Poll: Do you dislike Mexican immigrants?

[Littlejoe]

In Texas, there are certain trades that seem pretty much dominated by Mexican (or Latino) labor.

When I was building my house, most of my contractors were Mexican or Latino. I worked with them on a pretty much daily basis, and often brought them lunch - a full spread of fajitas or BBQ or whatever.

Naturally, I wanted to make them happy so they'd do good work on my house, but I genuinely appreciated their work ethic - always showing up on time, putting in a full day's work, demonstrating a determination to 'get the job done'... I never asked to see a green card, or question them about their legal status - that was the responsibility of the general contractor, himself a Mexican immigrant, and we quickly became best friends.

There is absolutely no reason to "dislike" these hard working people.

They even slept and ate in my house!!!!

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Lunch with my Mexican friends...

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As a quick aside...I have a fairly close Hispanic friend who once told me that all the Mexicans that he knew did NOT like being called Latino's. Anyone else ever heard that?

[seer]

As a quick aside...I have a fairly close Hispanic friend who once told me that all the Mexicans that he knew did NOT like being called Latino's. Anyone else ever heard that?

Yes, I never knew this until I had Mexican neighbors. They consider themselves Europeans, not to be confused with the "natives" of South America who they consider Latino.

[Cow Poke]

As a quick aside...I have a fairly close Hispanic friend who once told me that all the Mexicans that he knew did NOT like being called Latino's. Anyone else ever heard that?

Yes, but it's almost like - we used to get blasted for calling African-Americans "negroes", even though there's the United Negro College Fund, and some of my favorite Gospel music - the Negro Spiritual (I got blasted for saying that) - and we can't say "colored", even though there's the NAACP, then it was "black is beautiful", then "person of color", then...

But the "Mexican" thing seems to be a "national pride" as opposed to being lumped together with "a bunch of other nationalities".

But I even had a Latino friend who didn't like the fact that "we" talk about being Americans, cause SHE was an "American", too - from South America.

I just call them "friends".


(but, yeah, I know what you mean - kinda danged if you do, danged if you don't)

[Littlejoe]

Yes, I never knew this until I had Mexican neighbors. They consider themselves Europeans, not to be confused with the "natives" of South America who they consider Latino.

Interesting. I never asked him why...(we were in a deep conversation about issues in his community and he threw that out there. I meant to follow up on it but never did.) Seeing you and CP use Latino, brought back to mind.

[guacamole]

As a quick aside...I have a fairly close Hispanic friend who once told me that all the Mexicans that he knew did NOT like being called Latino's. Anyone else ever heard that?

Not to be politically correct about it, but Latino is a weird term that annihilates all kind of national and ethnic difference. It's beginning to pick up some of the negative connotation that "Oriental" carries. I suppose I get it--afterall, Mexico is closer to the United States than it is to Brazil, and are still split by a language, but people from both countries get lumped together. I feel like the objection is kind of obnoxious.

On another hand, the term "Latino" itself is being challenged on the fringe left by the whole "Latinx" as a gender neutral/ambiguous/nonbinary term instead of Latino/Latina. Which makes sense because LATINOS ARE NATURAL CONSERVATIVES.

[Cow Poke]

Yes, I never knew this until I had Mexican neighbors. They consider themselves Europeans, not to be confused with the "natives" of South America who they consider Latino.

Yeah, one of our missionary candidates was from Mexico, but she preferred to be called an Indian, because she was Mosquito (Miskito / Mosquitia) Indian.

Interestingly, we found out that her tuition for the ENTIRE YEAR at Rio Grande Bible School was only like $450 a year, so our little Church agreed to pay her way through college. On Thanksgiving and Christmas, when the school would shut down for the holidays, it was WAY TOO FAR for her to go all they way back home, so we would drive down to the valley and bring her home with us.

Side story -- one night, she and two of her college friends were sitting in my living room (they stayed with us all through Christmas / New Year) and we were talking - I speak a little TexMex, and at the time, Araceli spoke very little English.

