The Hispanic Community in NWA

[Mith242]

^

Ah, I was close enough.

Sorry, didn't mean for it to sound like I was critiquing what you said.

[mcheiss]

Sorry, didn't mean for it to sound like I was critiquing what you said.

No, don't worry about it. We were both right.

[DickSonstreetDFW]

Interesting. But yeah it does get complicated because we're not talking about a race here but more of a cultural aspect.

Hispanic simply means "from a Spanish speaking country of origin."

You can be Amerindian, White, Black or multi-racial racially, but ethnically Hispanic.

I've had this converation with my good friend. His dad is from Mexico (Mestizo), but his mom is Euro-American. So his racial pedigree is majority European, with a heavy Amerindian mix. He speaks no Spanish outside what we learned in high school. Is he still "Hispanic" if its a cultural aspect or language based category? We grew up together in the same "culture".

I am "White", with British, Irish, and German mixture, but my grandfather on one side was 1/4 Amerindian and I know I had at least one Amerindian ancestor on my mother's side a couple of generations back.

Technically, I have nearly as much Amerindian racial heritage as my friend, yet there's no question that I am just considiered "White" or "Caucasian" and I have family roots on this continent pre civil war.

I think it would be more productive and more accurate if we referred to "Hispanics" as simply "Spanish speaking", as there is no true corollary to any racial category and it really serves no purpose, particularly after one generation of immersion in "American" culture and the language is generally left behind.

Add to that, so-called "Hispanics" or "Latinos" come from varied cultures all over Central and South America. Lumping them all together is a bit like calling Japanese, Chinese, Koreans and Laotians "Asian" or "Oriental".

I've said it before that I hate categories like this. I believe that they are perpetuated by the people who profit from our divisions like the "Latino community" beat reporter or columnist who would be out of a job otherwise.

Could we get a census category of "Americans"? That would be awesome.

END 2ND RANT

[mcheiss]

We need to get back to the issues on here.

[Mith242]

We need to get back to the issues on here.

I admit we have gotten off topic. But it's an interesting topic though.

[DickSonstreetDFW]

We need to get back to the issues on here.

The issues? Fine.

The issue, as I see it, is that this whole thread is unproductive.

Where is the thread for the "Black community?"

What about the "Laotian community" in Fort Smith, or NWA?

How about the large Indian community of kids at U of A?

While we're at it, lets start one on the fledgling Jewish community.

Its this kind of focus on one particular group that creates division. Unless you want to represent each group I listed, and countless others, what's the point?

Racial or ethnic politics are counterproductive to strong communities.

There are Hispanics living in NWA. Well, thats great. There's tons of other people there too who fit into enumerable other categories. Do we designate a segment on the evening news for each different subgroup of people? Are there generalities to even be made about the so-called "Hispanic community?" What about the gay/lesbian community. Does such a thing even exist?

If someone began catering to the "White community" and started making generalizations and cultural assumptions about me and other people who share my racial or ethnic background, I'd find that offensive at worst and condescending at best.

I know the intent of the thread is to illustrate cultural diversity. I guess living in a larger city, it seems very simplistic and borderline offensive to me to callously categorize people into groups and make assumptions based on these categorizations.

It certainly isn't productive.

But feel free to categorize, generalize, and oversimplify the community by drawing conclusions based on race or ethnicity. The only people who consider that kind of focus beneficial are those who profit, or those who are so weak that they must rely on their skin color or language for their primary identity.

People are different. What a discovery. Every member of my family is different from the others. Liberal to conservative, athlete to artist, teacher to businessman, to medical professional, to stay at home parents.

Diversity and Division and Divisiveness all come from the same root word.

I wish we could focus on our commonalities rather than our differences.

[mcheiss]

I'm locking this for a few days, we all need to cool down.

[mcheiss]

I've decided to open this topic back up.

I hope each and every forumer will stick to the issues and developments, not name calling and so on.

[masons_dad1]

I've decided to open this topic back up.

I hope each and every forumer will stick to the issues and developments, not name calling and so on.

So does that mean it's okay to talk about Hispanic issues here in the Hispanic Community thread or is that still a touchy subject?

[mcheiss]

I don't care if the issues are brought up, it's good to discuss things like that, as long as it doesn't get carried away.

[Mith242]

I'd just like to say if someone was offended by anything said I'm sorry but I really don't think anything was meant in any negative aspect. I think the hispanic population is mentioned more than others because they make up a larger percentage of the population. If I mention things about the hispanic community it's because I am truely interested. While I certainly can see a need to focus on similarities I also like to learn more about the differences as well.

