Food for Thought
I had this conversation with Gay Em once and I told him about one of the many times that I was mistaken for a Latina in California (well, technically speaking, all those of Spanish, Portugese or Italian "stock" are considered Latin, so I could not have been "mistaken" for Latina,...but I digress). I was paying for gas with my credit card and as is the practice in the US, when you pay with your credit card, you need to present your driver's license for verification. Upon seeing my "very Spanish" full name, the attendant spoke to me in Spanish. I answered "Perdon, no comprende Espanol". He then said, in Spanish (which I sometimes understand but cannot speak), that I should not be ashamed of my heritage, that I should be proud to Mexican and never forget my Spanish roots, etc., etc. My answer, obviously in English, was "I'm Filipino. My country was a colony of Spain, but I never learned the language. We speak English."An aside: how I wish that Spanish had not been aboloished from the Philippine curriculum. A third of the world population speaks Spanish. Our original historical documents were written in Spanish, for crying out loud. Jose Rizal wrote Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo in Spanish! The original version of Lupang Hinirang was written - and sung! - in Spanish.
I digress again.
So Gay Em asked me if I ever noticed that Mexicans were proud to be Mexican, South Americans were proud to South Americans (Columbians, Peruvians, etc.),...basically "Latinos" were proud to be Latin. And then you have Filipinos...we who are proud to have been a colony of Spain. Hmmmm....
posted by Calai @ 1:46 PM
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