She had a theological question she wanted to discuss, and for the next TWO HOURS, we sat and had a conversation where she understood everything I said, and I understood everything she said. My wife was there, and told me after the fact, that she really couldn't understand what Celi was saying, but she could tell that I was totally getting it.

It was absolutely amazing!

Anyway, another case of me disliking Mexican immigrants, I guess.

[seer]

Which makes sense because LATINOS ARE NATURAL CONSERVATIVES.

The ones in my neighborhood certainly are, though they see Democrats as more friendly to them generally.

[Cow Poke]

Interesting. I never asked him why...(we were in a deep conversation about issues in his community and he threw that out there. I meant to follow up on it but never did.) Seeing you and CP use Latino, brought back to mind.

I don't think I ever use Latino in actual conversation in real life, cause it's such a weird term to me. And I rarely use "Hispanic", except with reference to foods and culture... I've gotten to where I just avoid those tags at all, cause somebody is always looking to take offense.

[seer]

Yeah, one of our missionary candidates was from Mexico, but she preferred to be called an Indian, because she was Mosquito (Miskito / Mosquitia) Indian.

Interestingly, we found out that her tuition for the ENTIRE YEAR at Rio Grande Bible School was only like $450 a year, so our little Church agreed to pay her way through college. On Thanksgiving and Christmas, when the school would shut down for the holidays, it was WAY TOO FAR for her to go all they way back home, so we would drive down to the valley and bring her home with us.

Side story -- one night, she and two of her college friends were sitting in my living room (they stayed with us all through Christmas / New Year) and we were talking - I speak a little TexMex, and at the time, Araceli spoke very little English.

She had a theological question she wanted to discuss, and for the next TWO HOURS, we sat and had a conversation where she understood everything I said, and I understood everything she said. My wife was there, and told me after the fact, that she really couldn't understand what Celi was saying, but she could tell that I was totally getting it.

It was absolutely amazing!

Anyway, another case of me disliking Mexican immigrants, I guess.

Great story, the thing is people like Star or Tass do not know these people and probably never had any personal interaction with them yet keep talking out their butts like they know something....

[guacamole]

The ones in my neighborhood certainly are, though they see Democrats as more friendly to them generally.

I don't see anything weird about a group of pro-life, pro-religious education, pro-traditional family, and pro-military people leaning Democrat.

[guacamole]

I don't think I ever use Latino in actual conversation in real life, cause it's such a weird term to me. And I rarely use "Hispanic", except with reference to foods and culture... I've gotten to where I just avoid those tags at all, cause somebody is always looking to take offense.

Exactly. Which is why it's obnoxious. "I'm going to be offended at you no matter what you say."

[seer]

I don't see anything weird about a group of pro-life, pro-religious education, pro-traditional family, and pro-military people leaning Democrat.

I think it revolves around the immigration issue and public assistance.

[Cow Poke]

...Side story -- one night, she and two of her college friends were sitting in my living room (they stayed with us all through Christmas / New Year) and we were talking - I speak a little TexMex, and at the time, Araceli spoke very little English....

So, when we first met, I used a laptop where I had a translation program (this was WAY back before Google Translate) and I would type something, hit "translate", and hand the laptop to Celi, then she would respond, hit "translate" and hand it back to me, and we conversed thusly.

One funny incident occurred where she was telling me about her potato being very ill, and was hospitalized --- it didn't take long to realize that the computer was translating "father" (papa) as "potato", so we got that cleared up. (In Mexico, McDonald's sells Papas, not French Fries)

Even stranger, however, was when she told me that I made her "very happy in her groin" - a bad translation of "deep down joy". (I never mentioned to her that it came translated that way - but she probably wonders why I looked a bit stunned at first) CONTEXT is so important!

[Cow Poke]

Exactly. Which is why it's obnoxious. "I'm going to be offended at you no matter what you say."

[Mountain Man]

I suspect this poll's going to suffer from the "I'm not racist, but..." phenomena.

How about "I'm not a racist. Period."