From The Mexican Spanish Ayayay Files: Tom Cruise Says “Hola, Brazil! Let’s Tango.”
5 February 2009, 10:05 AM. By Alex Alvarez
During a press conference for Valkyrie in Rio de Janeiro, Tom Cruise greeted the Brazilian press with “Hola” and “Gracias” before reportedly saying he fell in love with Brazil while watching movies about Tango. Darwin, come collect this man?
But Tom Cruise, of course, isn’t the only one who’s ever acted as if Latin American countries - and Spain - are all interchangeable.
One of the first examples we found happened to have a happy ending: A message board for a popular wedding site, Weddingbee, (Yes, yes. We read wedding blogs for fun.) announced that, after receiving some feedback, they were changing a category from “Spanish” to “Latino.” The forum’s visitors were relieved and delighted:
Sakoro-
Great! I was never quite sure if that category meant the culture of Spain, the country in Europe, or latino culture which could be from all over Central America, South Anerica and the Caribbean.
Nomediga [Ed. note: Love the moniker.]-
I agree, Latino is a much more inclusive term. Sure, there are huge Spanish influences in Latin American culture, but indigenous and African cultures also had a significant impact. Good idea!
ActivistBride-
Awesome! There is a definite difference. Thanks for changing it! There may be a need for a Spanish board if there are some Castellano brides or even brides getting married in Spain on here but Latino/Latina is the term for people from Latin America, which - like NoMeDiga said - has heavy Indigenous and African roots.
WMforever-
cool idea to change it! actually, i’d never heard of the word “Spanish” person until i moved to the east coast. From what i gather everyone here, even “Latino” people ask me if i’m “spanish” and i’m guessing its related to the language. So I say yes. Most people mean no harm in it, its just the East coast word for “Latino”. So either one is fine. But I’m most comfortable with Latino.
Which makes us wonder whether, perhaps on the West Coast, “Mexican,” rather than “Spanish,” is used to describe all Latinos. Just the other day, we were buying a six-pack of Modelo at our local bodega (Yes, yes. We buy beer at 2:30 in the afternon.) and a UPS guy asked us, “Oh, is that Spanish beer?”
“Nope,” we replied, wondering if we should have made that a 24-pack. “Mexican.”
He looked extremely confused.
Have any of you ever encountered this sort of thing? Personally, while we find it dismissive and think it makes the speaker sound fairly uneducated, we’re never insulted by the mixing-up of terms to describe us. We’re sure other groups face the same sort of thing - People using “Chinese” to describe all East Asians, or using “Asian” while specifically leaving out people from the subcontinent. Or even using “tranny” to describe someone who is gay. It’s probably, we think, mostly due to a lack of interest. If someone doesn’t really care where our family from or doesn’t relate to our background or orientation, why should they be expected to care to know what to call us? (Besides, you know. Our name.)
More and more, we’ve begun correcting people when they make the mistake. And, sure, they probably still won’t care. And, sure, the labels themselves are only as meaningful as people are willing to give them meaning. But maybe, we figure, it’ll get at least one or two people thinking about where it is all these Mexican Spanish Ayayay people are coming from. Like one Weddingbee commenter pointed out, referring to all Latinos as “Spanish” also works to neglect the history of Latinos and the non-Iberian people that have become enmeshed in this relatively new ethnic group.
Besides, we’re really proud of our background. Being, in our case, Cuban-American means something to us, even if, to a stranger, it’s just a sort of vague “Spanishy” thing.
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I went to lunch with two coworkers. I asked if they liked Spanish food because I wanted tapas at Cafe Madrid. They said yes and when we got there, they were PISSED because they wanted enchiladas and fajitas. Sigh…groan. As we ate, I did explain and they did understand with no fuss and no confusion.The funny thing was they didn’t like Spanish food after all.
Also, is it bad that I now crave a Modelo and it’s 9:45 a.m.?
Yeah, in my experience, its usually a case of people never having been explicitly taught that these things are all different.
And if drinking a Modelo right now is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.
Tom Cruise confusing Brazilians with Spanish-speakers is like me saying that all Thetans are crazy, cult-deadened lunatics…oh wait–that’s not a good comparison.
Everyone in AZ just automatically assumes everyone who speaks spanish is Mexican. I’ve had to say to some friends that in fact no, that person is Columbian or Puerto Rican or what not.
“But you all speak Mexican right?”
*sigh*
“Actually its called Mexicanese.”
Yes! from now on I speak Mexicanese not Spanish.
So Brazil isn’t the place where you dance salsa in the streets?
No, silly. It’s wear you drink horchata while tied to a llama as a tiny old man in a bolero jacket sings a song of love.
I think everyone at least once has gotten the ‘you speak mexican?’ my answer is always ‘no, but i would like to learn how to speak mexican, that’d be fun’
and yeah there is nothing wrong with beer in the afternoon.. the 2 weeks i was in mexico i usually downd 2 or 3 cubitas(best drink ever by the way) by noon on the daily.
Or when someone learns you are bilingual and they say
“Oh really! Say something!”
and you reply
“Go fuck yourself, I’m not a circus pony.” in Mexicanese.
yeah I hate when people ask me to say something in spanish, I’ve actually told someone “Que parezco perro? Baboso”
then they askd me what I said, i told them “thats a really cute shirt”
Fredo, you made me spit out my confleis!
Speaking from California, everyone thinks every Latino/a is Mexican.
Being Mexican American myself, I remember when people used to say to me “go back to where you came from” and I’m like “uhh, I already am” (California) People are dumb!
Valerie
If someone asks if I’m ‘Spanish’ I answer in two ways
1. “Do you mean am I Hispanic? Yes, I am.” And then I explain why and they roll their eyes and give me a hard time for it.
or 2. “Yeah, sure.” and I keep drinking my deer (Modelo’s good, but I prefer Presidente) and they pat themselves on the back for figuring me out.
Lose, lose. Damn white people.
Deer? Sounds heavy.
Beer. And it is heavy. There’s a problem with the Earth’s gravitational pool.
Or pull. I’ll stop drinking the deer urine now.
She probably meant to say deer urine…that’s a great delicacy among those Spanishes, y’know.
Tango. Samba. It all leads to the bedroom am I wrong?
This lady at the doctor’s told me I was the first person to say I’m “Mexican” (or as she said, “Messican”) when asked. Most people apparently reply “Hispanic” around these here parts of Sandy Eggo.
You have to appreciate the irony of a guy who believes in XENU, thinking he’s in Argentina, to promote a film where he plays the role of…..well, a NAZI officer palnning a coup d’état! It doesn’t get more clueless than that and tops our dear GW when presented with the map of Brazil by President Lula. To which he outed with atmost surprise; “Wow, Brazil is big”.