Strained relationship between Puerto Ricans and Mexican Americans in El Paso? part 2 please!! (San Juan: house, unemployed)

[naveric1]

Hello, I am a Puerto Rican born in the island and lived there 17 years... i think the problem here is how the parents raise their kids. My mother always told me not to be racist against any culture. I don't have anything against Cubans, Mexicans, Mexican/Americans or any other latino/hispanic culture... Hell, my wife is Mexican!!! Her family accepted me with little distrust... people said that Mexicans and Puerto Ricans hate each other and i wondered WHY?? For me we are all the same, we were conquered by the freaking Spaniards when they came fom Europe we all have the same language, Spanish!!! There are some geographical and cultural difference in the dialect because of the cultures that lived in the area, our puertorrican dialect comes from the Taino (arawak) indians that lived in the caribbean, just like the Aztecs for mexico. We shouldn't be fighting for who is better than the other, we should unite. The other day me and my wife made enchiladas verdes with arroz con gandules, why can't everyone live happy together? this reminds me of the segregation between blacks and white people... i do not like racism. I love mexican food, and i like their culture... i would love to visit tlacopatlan, guanajuato, zacatecas, toluca, and many other places...

Look at Rocio Durcal, Javier Solis, Marco Antonio Muñiz all of them sing the song En Mi Viejo San Juan, a song dedicated to Puerto Rico... Marco Antonio Muñiz was born in Jalisco, Guadalajara and Is considered an Honorary Puerto Rican.

Another thing I have seen recently about us Puerto Ricans is that thanks to Reggeton and Rap, our culture and values have been put through the floor. Thanks to that ghetto reggaeton music, puertorricans think themselves better than everyone else. Reggaeton will ruin our culture!! We were a culture of vecinos, familia y fiestas de vecindario now we are a culture of drunks and drug addicts putting women in the lowest level and showing no respect to them. Puertorricans need to fix themselves if the want people to think better of them...

Like i said, I have absolutely nothing against mexicans or other cultures. I've been in county and in there I sticked to mexicans and shared about our cultures...

[HookTheBrotherUp]

This may sound stupid, and probably is, but I know people from both Puerto Rico and Cuba. Once, when asked why there was animosity between the two cultures, there was a big discussion for the various reasons, and what I got out of that heated debate is that animosity exists because both claimed to have invented SALSA music/dance! HA! Honest truth!

[naveric1]

lol

[malamute]

One big reason for the animosity is the difference in how each speaks Spanish.

I know of a Mexican family where the father had a job transfer to the NE part of the USA, first they were happy to hear they could keep their kids in Spanish classrooms so they would "keep their language", until the kids came home lisping and they discovered the Spanish teacher was Cuban. They yanked those kids out of her class fast and stuck them in English classrooms because that wasn't the Spanish they should be learning.

I wouldn't see any reason for the two groups to be more bonded than either are with other groups such as Polish or Italian. Puerto Rico and Mexico have their own histories, foods, culture. Racially they aren't the same either.

[HookTheBrotherUp]

Ha! My wife would be offended by that. My wife is from Spain, and she does have that "lisp", but in actuality, it's Castillion Spanish, the original. Any words with 'CE' or 'Z' in them get the lisp sound.

I'm of Mexican heritage, so it took a while to get used to. But it did not take long after knowning her, her family, and visiting Spain each year that I learned to really like the Castillion Spanish. It is so much different than the Modern Spanish, or Mexican version of it. The Mexican Spanish when spoken tends to go up and down in tone as you know. The Castillion Spanish is spoken in the same tone. It's hard to describe, but it is like someone speaking English, just that it's Spanish. I know, sounds odd.

Our kids speak the Castillion version, some think they have speach impediments until they hear them speak in English. Also, much of the words are different, and my side of the family doesn't understand many of the words my kids use.

Cuban's, on the other hand, drop vowels from words! It takes a while to get used to. Puerto Ricans do the same thing. It's funny, because I don't want to confuse our kids, I end up using the Castillion version of words too. Gracias becomes 'grathias', and corazon becomes 'corathon'.

[antgar]

I dont know in El Paso, but in Mexico love the puerto ricans... Ricky Martin was succesful first in Mexico, Chayanne too, what you tell me abour MENUDO! That still make concerts with full house were they present.

There´s a lot of cubans, argentines, and other nacionalitys living happy in Mexico, without problems..

Everyone is welcome..

Regards!

