Hispanics in Pitt (Pittsburgh, Wilson, California: employment, statistics, moving)

[raynist]

Originally Posted by Humanoid

My wife is mixed and looks Hispanic to the...hmm...untrained eye. I don't recall her ever coming home with a story of overt racism in the area, but she would often complain about people looking at her weird, saying odd things and other minor things of that nature.

In general the people in Pittsburgh only have experience with whites/blacks and a bit of asian and can't even figure out what the hell you are if you aren't these things.



Nope! The Mexican food in Pittsburgh is all a sort of tex-mex. They have a really odd idea of Mexican food. The closest thing to Mexican you'll find is at Baja Fresh, but I believe they have all closed down. It was sort of odd, they opened up a few years ago and then closed within 2-3 years.

Better start learning how to make Mexican food yourself! The Giant Eagle at the waterfront has enough Mexican food items to make a number of dishes. But some of the fresh ingredients can get hard to find, even something simple like fresh cilantro isn't available at very store.

Apparently you didn't get out much.

El Campesino has several restuarants around the city.

There is Patron in the North Hills and many others are popping up around the city.

[supersoulty]

Originally Posted by zip95

This map is interesting to me. Notice how Appalacia transitions from Baptist to Methodist to Catholic....I wonder if there are corresponding cultural changes.

Anyway....the last think I'm concerned with is having X number of people "on my side". The world is filled with not-to-bright people who can be swindled into believing anything, so naturally, not all opinions are equal. Some opinions count much more than others. One should be concerned with who....not how many.

You just insulted pretty much everyone who has posted on this thread.

[Humanoid]

Apparently you didn't get out much.

Or you have no idea what Mexican food is?

El Campesino has several restuarants around the city.

They do and they are okay places to eat. Unfortunately they don't make real Mexican food.

Anyhow, The supposed Mexican restaurants in Pittsburgh don't make real Mexican food because the people in the city don't want to eat it. Nothing wrong with that. Places serving authentic foreign foods are generally only successful in the areas where their are enough people from that region to eat it. Foreign foods are a required taste and that is why truly authentic restaurants don't do well in foreign areas unless their are people from the region around.

[subdivisions]

I must agree with Humanoid for once.

There are no real Mexican food places in Pittsburgh. I've eaten in many of the so-called Mexican restaurants here, and they are all the East Coast version of what people who've never eaten real Mexican food think Mexican food is supposed to taste like. That, and most of them are chain restaurants.

I remember Phoenix, and the little corner "Taqueria" drive-thrus where you had to order in Spanish because nobody inside spoke English. Where not a single menu item had the word "fusion" attached to the description, they didn't serve bright orange cheese sauce on anything, enchiladas did not contain things like mushrooms, and the hot sauce would burn your face off. Now that's real Mexican food!

I should add this to my list of Things I Don't Like About Pittsburgh: no Mexican food!

Now I'm jonesing bad...

[Copanut]

Sub,

Do me a favor and drive out to Patrons in Wexford. I've been told it is authenic Mexican, but it's been so long since I spent a week in Nogales I can't tell. I do know it's nothing like Chi-Chi's. Mad Mex, or Stinkin Don Pablo's. And Real Mexicans work there, does that count?

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

Sub,

Do me a favor and drive out to Patrons in Wexford. I've been told it is authenic Mexican, but it's been so long since I spent a week in Nogales I can't tell. I do know it's nothing like Chi-Chi's. Mad Mex, or Stinkin Don Pablo's. And Real Mexicans work there, does that count?

I'll jump in here. My nephew and his wife moved to Wexford about two years ago from Colorado. One of their complaints was that there was no decent Mexican food in the area. Is this place less than a year old, b/c that's about when they left Wexford.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Katiana

I'll jump in here. My nephew and his wife moved to Wexford about two years ago from Colorado. One of their complaints was that there was no decent Mexican food in the area. Is this place less than a year old, b/c that's about when they left Wexford.

Yes, opened about 6 months ago.

[Katiana]

OK, thanks. I'll tell my nephew, who now lives in Shadyside.

[hildi200]

Ok ok... so I am a Mexican (born and raised in Mexico City) Moved to the US when I was 20... lived in upstate NY for 8 years... the bay area for 5 and now in Pittsburgh (for 2 months..)... I have not tried any Mexican food here in Pittsburgh...and let me just say that authentic Mexican food in the US is a myth... not even San Diego, you really have to cross to tijuana to get the real deal... that is not to say that food not being authentic is not bad... I can do burritos and nachos but that is not Mexican food... California does have a variety of places but let me assure you that tacos like the tacos I am used to in Mexico and nowhere to be found... it puzzles me.. I keep telling my husband that a real Mexican restaurant would be such a good business... high Mexican cuisine like the restaurants you try in Mexico city....to begin with real tortillas..fresh... are nowhere to be found....

just my two cents...

[xz2y]

Originally Posted by Katiana

IMO, it's the job market. Hispanics, like people of any other ethnicity, want to make a living. So they go where the jobs are. It's not a matter of convenience. According to City-Data, here are some Hispanic populations of some selected cities where one would not necessarily expect to find a large Hispanic population.

Pittsburgh: 1.3%
Omaha: 7.5%
Minneapolis: 7.6%
Northfield, MN: 5.7%

Actually, the Hispanic populations that have moved to Omaha and Mpls (St Paul more so) did so to work in the meat packing industry in both of those cities (Swift, etc). Low paying, low skilled jobs and English not really necessary to get started at least. Little competition from the locals for these jobs, apparently.