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To: muawiyah
Now “Latina” means something else entirely. Just do a google.com search for that word ~ it does not exactly show you elderly Mexican ladies from the village.

Hi, muawiyah.

The definitions I gave were the definitions used in Spain and in actual Spanish-speaking countries. In my other Internet lives, on historical and cultural forums based in Spain, I am fluent in Castilian and can read and write Gallego, the regional language of Galicia. Unless I specifically identify myself as American, the other forum members assume that I am a Spaniard. I correspond with Spaniards in Spain several times per week.

I know that you have expressed interest in Galicia in the past. If you want to hear Galician spoken, you can stream GALICIA TV at this link.

In the U.S., where a black man whose African ancestors crossed the Atlantic 250 years ago is an "African American" but a white naturalized American born in South Africa with 250 years of Afrikaner ancestry is not, all rhyme or reason goes out the window.

Earlier today, I was browsing a "Chicano" forum where they were discussing the Latino vs Hispanic vs Mexican vs Chicano topic. The discussion was all over the place, almost everybody was totally confused about what anything meant but, most importantly, ...... the forum posts were all in English.

A lot of these so-called "Chicanos" could not carry on a 30 second conversation in Spanish with a real Mexican if their lives depended on it.

Likewise, look at the cover of "Latina Magazine". What do you notice .... besides the girl?

All the articles are in English. :-)

In correct usage in Spain or in a Spanish-speaking country, Salena Gomez or Mark Sanchez of the New York Jets would be called "Latinos" if they actually spoke Spanish (Castellano) or Portuguese or Gallgo or Catalan or French or Italian or any other Romance language. However, neither Salena Gomez nor Mark Sanchez speak Spanish.

In Spain, they would be called, "Estadounidenses de descendencia mexicana con apellidos hispanos: (U.S. citizens of Mexican descent with Spanish surnames.)


208 posted on 08/30/2011 7:17:13 PM PDT by Polybius (Defeating Obama is Priority Number One)
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To: Polybius
Probably.

BTW, all the really big circulation magazines in the US that are oriented toward an Hispanic audience are in English. It's all simple economics.

One of my cousins is married to an individual from Galicia.

Going beyond that, I discovered the Galician version of the Annals of the King that underlie the King Arthur, etc. stories.

I was very disappointed to find that the last speaker of the Gaelic of Galicia died in the 1600s ~ it's been replaced with Gallego (which, depending on whether you liked Franco or disliked him, is usually contrasted to Portuguese or Spanish).

Interesting that you can deal with that language ~ kind of like discovering Ladino for the first time ~ WOW, Latin with a Hebrew accent ~ but that gave the source of the various occupational names so many Jews still use today (which is of interest in genealogy of nothing else).

For what it's worth I was able to pass as a Canadian for quite some time on an early Franco/Breton discussion board ~ simply by using an English/French computer translation program. So much for French eh?!

Today I've tracked the ancestors all the way from the Danube to the Black Sea to various points along the Mediterranean to Spain (to Galicia in fact), and from there to Scota (now Ireland), to Britain (now Alba and England), and from there to Brittany, to the Rhone Valley and finally to Sweden ~ and from there the big leap to America!

It was a heck of a way to study genealogy, and I had to brush up on every language I'd studied in the slightest ~ but thanks to on-line translators my only concern now are the ideomatic expressions.

I'm putting you down on my Galicia, Spain and Gallego memory bank chart.

211 posted on 08/30/2011 7:38:04 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Polybius

And let’s hear it for the internet’s Latinas ~ they do their part!


212 posted on 08/30/2011 7:38:58 PM PDT by muawiyah
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