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Gustavo Arellano

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¡ASK A MEXICAN!: Why do Hispanics deny that George Zimmerman is Hispanic?

Posted: 04/14/2012 7:19 am

Dear Mexican: Why do Hispanics deny that George Zimmerman is Hispanic? He did nothing wrong and has been crucified in the media--La Raza cannot bow down to the race baiters and race traitors that call themselves African-American leaders!

Brown and Down

Dear Wab: This column is ¡Ask a Mexican!, not ¡Ask a Hispanic!, but I'll play, only because negrito-hating pendejos like you need to get smacked down. No Latinos deny that Zimmerman is half-Peruvian, and the reason we're joining African-American leaders in vilifying him is because Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, a story of racial profiling gone horribly wrong that our respective communities know far too well. Wish there was a joke here--oh, wait, it's your tortured logic. ¡Gracias!

We have much in common. I live in Washington, DC; you live in Wab-ington, OC. My fair city is the capital of Los Gabachos Unidos de America; your 
fair city is the capitol of La Raza Mojada. You have a poorly disguised desire to abandon your Mexican heritage and become a gabacho: you use English like a native, you vote, you pay taxes. I have a poorly disguised desire to rise above gabachismo and become Mexican: I butcher Spanish and I listen to son huasteca, son jarocho, corridos from the 1940s and '50s, and mariachi--the jinete variety without the trumpets, as played on the haciendas. (Notice the lame attempt to appear more authentic than those fresas who listen to urban mariachi with trumpets.) You console yourself with the thought that, no matter how much you fall short as a gabacho, you will never be Guatamalan. I console myself with the thought that, in spite of having been born next to the border, I will never be from West Virginia. What's a failure of a vendido to do but hide his despair behind racial slurs directed at the object of his aspirations? Ah, but your racist Rolodex is so much more extensive than mine.



Which brings me to my request. You've created a glossary for those of us who need to expand our rolodexes, but you haven't updated or expanded it in a long time. Please, help out a brother crypto-vendido and add some new Spanish language epithets to your glossary periodically. Yours in the despecho, born of ambición frustrada, sign me:

Frito Bandito (Cockney rhyming slang for "cripto-vendido")

Dear Gabacho: BRAVO! Here I am, plugging the hell out of my new book, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America--and you're plugging the glossary for my ¡Ask a Mexican! tome! I should hire you to do publicity! But you bring up a great challenge, one I'm more than happy to extend to my readers. So, gentle readers: time to create a new glossary for this columna that's the Mexi equivalent of The Devil's Dictionary, something that'll further teach gabas the essentials of us. Example: "Mujer: Mexican worker whose only purpose is to make sure fresh tortillas greet the familia daily." Surely, ustedes can do better than me! Start sending them in, and I'll compile the best in an upcoming column!

BUY TACO USA! Gentle cabrones: My much-promised "Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America", has finally hit bookstores! Place your order with your favorite local bookstore, your finer online retailers, your craftier piratas, but place it: my libro editor has already promised to deport me from the publishing industry if we don't sell enough copies! And stay tuned for book signing info!

Ask the Mexican at themexican@askamexican.net, be his fan on Facebook, follow him on Twitter @gustavoarellano or ask him a video question at youtube.com/askamexicano!

 
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Hoodooman
Non-Aggression Principle
12:20 PM on 04/16/2012
There is no such thing as a "hispanic" or a "latino". There are only human beings.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Fred Bronson
America Unite, Export and Deport
08:21 PM on 04/15/2012
Very few like to bring on the lime light right now, then a lot less volunteer,
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nietowill57
Designed to defend against foreign and DOMESTIC
05:21 PM on 04/15/2012
I thought this was hilarious! I'll be sure to follow, but to the original question, I whole heartedly agree with Gustavo. To the sensitive issue of who's who. Who are we? Who speaks for us? I've been out of the country and I need to catch up. I am hispanic and proud to be Mexican-American and since I see quite a few wise guys and gals here, I am not looking for a date, just looking for a cause that best supports our issues. By the way, the rest of the world thinks that we, Los Americanos, are going to hell in a hand basket. I don't believe it to be so, but I need some ammo.
12:13 PM on 04/15/2012
Ask a Mexican? That sounds and is so wrong?
07:07 PM on 04/18/2012
Dave Chappelle's "Ask a Black Dude" with Paul Mooney was even saltier, and who actually judges a column or book by its title?
mira chancleta
C'mon, there's NO "La Tino" race
11:37 AM on 04/15/2012
This article and some of the ignorant responses to it, exemplify the huge DISCONNECT between REAL latin-cultured people in the Western Hemisphere in Central & South America and the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean AND the confused garden-variety "La Tinos" in the US.