[masons_dad1]

'Arkansas Democrat-Gazette' To Launch Spanish-language Paper In Spring

Seems the Morning News already has 2 weekly Spanish-language weeklies. What I don't understand is they are FREE! Why isn't my English-language weekly FREE!

[Mith242]

'Arkansas Democrat-Gazette' To Launch Spanish-language Paper In Spring

Seems the Morning News already has 2 weekly Spanish-language weeklies. What I don't understand is they are FREE! Why isn't my English-language weekly FREE!

Yeah I knew we had some here but I guess I didn't know that they were free. I'm also wondering how they manage to do that. Maybe a way to get the hispanics that don't know English well to read they're paper then hope they'll contnue to read their English paper for the real news when they're grasp of English is good enough. That's the only thing I can come up with.

[DickSonstreetDFW]

Yeah I knew we had some here but I guess I didn't know that they were free. I'm also wondering how they manage to do that. Maybe a way to get the hispanics that don't know English well to read they're paper then hope they'll contnue to read their English paper for the real news when they're grasp of English is good enough. That's the only thing I can come up with.

Much simpler than that.

Advertisers looking to cash in on the Spanish-speaking population pay for the paper with their ads.

Some have discovered that there's money to be made by promoting tribalism. There's also money to be made off of illegal immigration.

Neither are good for the community, IMHO.

[Mith242]

I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that the protests against the immigration bills in Congress would eventually happen here in NWA as well. There was a small protest in Springdale today. But nothing on a large scale as what's happened in other areas.

[Mith242]

Sounds like Ft Smith had a larger protest not too long ago. I've been a little surprised with the number of hispanics in NWA that there wasn't more protests up here. Anyway on another note I noticed the new Spanish language paper, Noticias Libres , will be coming out later this week. I'm pretty sure it is being backed by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette .

[DickSonstreetDFW]

[masons_dad1]

Is that a "woopie" kinda whistle or a "yippie" kinda whistle? All I can say is that bi-lingual people have great opportunites in Northwest Arkansas. Wal-Mart has many stores in Mexico and other spanish-speaking countries and pay bi-lingual people higher salaries than english-only people.

[Mith242]

I've heard the Farmer's Market here in Fayetteville is trying to reach out more to the hispanic community. I haven't heard all the details but it makes sense, a lot of hispanic families tend to make a lot of their food from scratch. I need to go down there and see if I can find some chile peppers that they grocery stores around here don't tend to carry.

[DickSonstreetDFW]

I've heard the Farmer's Market here in Fayetteville is trying to reach out more to the hispanic community. I haven't heard all the details but it makes sense, a lot of hispanic families tend to make a lot of their food from scratch. I need to go down there and see if I can find some chile peppers that they grocery stores around here don't tend to carry.

People who spend time in Santa Fe inevitably become pepper snobs.

[Mith242]

People who spend time in Santa Fe inevitably become pepper snobs.

Well I will say there are some great chile peppers out in New Mexico. Great growing conditions out there. The altitude and climate out there really seem to bring a lot out them. But they mainly focus on just a few varieties. I'm hoping to eventually be able to find some fresh chile peppers that aren't usually found in this area. I'm trying to grow some myself but not sure how much of a green thumb I have.

[Mith242]

Sounds like there was another rally in Springdale today over the immigration issue. It also sounds like LULAC were also going to have some rallies in areas of the state in particular Little Rock. I've been a little surprised there haven't nee more in NWA considering the amouint of hispanics in the area.

[mcheiss]

The Rally yesterday in Springdale was thought to be the biggest in Springdale History!! I heard estimates around 5,000 people. The Capitol only had around 2,000 at their assemblies.

[Mith242]

The Rally yesterday in Springdale was thought to be the biggest in Springdale History!! I heard estimates around 5,000 people. The Capitol only had around 2,000 at their assemblies.

Yeah I also heard it was the biggest rally in Springdale history. Which makes sense considering how much population growth it's had the past couple of decades. I've heard different figures for Springdale's rally. Basically from 3,000 to 5,000. But still more than the 2,000 in Little Rock.

[Lady Celeste]

This is the only topic in the southern forum that I have seen discussing this issue to I will post here.

I have a question for you good people in NWA. How did seeing the rally make you feel? Also, do you think that these rallies could ultimately backfire or be a positive catalyst for change? I ask these two questions because there was a rally here in Atlanta as well. While it was "large," it seemed to have galvanized those against illegal immigrants. There is a senator here who sponsored a bill denying illegal immigrants health care and other matters. He comments were something to the effect of---wow, look at how many illegals there are here at the rally and march. This obviously proves that there are alot of illegal immigrants in Georgia and only goes to prove that there is a real need for legislature to combat illegals in the US.--- That's why I ask these questions...could the rallies have given the anti-illegals ammunition?