yeah, it's a complicated thing, alright. I sometimes thank God that I can in no way, no how, pass as anything but black, and have therefore never faced the fear/temptation of doing so.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" <hellomahog...@gmail.com> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, February 1, 2010 5:30:17 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] OT: Alba Making Effort to Embrace Latina Heritage In California it is quite common to meet people of Mexican and or Central and South American heritage that do not know how to speak Spanish. It always bothered me that they would deny that part of themselves in order to "pass" as white. They see all of the benefits that passing brings and quickly push down that part of themselves if they have anglo features. One friend of mine calls it the "banana effect." Brown on the outside, white on the inside. Its one of those topics that doesn't get discussed very often especially on a large scale. On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 10:03 AM, Keith Johnson < keithbjohn...@comcast.net > wrote: I guess that's the blessing and curse of living in a heterogeneous society: it's easy, perhaps even expected, to succeed without having to hold on to all aspects of one's cultural heritage. I went to school with a lot of Mexicans back in Texas, and many of them couldn't speak Spanish. (Typically at that time it was those who tried very hard to assimilate, only dating white people, mispronouncing their Spanish names with Anglicized pronounciations). Some even denied they were Mexican when asked. I can recall friends of both genders dealing with parents who insisted they not speak Spanish, and who pushed them toward marrying whites--or at the least, light-skinned Mexicans who also had left that part of their heritage behind. There was a clear schism between those Mexicans who embraced their heritage, and those who didn't, whom their fellows derided as trying to "be white". Whether they were or not, it's always made me a little sad at people who can no longer speak the language of their ancestors, or who know little about their non-white, non-American heritage when those things are there for the taking. I guess as a black man whose link to much of my history is severed, I've always had a feeling of "How could you *not* embrace your heritage?" I can recall many times in high school and college when whites would have long discussions about their ancestry, tracing their family lines back to England, Scotland, Ireland, etc. I used to hate when they'd turn to me for my genealogy. Far as I could get was Louisiana, and mutter some vagueness about the general part of West Africa that was my likely origin. How, i've always wondered, can people who have such wealth of knowledge right in front of them *not* pursue it? I guess some cynics will say Alba's only doing this for monetary gain: so she can access a new stream of movies and stuff, the same way some feel Jennifer Lopez started embracing her Latina heritage fully once Latin music became popular and lucrative in the States. (Some said the same about Racque Welch exploring her Latin roots in recent years). Hopefully she just genuinely wants to explore a part of her makeup that's heretofore been neglected. Maybe she can give Tiger Woods a call. :) ********************************* http://blog.taragana.com/e/2010/01/30/alba-gets-serious-about-spanish-85683/ JESSICA ALBA is taking Spanish lessons , so she can sign up for Latin movies and feel more confident when talking about her Mexican heritage. The actress admits she confused a lot of journalists when she first became a star - because she looked Latino but couldn’t speak the language. Her lack of Spanish led to criticism and suggestions she wasn’t a true Latina - something that really upset the Fantastic Four star. She tells Siempre Mujer magazine, “I didn’t want to misrepresent Latinos and I didn’t know how to defend myself. But I went to my room and I cried all night. Since then, I’ve preferred not to comment on the subject. “I tried to explain to them that, in this country (America), I’m considered Latina and, thus, I consider myself Latina as well. I grew up eating enchiladas… I identify with Mexicans. It’s in my blood whether or not I speak Spanish.” And now she’s a mum, she has decided to sign up for Spanish lessons, so she and her daughter Honor can become fluent. She adds, “I know the basics, but I just hired a professor that specialises in Hispanic studies to teach me and Honor. God knows that I wish I was raised bilingual. But it wasn’t to be. “I want to make movies in Spanish… There are so many interesting themes and stories that are worth sharing, like the lives of immigrants, for example. “There’s a whole world that hasn’t been sufficiently explored and I want to be part of it - the violence on the Mexican borders, the political upheaval in Venezuela and Bolivia and the drug trafficking in Colombia.” -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/
