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Celebrated Latino hire not bilingual
Boston Herald ^ | March 22, 2012 | Dave Wedge

Posted on 03/22/2012 8:30:28 AM PDT by ConservativeStatement

The Boston Fire Department’s new second in command was hailed as the city’s first Latino chief when he was hired last year, but the veteran firefighter doesn’t speak Spanish, the Herald has learned.

(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: bilingual; boston; fire; latino
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Holy smoke.
1 posted on 03/22/2012 8:30:38 AM PDT by ConservativeStatement
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To: ConservativeStatement
I'm never clear on the definition of Hispanic or Latino or who knows what other term is in vogue.

My wife's ancestry is German. It would really be stretching things to call my wife German-American, but I guess you could. I don't think there would be any implication that my wife has a working knowledge of German. She doesn't.

If someone is "Latino", is there some requirement that they speak Spanish in order to justify the desgination?

2 posted on 03/22/2012 8:34:33 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy ("And the public gets what the public wants" -- The Jam)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Kind of like an African-American whose ancestors have lived in North America since two hundred years ago.

And as for Spanish speaking, what about Brazilians whose language would be Portuguese?

3 posted on 03/22/2012 8:43:25 AM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class!)
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To: ConservativeStatement

Perhaps he’s simply the most qualified to PERFORM HIS DUTIES?!?!?!

What a concept!!!


4 posted on 03/22/2012 8:43:56 AM PDT by G Larry (We are NOT obliged to carry the snake in our pocket and then dismiss the bites as natural behavior.)
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To: ConservativeStatement; GOPsterinMA

Oh, the humanity.


5 posted on 03/22/2012 8:44:29 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj
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To: ClearCase_guy
To clarify my comment -- I know that someone is an "Arab" based on their language. Anyone who speaks Arabic as their native language is an "Arab". Doesn't matter where you live or where your grandfather came from. Your ethnic designation is driven by your language, if your language is Arabic.

Is "Latino" like that? All Spanish speakers are Latino? You don't don't speak Spanish? Then you can't be Latino(?)

I have no idea if the Lords of Political Corectness are defining the term that way.

6 posted on 03/22/2012 8:49:17 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy ("And the public gets what the public wants" -- The Jam)
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To: ConservativeStatement
In the old days, immigrants to America were welcomed with open arms.

In return, those persons largely refused to teach their AMERICAN children their native language.

7 posted on 03/22/2012 8:51:05 AM PDT by OldNavyVet
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To: ConservativeStatement
¿Que?
8 posted on 03/22/2012 8:51:16 AM PDT by douginthearmy (Obamagebra: 1 job + 1 hope + 1 change = 0 jobs + 0 hope)
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To: ConservativeStatement

I knew a legal Hispanic of Mexican background tell me that when she did a stint at MacDonalds, Mexicans would come up to here and start rattling off in Spanish. They’d get ticked off when she told them she didn’t speak the language (true - she was completely Americanized).

There was another Americanized girl I knew who did speak Spanish, and said that one time she worked in a mushroom plant in PA with a lot of Hispanics. When asked something in Spanish, she replied in English. One day one of the women said that she ought to learn Spanish. In fluent Mexican, she replied that when she was in Mexico, she spoke Spanish as a sign of respect for the people and their country - and - when she was in America, she spoke English for the same reason. If I wasn’t already married, I’d have gone for her.


9 posted on 03/22/2012 8:52:41 AM PDT by Oatka (This is America. Assimilate or evaporate.)
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To: Oatka

>> fluent Mexican, she replied that when she was in Mexico, she spoke Spanish as a sign of respect for the people and their country <<

My wife is from Mexico and feels exactly that way. She does everything in English. She also gets very angry at illegal aliens and their supporters.

She also has made it clear that when we retire to Mexico (as a National, she can buy land at the coast) I will learn Spanish (better than my current rather pidgin version of it).


10 posted on 03/22/2012 9:00:12 AM PDT by freedumb2003 ('RETRO' Abortions = performed on 84th trimester individuals who think killing babies is a "right.")
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To: ConservativeStatement

How long before La Raza shows up to insist on racial justice that would see this man losing his position as an obvious ringer?


11 posted on 03/22/2012 9:10:03 AM PDT by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
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To: ConservativeStatement

Hey everyone, look at us. We promoted a minority. Aren’t we just so special?


12 posted on 03/22/2012 9:10:16 AM PDT by Enterprise ("Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire)
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To: ConservativeStatement

He only likes women? Well, that isn’t going to go over well in Boston.


13 posted on 03/22/2012 9:12:49 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: ConservativeStatement

Well, it’s better than my first thought when I read the headline. I thought they meant he didn’t speak ENGLISH!!!


14 posted on 03/22/2012 9:15:57 AM PDT by libertylover (The problem with Obama is not that his skin is too black, it's that his ideas are too RED.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj; raccoonradio

I saw that...epic fail to the leftists I guess.

This balances out the ex-superintendent of Lawrence Public Schools who couldn’t communicate anything in English.


15 posted on 03/22/2012 9:16:15 AM PDT by GOPsterinMA (The Establishment is the establishment.)
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To: ConservativeStatement

It would be funny if he actually spoke Latin... ‘See, I’m a genuine Latino (caveat emptor)’


16 posted on 03/22/2012 9:17:25 AM PDT by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
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To: ConservativeStatement

They would probably be thrilled if he spoke ONLY Spanish.


17 posted on 03/22/2012 9:30:35 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia (Be careful of believing something just because you want it to be true.)
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To: ConservativeStatement

We had a clerk/typist of Mexican descent in our office (born in CA) who was hired with a minority preference - she could barely type and was nearly illiterate but they kept her for over a year until she had to be let go for incompetence. She sued, of course - and lost. Her sole argument was racism against latinos, but she could not speak a word of Spanish, let alone function at work.


18 posted on 03/22/2012 9:30:47 AM PDT by dainbramaged (No more RINOS, for cryin' out loud!)
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To: reg45
Kind of like an African-American whose ancestors have lived in North America since two hundred years ago.

The media and black leaders have decided that would be less diverse than an African American whose only connection to slavery was ancestors who sold their neighbors to the slave trade, but who plays up his connection to slavery with voters who not only were never slaves but have never even met a former slave.

19 posted on 03/22/2012 9:42:43 AM PDT by Pollster1 (Natural born citizen of the USA, with the birth certificate to prove it)
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To: ClearCase_guy

It can be quite confusing, an Arab is someone from the Arabian Peninsula, but we call anyone speaking Arabic, an Arab. No so in North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East. While there are folks in all those regions that speak Arabic, they consider themselves, Saudi’s, Tunisians, Jordanians, etc.

Latino originally refered to folks who spoke Latin or languages derived from Latin. (Italian, French, Spanish, and Portugese) Technically, folks from Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal are Latino. Because South America, Central America, and the southern portion of North America, were colonized by Spain and Portugal, it was lumped together as Latin America and the folks that live there are also called Latinos. A better term would be Hispanic, meaning they share a common ancestral culture originating in Spain.

Better yet, if they live in this country, they should just call themselves American.


20 posted on 03/22/2012 9:49:24 AM PDT by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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