Any other Hispanics in NC other than Mexican? (Charlotte, Raleigh: purchase, shop)

[joecyclist]

I've met Central Americans, and a few South Americans.

Originally Posted by cylenay

Nothing against the Mexicans but are there any other Hispanics here in NC? Just moved here a year ago and seems like Hispanic is synonym for Mexican! They aren't the only hispanics here, are they?????

[Tiger Beer]

The 'Speak English, you are in America' thing.

Its most common is very conservative and isolated cultures/regions.

I'm an American who has lived all over the world...Brazil, Korea, Japan, Spain, Austria, Hungary, etc.

The ONLY place I ever heard it was living in very conservative SOUTH KOREA. I would be with other foreign friends or talking with my students (I teach English)....and the older conservative Koreans would say "YOU ARE IN KOREA, SPEAK KOREAN".

I ALWAYS felt annoyed everytime. I like to think the U.S. is different, and able to 'hear' other people speak a different language, but when I read a lot of these threads, I come to the conclusion that my own country is fairly narrow in thinking much like South Koreans were there.

[Tiger Beer]

This thread IS interesting though...makes me more curious about North Carolina. Interesting to think that so many people from Cuba, Argentina, and other places are attracted to this particular state, make me think I should more closely examine it as a place I might consider moving to whenever I go back to the U.S.

[matpines]

All the confusion about people and their origins, cultures, and countries is mostly due to a real defficiency in our education system and culture. I was blessed with the experience of living abroad and I never experience this type of confusion any where else. Then, again, I remember that in other countries children were exposed very early on to other languages, cultures and 'world history'.

Hispanics are not all spanish speaking people. Some actually speak other languages.....spanish people or 'latinos' derive their cultures not from spanish but from 'latin' and very old cultures coming together over time (Romans, Turkish, Arabs, etc). We get confused with Italians because we share their lineage........Italians once even had 'black skin' Emperors.....Europe is a very old continent that was exposed to many wars, genocides, 'race blendings'....etc., and come in all colors and shapes.............and continued moving on to the Americas. In the America (north, central and south), we share indian descent, different blends of European, etc.......therefore, we also come in all colors and shapes.......Now, in North America (Canada and USA), we find that due to the vast amount of land available, many people were never exposed nor interested in traveling. Necessity makes people cross boundaries and we have never been exposed to this type of need....until now....with the new age of communication and computer......'The World is Flat".....by the way, great book!

[adavi215]

Originally Posted by cylenay

Nothing against the Mexicans but are there any other Hispanics here in NC? Just moved here a year ago and seems like Hispanic is synonym for Mexican! They aren't the only hispanics here, are they?????

Someone probably picked up on this already, but there are so many different types of hispanics here other than mexican. In NC, there tends to be an ignorance that mexican is a nationality and hispanic is an ethnic group. Go figure.

[JoshNef]

Originally Posted by MrsBTA

Well - only 1/2 Venezuelan, but it's definitely been a big part of my culture and upbringing. My mom now lives in Asheville, and she's met some other South Americans there too - her neighbor is Chilean. It's funny, I was out there when some of my aunts/uncles were visiting from Venezuela, and we all went out to lunch. The waitress heard us speaking spanish, but I guess we don't look "dark" enough to be Hispanic, so she thought maybe we were Greek!

I just moved to Cary, and I've definitely found that most people seem to think anyone who speaks Spanish is Mexican. And they don't realize just how different we can look (not all Hispanics are super dark!) - since my family is fairly light-skinned to begin with, and that the other 1/2 of me is white, I "pass" for white about 99.9999% of the time. Every once in a while, I'll meet someone who notices the undertones of my skin or certain features look "different" but they usually can't figure out what I am It goes the other way too - since I don't have blond hair/blue eyes/pale skin, when I'm in Venezeula, no one thinks I'm an American.

Anyway, I was extremely excited the other day when I walked into Harris Teeter and found Harina P.A.N. - I'll be making arepas tomorrow. So I can't be the only one here!!

YOU FOUND HARINA PAN? oh man i'm so jealous! we just moved to huntersville from west palm beach, fl and have not been able to find it. we've looked in all the surrounding harris teeters, bi-lo's, food lion, walmart, lowes and cvs to no avail. back home it was everywhere and now i cant find it. finally i settled on buying masabrosa and used that but its not harina pan! i'm driving down to florida this weekend and i'll definetely pick up some harina pan and cocosette before coming home.

[Francois]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

This thread IS interesting though...makes me more curious about North Carolina. Interesting to think that so many people from Cuba, Argentina, and other places are attracted to this particular state, make me think I should more closely examine it as a place I might consider moving to whenever I go back to the U.S.

The reason they are (by and large) attracted to NC is as migrant labor, since we have a lot of agriculture. Unless you are in that field, this probably wouldn't apply to you.

[yogileonj]

The U.S. House of Representatives, and the Jones Act of 1917, established all Puerto Ricans are born citizens of the United States with the identical citizenship of any US Citizen. You do not need a passport to visit Puerto Rico from anywhere in the 50 states. That speaks spanish or english in their native land USA.

Originally Posted by Carolina_native

Unfortunately it appears we cannot have a thread about this subject without someone bringing charges of racism into it.

I dont think its too much to ask of anyone to have people speak English in America, Spanish in Spain, German in Germany, Russian in Russia, etc..

Or the fact that people are in this country illegally (sorry but predominantly of hispanic descent) and you dont want them referred to as 'illegal', when that is the choice they made by entering ILLEGALLY into the U.S.
I absolutely refuse to get into another debate on this forum about this subject though.

[hms and gjs]

My husband and I are Cuban and we live in Kernersville. There is a Cuban restaurant in Salisbury. It is called Mambo Grill. It is run by a cuban family form Miami. Great food and they are the nicest people. Try it out. I would love to know how many cubans are actually living in the triad. My 19 year old wants a cuban girlfriend. I keep telling him I haven't seen any around.

[nose1]

we moved from new jersey to hendersonville,nc and there so much hispnaic in new jersey but down here they say were mexican or we speak mexican am like its spanish and were not mexican were salvadorian samelanguage which is spanish and were they same but from different countries