[LEVOW]

Its funny, i was the original "poster" of this topic, before i posted it, i had had almost nothing but bad experiences dealing w/puerto ricans here in El Paso. This last summer i had the pleasure to take my son to a baseball tourney in Lousiana, we traveled w/2 pr's, a young one and and an older gentleman. The difference is that the young one [which coincidentally, i consider him a good friend now, even when hes obnoxioulsy loud & brash] is half pr and half panamenian, he was raised in the U.S and is an avid hip hop listener, so he has what many older prs; call a "nuyorican attitude" The older gentleman, is just that, a gentleman [ a playboy at heart] plays guitar, writes poetry, always dancing, hes really quite a charming man, to us "beaners" he comes sometimes kinda "corny" in the way he interacts w the females. Anyway, i came to the conclusion, that not all prs hate us beaners, but i also came to the conclusion, that although, we are alot alike, were also very different, but all in all we need to stick together, cuz the rest of the world just puts us all in a pot together anyway [lol] My friend and i, traded jabs all 9 dys we were over there, and although it was funny, mexicans have alot of misconceptions of prs, and prs have alot of misconceptions about mexicans. Once you get passed the bs, and their cockiness, and attitudes that they could have any girl they want because their puerto ricans [lol], theyre pretty cool people!

[malamute]

Originally Posted by HookTheBrotherUp

Ha! My wife would be offended by that. My wife is from Spain, and she does have that "lisp", but in actuality, it's Castillion Spanish, the original. Any words with 'CE' or 'Z' in them get the lisp sound.

I'm of Mexican heritage, so it took a while to get used to. But it did not take long after knowning her, her family, and visiting Spain each year that I learned to really like the Castillion Spanish. It is so much different than the Modern Spanish, or Mexican version of it. The Mexican Spanish when spoken tends to go up and down in tone as you know. The Castillion Spanish is spoken in the same tone. It's hard to describe, but it is like someone speaking English, just that it's Spanish. I know, sounds odd.

Our kids speak the Castillion version, some think they have speach impediments until they hear them speak in English. Also, much of the words are different, and my side of the family doesn't understand many of the words my kids use.

Cuban's, on the other hand, drop vowels from words! It takes a while to get used to. Puerto Ricans do the same thing. It's funny, because I don't want to confuse our kids, I end up using the Castillion version of words too. Gracias becomes 'grathias', and corazon becomes 'corathon'.

Myself -- I don't like the lisp nor the dropping of the s's, maybe you get used to one thing or another. I know what you mean about Spanish-Spanish. It sounds quite formal, drier, less slangy.

It was funny at work one time -- there was a girl from Panama working there who had a strong Panamanian accent. A Mexican who spoke Spanish noticed how she spoke English and told me she had a bad speech impediment. I said no she did not -- that it was just her Panamanian accent and he responded in surprise -- "oh??? She's from Panama??!!" because he said since she spoke Spanish just like she spoke English that he thought it was a speech defect.

[dinacora]

In my opinion everyone is a child of God that needs to be treated with respect.In the same way you would like to be treated. I am a Puertorrican born and raised in the Island. I know that most puertorricans tend to be in your face, with the attitude of I am in charge, or I am better than you. But hey who ever does this it does not matter where you are from is ignorant and trying to hide his fears. I lived in the US a couple of years and came in contact with people from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Panamá, Argentina, Cuba, latinos from NY and LA, Descendents from Germans, Dutch, Polonia, African Americans, Amish, Egipt, India and so on... At first it was quite interesting to see how they interacted. The owners and supervisors of the companies that were in the area were used to deal with the Mexicans that were quite submissive (sumisos) and work 7 days if they had to, and got the lowest salaries without any complains. Then after 9-11-01 the Cubans, Dominicans and Puertorricans from NY and the African Americans from Baltimore and WV that were unemployed started to arrive looking for jobs. All hell broke loose because they changed the whole town, they were loud, were the community was used to a quiet, sleepy town mood; they went to the bars and started to get into fights for nonsense like the difference in the rules to play pool and of course for women. But all in all once they got to know each other and started to talk about their cultures why they were like they were and why they spoke the different ways that they did they settled in. The younger generation was quite welcoming, but the older generation (40's, 50's and up) were very prejudiced against anybody that was different. So who ever did not like what was going on and was close to retirement. Retired and moved to the suburbs and to other cities.

[dinacora]

Hey Naveric tolerance is the key. Don't give up. It is up to us to show the world not to judge everyone the same for a few bad apples. You can start by improving yourself and then the world will change around you. Hopefully for the best!