Case in point...Zimmerman is quoted as saying that he is "hispanic" and then that admission is interpreted as some recognition of a specific "race".

NO! the word "hispano" or "latino" has absolutely NO racial connotation in ANY Latin-American socio-cultural context, EVER!

That is as silly as any American in the States ascribing racial identity to anyone claiming to be from New Jersey, New Mexico or New York.

Seriously, isn't it time to think about these things a bit more intelligently than the level of the Taco Belle drive-up menu, dontcha think?
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Fran Jaime
Yo Soy 132!
08:36 PM on 04/14/2012
Thank you, Gustavo for another very good column. I will think about your dictionary and see if I can find words to add to it.
mira chancleta
C'mon, there's NO "La Tino" race
04:08 PM on 04/14/2012
What "Hyspaniks" are you talking about?
Any that I know with even 1 shred of intelligence and integrity KNOW better than to make specious claims about 40 MILLION categorically "Hyspanik" people.
We are NOT the same politically, ethnically, racially or even cosmically.
Please stop writing these inanities about the "Hyspaniks" as if we were of one brain, heart or soul.
You are only feeding the stereo-type machine in Hollywood and Washington, DC.
And NEITHER endeavor is worth the plastic trophies and prizes they receive each year by the promoters of this cr*p.
Pero aun siguen bailando como munecas en seda...dios mio!
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Fran Jaime
Yo Soy 132!
08:38 PM on 04/14/2012
You're so bitter, you're funny! You're what my mom used to call a "gallo enano"! "Es como el gallo enano. En tratar y no alcanzar, se la pasa todo el año!" Well, keep jumping maybe someday you will make a valid point.
mira chancleta
C'mon, there's NO "La Tino" race
10:01 PM on 04/14/2012
Margaritas are bitter, so don't confuse ascerbic tone with bitterness
I am very weary of reading one non-story after another about the "Hyspaniks".
They are insulting, patronizing and not much higher than junior high school attempts at very incompetent journalism.
You can learn more about "hyspaniks" by listening at the rear orifice of the Taco Bell Chihuahua.
Pero sigue bailando y brincando en el charco de tu estupidez
01:47 PM on 04/14/2012
Clearly there was a racial subtext to his actions and to the non-action of the police...and even if he is not white, the institutional and social forces behind Zimmerman's suspicion of black men and the police's sympathizing with a non-black murdering a "suspicious" black man in so-called self-defence are white forces. George Zimmerman looks brown. He looks like he would be read as a person of color out and about on the street. Some people are insisting that Zimmerman is white anyway or a white Latino. But he doesn't look white...white people do not let men who look like Zimmerman be white in the US. However, again, the crime he committed is definitely connected to white supremacy and institutional racism. I haven't seen a lot of Latinos trying to say Zimmerman isn't Latino. Is this really the case? Instead I have seen members of Latino communities being supportive of Trayvon's family and taking an introspective look at racism against blacks (both African Americans and black Latinos) in various Latino cultures...I have seen and heard a lot of discussions on these topics since the murder or Trayvon Martin has made headlines. Media is reporting polls that show a 'racial divide' in the way that whites and blacks view the case. When is the mainstream white community going to show wide scale introspection on the same issue?
mira chancleta
C'mon, there's NO "La Tino" race
04:21 PM on 04/14/2012
Lucky,
I don't know how "clearly" anything is about this travesty in the making judicial freak show.
To say Mr. Z looks "brown" is not the most intelligent thing to write here.

And please don't ever travel to Mediterranean Europe where you will be overwhelmed by the seemingly "brown" people you will see after a lifetime of living and working in sun-filled days and being of southern European background.

I don't know what his racial background is and no one else should focusing on that either.

What is more relevant is whether he killed this kid deliberately, out of some psychotic delusion or if he really was defending himself and "standing his ground".

However, being VERY familiar with the level of ignorance, ethno-centriism-gone-wild and the chronic provincialism and totally misinformed race "knowledge" that represents itself as adolescent "race awareneness" in the US, I am not hopeful of anything more "just" than a kangaroo trial by bigots, TV networks and "race" spokes-idiots on the 6 o'clock news.

