hispanic, Latino, Mexican-American or
American-Mexican?  I find I 
> really upset some people when I call myself
Hispanic. I'm told that 
> excludes my Indio blood... People ask me what my
nationality is 
> because I'm just brown enough to not be Anglo but
have light green 
> eyes, my sister get's the same thing and she has
blue eyes and 
> freckles. I still laugh when told I don't look like
a Mexican... 
what 
> does a Mexican look like!!!!
> 
> Linda in Everett
>








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---------------------------------




  
    
---------------------------------
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---------------------------------




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ORALE CARNALITA: ROSALINDA

Sabes me dio mucho gusto saber que tu eres una de los/as descendientes del movimiento CHICANO de los 60's. I, too like your father was there in the
middle of the borlote.  We in those years came up with the name of chicano/a to identify ourselves as mexicanos de aca. Theres is noting wrong about the term chicano, however it needs to be explained why it came to be...

Alberto Duarte <albertodua@...> wrote:

Good write up...
I have in the past felt that same way as you have
written.  And this is the reason I enjoy and indulge
in genealogy--to learn who I am and where I came from.

Alberto Duarte Prieto
Santa Maria, California

--- lareina2@... wrote:


---------------------------------
The issues of acculturation and assimiliation run deep
and are painful in this land of multiethnic and
multicultural groups.  What do I call myself? 
Who am
I?  Much of the pain of the generation that follows
the immigrant one often causes much confusion, and
sometimes, self-hatred and denial of ancestry.  How
can I call myself a Mexican when I can speak only a
rudimentary Spanish and only visited the birthplace of
my grandma and great-grandma once?  When I visit
Mexico, I recognize its beauty and its devastation,
and when I land in the United States, I am happy to
drive my sedan, go inside my condo, and turn on my tv
to "Law and Order."  Both my parents are of Mexican
descent, but both were born in the US.  On my mom's
side, both my grandparents were born in the US as
well.  When my maternal grandfather was offered the
opportunity to visit deep into Mexico (not Juarez or
Tijuana), he said, "My parents left Mexico for a
reason.  Why would I want to return?"  His practical
Texan mind did not yearn for the land of his
ancestors.

I
remember as a child growing up that my father
instilled a deep pride of my Mexican ancestry.  He was
a young man during the Chicano Movement, and even
attended the Moratorium in 1970.  I have never had a
negative attitude about the word Chicano/Chicana, but
as a child of the '80s, I never saw the need to be as
political as my father.  I have often told him that I
will fight in marches if I need to, but my fight
against prejudice and racism is fought in the
classroom, where I expose my students to
Mexican-American literature and topics.  For years I
have often felt like a traitor, however.  I see the
struggles of the new immigrants, but I do not truly
understand, having been raised in middle-class
suburbia.   I feel uncomfortable when speaking
Spanish, for the words do not come easily to me in
front of an audience as they do when I am alone.  I
see people as individuals. and have often
overlooked
the ethnic/racial backgrounds of people.  I have had
friends of all ethnicities, as well people whom I have
disliked from my own culture.  And then a student will
ask me "what does a Mexican know about teaching
English?" and I remember that I am different.  Yet
none of this answers the question of "who am I?"  To
paraphrase Edward James Olmos in the movie "Selena,"
"we have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more
American than the Americans."  So how can I say I am
American, when I hear a beautiful Mexican song and my
heart sings along and I love to indulge in a big bowl
of menudo with extra tripe?   

I'm sorry for rambling, but I do not fit totally in
either culture.  I came to genealogy as a path for a
better understanding of who my family is and was, and
where they came from and for health reasons-- and I've
discovered that I am the Spanish, I am the
indigenous;
I am the slave, I am the slave-owner.  I am the
conqueror and the conquered.  To hate the Spanish is
to hate a part of myself.  To deny my indigenous
background is to deny myself.  To reject the American
is to reject myself.  I am all of these, and yet none
of these, entirely.  We all must come to our own level
of acceptance or rejection of who we are and from
where we come.  I think much of my feelings are
well-stated in this famous poem by Rodolfo "Corky"
Gonzales, "I am Joaquin":  
http://members.cox.net/mechademoh/I_Am_Joaquin.html .
Look especially at the last stanza, and my favorite
lines are at the beginning, "I am Joaquin/ Lost in a
world of confusion..."

I taught a Chicano/Chicana lit course, and as I told
my students, Chicanos/Chicanas, Mexican-Americans,
Latinos, Hispanics, Americans of Mexican
descent,
Spanish, Americans, none of these labels tell us and
everyone around us who we are.  Each emphasizes a
small part of the total sum of our culture and
customs.  Each of these terms are fraught with all of
the love and hate we feel about others and about
ourselves.  So in the end, there is no answer.  We can
search for the "truth", but I have found that to be
elusive.

So, as I end my ruminations, let me just say that I
have learned to accept all who created me, and all who
influence me.  I love the Mexican culture, and I
appreciate the country I was born in and where I live.


Well, thanks for reading this far.  I hope we all can
shed some light on this most important subject.  

