Oh just great next thing the U.S. is going to get a bill for broken bats & pipes.
liberty call in PR
"don't shoot him, you'll just make him mad"
Posted on 04/23/2002 11:22:12 AM PDT by Walkin Man
Mob Attacks Marines
Tue Apr 23, 2:13 PM ET
By PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press Writer
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - A mob armed with bats and pipes attacked 10 U.S. Navy (news - web sites) Marines, leaving one with a cranial fracture and others with injuries from broken bones to minor scrapes, the Navy said Tuesday.
The Marines — more than 60 wearing civilian clothes at the time — had just finished work as a security detachment for contested military exercises on the outlying island of Vieques.
Two Marines were arguing between themselves outside at about 11 p.m. when a mob armed with lead pipes and bats started beating them, Barker said. He did not say what the fight was about.
Eight other Marines came to their friends' defense, and the brawl developed into a large street fight involving more than two dozen people, the Navy and police said.
The attackers fled when police were called. There were no arrests.
Police and the Navy said the fight occurred outside the Hard Rock Cafe, but manager Arnoldo Pegan said it happened about five blocks away.
"The Marines stopped by for dinner and like always, they were well-behaved," he said, adding he saw no argument.
The Marines, stationed in Tidewater, Va., are expected to return to their duties on the mainland this week. They had arrived at the cafe in white civilian buses.
Anti-military sentiment in this U.S. territory flared after an off-target bomb killed a civilian guard in 1999 on Vieques.
Protesters regularly break into the bombing range to delay exercises. The Navy says that during the latest round of maneuvers, which ended last week, protesters threw rocks and other objects at military personnel. The protesters say their demonstrations are peaceful.
And, of course, Puetro Ricans that never left the island get to vote for primary elections in the states! George W. Bush won the "Puetro Rican primary" by a nice margin. I think they got eight delegates or something. I guess non-taxpayers in a non-state get more representation than some people who actually LIVE and WORK in the United States!
I happen to know the island quite well. Good parts and bad parts. (and not just on some 2 week vacation either) but over several long visits for over 20 years. As keen on the media as you might think you are, they are only showing you the Puerto Ricans today who can be compared to our country's "green party". Remember the Seattle riots? Otherwise, the oppinion of MPuerto Ricans regarding independence is a little under 50% want U.S. statehood and the other half want the status quo. Very few are for independence. They see what happens to latin american countries when they become independent...(it becomes a socialist/dictatorship) and they enjoy the American lifestyle that the status quo has brought them (like clean running tap water and modern luxuruies as well as a fantastic tourism economy). More importantly, they are American citizens, which lets them enter the U.S. freely. The U.S. likes to keep P.R. around for a strategic military base (rent free), And P.R. knows that if the U.S. cuts them off it'll just become another banana republic.
When is the term Gringo used in a positive sense? Americans sometimes use it non-pejoratively to refer to themselves, but I've lived in San Diego near the Mexican border for 50 years and I've never heard it used by Mexicans, and especially Chicanos, in other context than pejorative. It's the equivalent of "beaner" for Mexican.
I'm Cuban American and I met a Chicano a couple of years ago at a mutual friend's birthday party. We were seated at the same table. Since I am 6'3'', white and blue eyed, he assumed I was "Anglo".
When he began to complain about how "Hispanics" cannot succeed in the USA, I switched the conversation from English to Spanish, much to his surprise, and told him that I was "Hispanic" myself and was doing quite well although my father and I landed in the USA when I was 6 with nothing but the clothes in our suitcases.
He then said that was because I was "Gringo". "Since every ancestor in my family tree came from a Spanish line, why do you say that I am a Gringo?", I asked him. His reply was that I was white. To him, a Gringo was simply anyone who was white and not of Indian blood.
Thank you for your opinion. I was kinda looking for facts though.
Oh just great next thing the U.S. is going to get a bill for broken bats & pipes.
liberty call in PR
"don't shoot him, you'll just make him mad"
In Mexico, for example, the term "gringo" is used for foreigners. For the average Mexican, however, anyone with fair skin and/or light eyes, even if they were born in Mexico, is referred to as "guero" (pronounced "weddo"). As far as the Chicanos are concerned, they have a whole different terminology altogether. --- Un gringo se llama Clemenza
There are two explanations for this term:
1. It is a deriviative of the medeval Spanish word for "Greek", which was synomous with "foreigner" at the time.
2. During the Mexican-American war, the Mexican soldiers heard American soldiers singing a then popular tune on many occasions that went something like "green go the lilacs."
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