And BTW..."La Tino" has never been a race or a color or even an ethnicity or culture.
However, to the very narrow mind of most Americans, "La Tino" has evolved in a grossly misinformed political coin of the realm which only explodes in the hands of those who pick it up and hug it to their chest.
Samearn
Educated, liberal Southerner...(we DO exist!)
11:09 AM on 04/17/2012
Amen. F&F.

“When is the mainstream white community going to show wide scale introspection on the same issue?”
It’s about time, actually. The real barrier is that many White people (and I know because I am one AND I live in the conservative South) are extremely defensive when it comes to interracial matters. Like if something comes up pointing to a White person being racist, there is immediate defensiveness by this community and attacking the accuser. It’s like it’s impossible for people to just admit that racism still exists – because somehow they feel it’s a personal attack even if it’s about someone else entirely. If we could be more honest about the inequalities and prejudices that still exist, I think there would be less anger and resentment from who feel eternally frustrated that their inequality is constantly denied by those who perpetuated and institutionalized it.

“white people do not let men who look like Zimmerman be white in the US”

Going back to my above statement, by pointing out that “he’s not really White,” they alleviate those feelings of defensiveness “of the white race” because someone outside the group can be blamed. Historically, White people tend to classify people whit “One Drop” of any other kind of blood as the “other” group – because somehow it makes their Whiteness impure.
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Maggie Urrely
When we label we segregate
12:52 PM on 04/14/2012
Bravo Mr. Arellano! For once in your life you write something that is the truth--I'm talking about the Travon Martin/Zimmerman piece not the other babbling
mira chancleta
C'mon, there's NO "La Tino" race
04:22 PM on 04/14/2012
Maggie...you are much kinder than I am...
07:16 PM on 04/18/2012
Yeah, that question was obviously meant to be disrespectful, irritating and wholly retarded. There, I said it. Zimmerman is half latin-american and half caucasian, but the real issues that most of this country's interested parties in the internet comment sections totally misses are the facts that :1. Zimmerman is not actually a cop. 2. He called 911, which is for emergencies and not for contacting actual cops for the backup he obviously didn't have when he pursued and then shot an unarmed teenager in the chest. To kill. 3. In summation, Zimmerman DID EVERYTHING WRONG. Why does this supposedly educated and powerful country's people choose to purposely focus everyone's eyes in the wrong direction? It really looks stupid and is very selfish as Trayvon's parents lost their child.
12:47 PM on 04/14/2012
I am a Latino, and I feel that a fellow Latino,Zimmerman, has/is being treated unjustly by the media his Civil Rights have been violate, or do we Latinos have Civil Rights?? He was following the Fl state law, "Stand your ground law". Wheres probable cause, due process?? If it had been a Blk "officer" killing a Latino, especialy a Mexican, all this would have never happened...
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Fran Jaime
Yo Soy 132!
08:33 PM on 04/14/2012
Hey, I'm Mexican and I think Arellano is right! Zimmerman racially profiled the kid. He would never have followed him or shot him if he'd been white. It's wrong to racially profile anyone and Zimmerman should go to prison for a very long time. I don't think he will but he should.
mira chancleta
C'mon, there's NO "La Tino" race
11:40 AM on 04/15/2012
...too many Mexicans in prison waiting to be his "mang"
08:44 PM on 04/14/2012
Zimmerman is not your fellow "Latino." Zimmerman is NOT a "Latino" name. He killed that young man in cold blood.
D-Driller
my micro-bio is empty
12:14 AM on 04/15/2012
The racists have to call him a "white-latino" because to call him a "jew-latino" would go against everything the racist media stands for.
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Guscat
10:55 AM on 04/14/2012
What difference does it make?
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homer winslow
Truth in Beauty, Beauty in Truth
12:29 PM on 04/17/2012
It makes none to Trayvon because he is dead! It matters not who pulls the trigger. The bullet still struck the target.
09:45 AM on 04/14/2012
Why do they deny he's Hispanic? Because he himself identifies as a white man. Protestations about "having black friends" notwithstanding, he lived and wanted to be thought of as white. So Hispanics call him what he calls himself.
Aesculus glabra
My micro-bio is empty
10:28 AM on 04/14/2012
By that logic, Michael Jackson was white.
mira chancleta
C'mon, there's NO "La Tino" race
04:03 PM on 04/14/2012
and by that illogic, a woman too...l
D-Driller
my micro-bio is empty
12:15 AM on 04/15/2012
Um, actually, he identified himself on his DL and voter ID as "hispanic". Not white. Hispanic. Google it.
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markspence
09:00 PM on 04/16/2012
He never should've been identified in that manner, period. It's not material too the case.