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Hi Emilie, I have been enjoying alll of the recent postings on racial classification. Excuse me for now jumping onto the soapbox. :) I hope that I don't offend anyone from what I am about to say. I just don't like hearing ignorant racist remarks about Indians, Mexicans, etc., and people who feel superior to other ethnic groups. Your Spanish friend sounds like someone with low self-esteem, (as well as possibly uneducated) and in that she feels that she should distance herself from those that she perceives as inferior to herself. Heaven help her poor Mexican American husband that has to hear such racist comments. The Spanish I met in Spain when I travelled there are nothing like those immigrants from Spain or South America that I have sometimes encountered here in the USA. They do not view people from Mexico like a bunch of Indians. In fact, they often remarked about Mexico's riches both in the Indian Civilizations as well as the gold that their churches are filled with. They were very warm people who would comment on how handsome Pedro Infante was when they saw him in concert in their youth. Also how the foolish Spanish king really screwed up when he underestimated the strength in the Mexican people during Mexico's independance. Remember to stand tall. Just a side note to your Spanish friend. Garbanzos which are a staple for humans in Spain (they are often served in Basque dishes) are often fed to livestock in Mexico. Please educate your South American friend too by informing her that Taco Bell is not authentic Mexican food. I am extremely proud of all my bloodlines whether it be India, mestizo, mulata, espanola, etc., Okay I'll step down now. Thanks for allowing me to get this off my chest. Irma who hails from Northern California From: Emilie Garcia [mailto:auntyemfaustus@...] Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 3:41 AM To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [ranchos] Racial Classifications was Moorish or Slave Wow, those charts and photos are mind-boggling. I am really getting an education. The mixing of the races in Mexico has led to a particular typically Mexican look, I think. My husband, who looks white (I call him viejo Gachupin pelon sordo) calls the typical Mexican the result of the Mestizaje. Yet no two Mexicans could look more different than he and I, he 6 ft, me 5 ft; we could have been the Espanol and the Indian pictured in the photos. Yet I can trace both of our lineages back to the early 1700's in Mexico. My Spanish-Basque friend said that when she met her Mexican-American serviceman husband in Pamplona (he looks like me) she was fascinated by his appearance. She said she had never seen anyone with the planes of the face like mine and his. In profile we have small noses in line with the chin and forehead, whereas she and my husband have ! the look of Europeans, yet different. He has a large Roman nose with receded chin and forehead in profile and he is bald on top yet very hairy arms and legs. She looks German. Up here in Washington State in an area where there are few Mexicans, I am at times mistaken for Asian or Filipina. I have a hard time convincing the Filipinos around here I am not a Filipina. One man even asked me why I did not want to admit to being Filipina! An interesting thing too about food preferences among us: My Spanish-Basque friend does not like corn tortillas or Mexican food. She prefers bread and fish or chicken. She says that corn is only fed to animals where she comes from. I heard that also from a lady I knew from South America. She was dismayed that her sons were learning to eat "como Indios" since they liked Taco Bell tacos and asked her to make some like their Mexican friends' moms made! . Also, lately, I feel that it is this typical Mexican look, an Indian appearance, that makes many Anglo-Americans so prejudiced against the aliens coming across from south of the border. They are being so mean to those poor people. American employers continue to depend on alien labor for the work that many Americans won't stoop to do, and that is where the problem lies, not with the poor people looking to improve their lives. I am off my soapbox now, Emilie
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