General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I am Latina but pass as White [View all]artislife
(9,497 posts)Encompasses the shared history of coming north from Central and South America. My grandmother's family was indigenous and I doubt we have much Spanish blood in there. She looked indigenous but I know little about her family. My mother was proud to be of Irish descent and didn't like her in-laws at all. We were taught very little and only picked up what we knew by asking my grandparents. Later I went to care for her when I was 17 and one of my brothers lived with them both until her death. He is the one with the knowledge or what little of it that we know, I found out bits and pieces.
To be honest, Cubans don't seem really as Latino to me because how they are welcomed here into this country without the bias the rest of us gets. Perhaps now with the normalization between our two countries, they will also find themselves not wanted.
When President Obama was running in 2008, I read some AA writers who were saying he did not share the African American experience since his family hadn't been slaves. It was interesting to me, because of lot of the self identification of a race is with a shared experience as well as bloodlines or skin color or ethnicity.
My Irish side loves the suffering of the Irish. It is a badge of honor. It is very much a part of what they mean when they say they are Irish American.
So Latina means a woman whose people came north, were and are unwanted by a large swath of people here. The Mexican Catholism of my grandmother was different from the Irish Catholism of my mother's family. The Day of the Dead v Halloween, the importance of Mary...the saints...well the saints were pretty important to each side to be sure, just different ones.
I hope I am explaining myself here clearly.