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places like el paso, laredo, san diego etc, just on the border with mexico. I read on wikipedia the population of laredo is 95 per cent latin.
So i wonder how that affects the inner workings of those places.
For example, is everybody bilingual? there's a lot of bilingualism but definitely not everyone.
is spanish taught at schools? in most places no, though in most places heavily mexican, spanish is spoken in school. English is usually the language of business in the border states.
would an anglo have trouble getting a job if h/she doesnt speak spanish? no, not in most fields, but if most of your customers speak spanish then work's gonna be harder.
people living in those places feel isollated from the rest of the usa? i don't think people feel that way, it still feels like modern america, but when you travel to ,say the northeast, you remember how different the southwest is from the rest of the country pretty quick.
everybody wears a cowboy hat? (at least most on them do on youtube videos) no, you'll definitely see them around though.
Does the mexican drug cartels have any power there? not whole county or city governments. Are there crooked border agents, yes. Are there some local small town border people sometimes involved with trafficking and narcotics, yes. Really though, if you don't hang out gangbangers, drug dealers, or cartel people themselves you may never come across that stuff.
does the anglos living there adopt mexican traditions? (quinceañera, piñata, etc) that's been going on since white people showed up. Though it varies from city to city and income level to income level. Pinatas, mexican food, luminarias, tamales at xmas, that's all stuff i grew up with in my mostly white neighborhood.
people there cross the border for shopping and partying? all the time.
how similar or different are towns in each side of the border?things get a lot shadier on the mexican side.
This pertains to Laredo and Laredo only. The others, I have never really been, so I can't tell you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Javier77
Places like El Paso, Laredo, San Diego etc, just on the border with Mexico. I read on wikipedia the population of Laredo is 95 per cent Latin.
So I wonder how that affects the inner workings of those places.
For example, is everybody bilingual? More people speak Spanish only with a small amount of English. Some are bilingual, however.
Is Spanish taught at schools? I am not sure. But I think Spanish is the primary language in Laredo
Would an Anglo have trouble getting a job if h/she doesnt speak Spanish? Definitely.
People living in those places feel isollated from the rest of the USA? Every time I have been to Laredo, (a lot), yes. It feels like you are in Mexico with small areas with a slight resemblance to the US. For those living there, I wouldn't think so. San Antonio and Corpus Christi are only two hours away.
Everybody wears a cowboy hat? (at least most on them do on youtube videos) I have always said, its either thugs or cowboys in Laredo.
Does the Mexican drug cartels have any power there? Very much so. It is a lot more low key on the US side of things, i.e. less murders and no cartel checkpoints, but there are a lot of cartel gang members that reside in Laredo.
Does the Anglos living there adopt Mexican traditions? (quinceañera, piñata, etc) I would imagine so. There aren't very many whites in Laredo to begin with. But I'd imagine having a miserable time trying to fit in, in Laredo if you are white and living in Laredo.
People there cross the border for shopping and partying? I know a lot of people that used to for entertainment. But now, if its not for family, or going to the dentist/doctor, you are just unnecessarily risking your life crossing over to Nuevo Laredo.
How similar or different are towns in each side of the border? They are different. A lot of the same culture, but Laredo has a lot less violence than Nuevo Laredo.
Most of San Diego isn't "Mexicanized" at all -- at least compared other heavily Latino areas like East LA. You wouldn't know the border was less than 20 miles away.
I cant vouch for the others but san diego is definetlt not mexicanized. Due to the huge influx of people from the northeast and other states along with their huge military population, san diego is less mexican then los angeles. San Diego still has many mexicans and other hispanic nationalities however, its far more anglo then hispanic.
It depends on the border town. As noted, San Diego actually has fewer Mexican or Mexican-American residents than a lot of non-border cities. It doesn't feel very "Mexican" at all. Now, if you drive down the road to Calexico (across from Mexicali), then it's substantially more "Mexican."
El Paso has a large military base and a big university, and while it has a strong Mexican presence, there are a lot of non-Mexicans there. Also as noted above, that is not the case in some other border towns, like Laredo, or San Luis, or Presidio. The Rio Grande Valley area (McAllen, Harlingen, Brownsville, etc.) is somewhere between El Paso and Laredo, with McAllen having slightly more "Anglo" influence than Brownsville.
I cant vouch for the others but san diego is definetlt not mexicanized. Due to the huge influx of people from the northeast and other states along with their huge military population, san diego is less mexican then los angeles. San Diego still has many mexicans and other hispanic nationalities however, its far more anglo then hispanic.
I got the impression San Diego was a little more segregated than L.A. In Los Angeles, only in the richest hoods, or in certain black or Asian hoods, would you be hard-pressed to spot a Mexican-American. San Diego felt like L.A. must have felt back in the 50s, at least in terms of who lived/hung out where (not in terms of legal structures, mind!).
El Paso looked like a mid-sized US city to me. Very different from Jaurez, just across the river.
I did notice in the Target or K-Mart or whatever the store was I went to the signs were bi-lingual..."Ropas Cabelleros" (Cowboy Clothes) over the store departments.
And the paper was running this little featurette called "A Little Bit of Spanish" teaching some basic spanish words and phrases.
So I think there is probably a lot of cross-communication across the border, but that El P is still recognizably a US place (desert SW version of a generic US city).
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