Rosalinda Ruiz
Southern California


-----Original Message-----
From: Arturo Ramos
Sent: Jan 12, 2006 11:55 AM
To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ranchos] Re: double
surnames

Erlinda:

The whole Chicano vs. Mexican-American vs. Latin@ vs.
Hispanic debate
is a very contentious one in the United States.  I
think that all of
those terms are very politically laden such that there
is no single
one that everyone would agree with.  There is an
interesting episode
where the renowned author Sandra Cisneros balked at
being featured in
Hispanic magazine because of such a disagreement.  She
agreed only
after the magazine agreed to show her on the cover in
a profile shot
with a fake tatoo reading "LATINA" across her arm.

There is an interesting article on this:

http://www.hispanicmagazine.com/2000/dec/Features/latino.html

I suppose that if you want to designate descendancy
from peoples of
Mexico, Mexican or Mexican-American would be the most
precise.  I
will leave my
commentary at that lest I get myself in
trouble.

Interesting thing though, I have run across documents
where the
indigenous peoples of the area around Colotlan and
Totatiche would
refer to the indigenous colonizers from the south
(Tlaxcaltecs,
Otomis and Huastecs) as "mexicanos" designating that
they spoke the
Mexican language (i.e. nahuatl) and they did not
consider themselves
as such, since they spoke a different (Tepehuan)
language.  One of
these references appears in an interview with one of
the last
tepehuan speakers in Azqueltan, Jalisco in 1912!

I think that the term Mexican to designate all of the
ethinicities of
Mexico was probably not adopted until after
independence.  I imagine
that those of pure Spanish descent would not consider
themselved
Mexican before that, especially when the term
specifically refered to
the nahuatl-speakers of central Mexico.


--- In
ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Erlinda
Castanon-Long"
<longsjourney@y...> wrote:
>
> I want to thank everyone for the input on double
surnames and y
versus
> de... I had forgotten that I use a double surname
too!  I felt I
> didn't want to give up my Hispanic maiden name so
just hyphenated
it
> with my married name.  That makes me Castanon-Long,
I guess in
Latin
> America that would make me Castanon y Long ... I
found at the
family
> reunion that most of my female cousins from my
generation did the
> same.  Many of us did not marry Hispanic but would
have kept our
> maiden name regardless. Just like someone said, it's
a matter of
> family pride..
>
> One more question.. which is 'politically' correct
to designate our
> nationality of origin if we or our ancestors were
from Mexico...
> Hispanic, Latino, Mexican-American
or
American-Mexican?  I find I
> really upset some people when I call myself
Hispanic. I'm told that
> excludes my Indio blood... People ask me what my
nationality is
> because I'm just brown enough to not be Anglo but
have light green
> eyes, my sister get's the same thing and she has
blue eyes and
> freckles. I still laugh when told I don't look like
a Mexican...
what
> does a Mexican look like!!!!
>
> Linda in Everett
>








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Good write up...
I have in the past felt that same way as you have
written.  And this is the reason I enjoy and indulge
in genealogy--to learn who I am and where I came from.

Alberto Duarte Prieto
Santa Maria, California

--- lareina2@...
wrote:


---------------------------------
The issues of acculturation and assimiliation run deep
and are painful in this land of multiethnic and
multicultural groups.  What do I call myself?  Who am
I?  Much of the pain of the generation that follows
the immigrant one often causes much confusion, and
sometimes, self-hatred and denial of ancestry.  How
can I call myself a Mexican when I can speak only a
rudimentary Spanish and only visited the birthplace of
my grandma and great-grandma once?  When I visit
Mexico, I recognize its beauty and its devastation,
and when I land in the United States, I am happy to
drive my sedan, go inside my condo, and turn on my tv
to "Law and Order."  Both my parents are of Mexican
descent, but both were born in the US.  On my mom's
side, both my grandparents were born in the US as
well.  When my maternal grandfather was offered the
opportunity to visit
deep into Mexico (not Juarez or
Tijuana), he said, "My parents left Mexico for a
reason.  Why would I want to return?"  His practical
Texan mind did not yearn for the land of his
ancestors.

I remember as a child growing up that my father
instilled a deep pride of my Mexican ancestry.  He was
a young man during the Chicano Movement, and even
attended the Moratorium in 1970.  I have never had a
negative attitude about the word Chicano/Chicana, but
as a child of the '80s, I never saw the need to be as
political as my father.  I have often told him that I
will fight in marches if I need to, but my fight
against prejudice and racism is fought in the
classroom, where I expose my students to
Mexican-American literature and topics.  For years I
have often felt like a traitor, however.  I see the
struggles of the new immigrants, but I do not truly
understand, having been raised in
middle-class
suburbia.   I feel uncomfortable when speaking
Spanish, for the words do not come easily to me in
front of an audience as they do when I am alone.  I
see people as individuals. and have often overlooked
the ethnic/racial backgrounds of people.  I have had
friends of all ethnicities, as well people whom I have
disliked from my own culture.  And then a student will
ask me "what does a Mexican know about teaching
English?" and I remember that I am different.  Yet
none of this answers the question of "who am I?"  To
paraphrase Edward James Olmos in the movie "Selena,"
"we have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more
American than the Americans."  So how can I say I am
American, when I hear a beautiful Mexican song and my
heart sings along and I love to indulge in a big bowl
of menudo with extra tripe?   

