Was all the stuff Abraham said about how hard it is to be a Mexican-American really true? He said you need to speak Spanish better than the Mexicans and English better than the Americans. Do Mexicans really feel that way when they come here?
shareNo, not really. I would say that is not true for everyone.
shareI'm not sure about recently arrived Mexican immigrants, but as a third-generation Mexican-American, I can tell you about the grief I've gotten due to the fact that I don't speak Spanish. I know it, I understand it, but I don't speak it, and because of that, I've been called names. If Abraham Quintanilla had really said that, then he was right. If you're a Hispanic who doesn't do the things that Latinos are "supposed" to do, you're a "coconut" (a Hispanic who's "brown" on the outside but "white" inside; it was one of the names I was called). In short, you're a "traitor" to your people. You can also be insulted by others because you're a Hispanic, period. It's the "Catch-22" of race--damned if you're Hispanic, damned if you're not Hispanic enough.
shareI once got called a racist by an older mexican man because I couldn't speak spanish even though I'm mexican.
shareThe only problem I have is expecting to speak spanish. People look at me like I'm an alien when I say I don't speak Spanish, which makes me feel embarrassed and ashamed because I only know English and not my native language. I envy those who can speak Spanish and English fluently. It is a gift.
shareAs a Mexican-AMERICAN you are speaking your native language.
shareYes! My parents are both from Mexico and I even though Spanish is my first language and I speak it fluently I know I don't sound exactly like a person that's lived there would. Think about that scene in Mrs. Doubtfire where Pierce Brosnan's character comments that Robin William's accent sounds "muddled" and he can't tell where "she" is from. If you've seen Telemundo's novelas you can get an idea of how so many U.S. Latinos like myself sound like. (Telemundo is an American network that produces its own novelas featuring actors from throughout Latin America. They are trained on how to sound "neutral" in their accents so you wouldn't go "oh, that's a Colombian, Mexican, Venezuelan, etc.)
A lot of it has to do with the proximity of Mexico to the U.S., Japanese and German Americans historically could not keep ties with their homelands so easily. So it was not really expected for them to be as ___________ as American. Among Mexican immigrants it's considered to be a source of pride to have an American born kid who has an accent that would make you think they were from Veracruz, Michocan, Nayarit or some other distinct region of Mexico precisely because it is so rare. As good as my Spanish is you would never think "she must be from [specific state of Mexico] because I was raised among Spanish speakers with different accents many of whom aren't even Mexican. I've also heard stories about Salvadoran Americans and Chilean Americans sounding "Mexican" because of where they grew up.
you get looked down upon because of that. it's sad and ANNOYING as hell.
shareDuring trips to visit relatives in Mexico(Hermosillo, Sonora)as a kid, I would get laughed at for not understanding or speaking any Spanish at all. Although, I consider myself semi-fluent in Spanish now, I still don't know enough to carry a whole conversation with somebody that is fluent in the language. And even when I call the family in Mexico, our conversations are in both Spanish and English. The particular scenes where Mexican-Americans feel "stuck in the middle" were when the original "Dinos" were denied the opportunity to play the gig at that beachfront hotel because of being a "Whites only" hotel and then later when the group are playing that Mexican bar but nearly causing a riot because of not playing music in Spanish. And even in that scene where Abraham tells Selena and AB about how Mexican-Americans have to show actual Mexicans from Mexico how "Mexican" they are and how American to White Americans they are too. During that scene, in my opinion, I feel he should've told both Selena and AB that Mexican-Americans have to show White Americans how "Whitewashed" Mexican-Americans are. And that's something that troubles Whites when Mexican-Americans aren't fluent in Spanish or act "Mexican" either. I go through that all of the time myself too.
shareI think the same can be applied to any first born or second born of any ethnicity living in America. You get made fun of by not holding onto your roots and you get made fun of by not trying to assimilate and "do as the romans do." Damn if you do, damn if you don't.
I think the same can be applied to any first born or second born of any ethnicity living in America. You get made fun of by not holding onto your roots and you get made fun of by not trying to assimilate and "do as the romans do." Damn if you do, damn if you don't.
...English better than the Americans
For the most part, yeah, it's true.
Some Mexicans (as in "people born in Mexico") can ridicule you for not being "Mexican" or "Latino" enough.
And, some White people will just see a "Mexican" (in a derogatory way) and nothing else.
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Poor chicanos, americans don't consider them ''americans'' and mexicans don't consider them ''mexicans''. They simply are chicanos.
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