I'm sorry for rambling, but I do not fit totally
in
either culture.  I came to genealogy as a path for a
better understanding of who my family is and was, and
where they came from and for health reasons-- and I've
discovered that I am the Spanish, I am the indigenous;
I am the slave, I am the slave-owner.  I am the
conqueror and the conquered.  To hate the Spanish is
to hate a part of myself.  To deny my indigenous
background is to deny myself.  To reject the American
is to reject myself.  I am all of these, and yet none
of these, entirely.  We all must come to our own level
of acceptance or rejection of who we are and from
where we come.  I think much of my feelings are
well-stated in this famous poem by Rodolfo "Corky"
Gonzales, "I am Joaquin":  
http://members.cox.net/mechademoh/I_Am_Joaquin.html .
Look especially at the last stanza, and my favorite
lines are at
the beginning, "I am Joaquin/ Lost in a
world of confusion..."

I taught a Chicano/Chicana lit course, and as I told
my students, Chicanos/Chicanas, Mexican-Americans,
Latinos, Hispanics, Americans of Mexican descent,
Spanish, Americans, none of these labels tell us and
everyone around us who we are.  Each emphasizes a
small part of the total sum of our culture and
customs.  Each of these terms are fraught with all of
the love and hate we feel about others and about
ourselves.  So in the end, there is no answer.  We can
search for the "truth", but I have found that to be
elusive.

So, as I end my ruminations, let me just say that I
have learned to accept all who created me, and all who
influence me.  I love the Mexican culture, and I
appreciate the country I was born in and where I live.


Well, thanks for reading this far.  I hope we all can
shed some light on this most important
subject.  

Rosalinda Ruiz
Southern California


-----Original Message-----
From: Arturo Ramos
Sent: Jan 12, 2006 11:55 AM
To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ranchos] Re: double surnames

Erlinda:

The whole Chicano vs. Mexican-American vs. Latin@ vs.
Hispanic debate
is a very contentious one in the United States.  I
think that all of
those terms are very politically laden such that there
is no single
one that everyone would agree with.  There is an
interesting episode
where the renowned author Sandra Cisneros balked at
being featured in
Hispanic magazine because of such a disagreement.  She
agreed only
after the magazine agreed to show her on the cover in
a profile shot
with a fake tatoo reading "LATINA" across her arm.

There is an interesting article on this:


href="http://www.hispanicmagazine.com/2000/dec/Features/latino.html">http://www.hispanicmagazine.com/2000/dec/Features/latino.html

I suppose that if you want to designate descendancy
from peoples of
Mexico, Mexican or Mexican-American would be the most
precise.  I
will leave my commentary at that lest I get myself in
trouble.

Interesting thing though, I have run across documents
where the
indigenous peoples of the area around Colotlan and
Totatiche would
refer to the indigenous colonizers from the south
(Tlaxcaltecs,
Otomis and Huastecs) as "mexicanos" designating that
they spoke the
Mexican language (i.e. nahuatl) and they did not
consider themselves
as such, since they spoke a different (Tepehuan)
language.  One of
these references appears in an interview with one of
the last
tepehuan speakers in Azqueltan, Jalisco in 1912!

I think that the term Mexican to designate all of
the
ethinicities of
Mexico was probably not adopted until after
independence.  I imagine
that those of pure Spanish descent would not consider
themselved
Mexican before that, especially when the term
specifically refered to
the nahuatl-speakers of central Mexico.


--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Erlinda
Castanon-Long"
<longsjourney@y...> wrote:
>
> I want to thank everyone for the input on double
surnames and y
versus
> de... I had forgotten that I use a double surname
too!  I felt I
> didn't want to give up my Hispanic maiden name so
just hyphenated
it
> with my married name.  That makes me Castanon-Long,
I guess in
Latin
> America that would make me Castanon y Long ... I
found at the
family
> reunion that most of my female cousins from my
generation did the
> same.  Many of us did not marry Hispanic but would
have kept
our
> maiden name regardless. Just like someone said, it's
a matter of
> family pride..
>
> One more question.. which is 'politically' correct
to designate our
> nationality of origin if we or our ancestors were
from Mexico...
> Hispanic, Latino, Mexican-American or
American-Mexican?  I find I
> really upset some people when I call myself
Hispanic. I'm told that
> excludes my Indio blood... People ask me what my
nationality is
> because I'm just brown enough to not be Anglo but
have light green
> eyes, my sister get's the same thing and she has
blue eyes and
> freckles. I still laugh when told I don't look like
a Mexican...
what
> does a Mexican look like!!!!
>
> Linda in Everett
>








---------------------------------
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    Visit your group "ranchos" on the
web.
 
    To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ranchos-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
 
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Terms of Service.



---------------------------------




 
   
---------------------------------
  YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS

 
    Visit your group "ranchos" on the web.
  
    To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ranchos-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
  
    Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo!
Terms of Service.

 
---------------------------------




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