If I grew up in Broward, what would I think of Miami-Dade? (live in, clothing)

[va_lucky]

Never much liked Broward. I saw most people as either snobby or ghetto. I don't mean to judge, these are just my memories.

Most people seemed to be preoccupied with my skin color (I am half hispanic but father was very dark so I look completely like a status qo hispanic). Everyone seemed to want to get into an ethical debate with me as to why I don't speak Spanish if my father was Hispanic.

I would have to say I hated that. Up here, few people seem to care what my ethicity is and when I lived in Scotland everyone just saw me as an "American" which I kind of liked.

As a teenager, I always thought of "Dade" (that's what it was called then) as a place to do things. Although more ghetto, people seemed to be more sincere.

What might I think of it now?

Just curious

Thanks

[cixcell]

my mom's side of the family is mexican. i get that crap too. started with my grandmother who said we're in the US now, we speak english. growing up in socal, i never though of myself in terms of any ethnicity. just white american i guess. it didnt matter. ive made the mistake of repeated that story to some people here and lots of people told me my grandmother did us a tremendous disservice. i think if you have a darker complexion and dont speak spanish some people have told me i tricked them?
my younger brother had the strange experience of visiting Illinois and being thought of as the ethnic one of the group. which gave him some exotic-ness with the girls there. lol.
we never thought of ourselves as having a darker shade of skin color but i guess if youre in illinois where i guess everyones an albino it makes us ethnic. haha.

[va_lucky]

Hahaha too funny! Glad SOMEONE knows what I am talking about! So it's like that in Socal? No focus on ethnicity....nice!

I've got your back on that disservice stuff...just shoot me a pm when they start up!

I just feed the ego and let them know that they are smarter than me for speaking 2 languages. If they persist, I ask them why they won't tell a half italian he is wrong for not knowing Italian. Where does the line get drawn??

Originally Posted by cixcell

my mom's side of the family is mexican. i get that crap too. started with my grandmother who said we're in the US now, we speak english. growing up in socal, i never though of myself in terms of any ethnicity. just white american i guess. it didnt matter. ive made the mistake of repeated that story to some people here and lots of people told me my grandmother did us a tremendous disservice. i think if you have a darker complexion and dont speak spanish some people have told me i tricked them?
my younger brother had the strange experience of visiting Illinois and being thought of as the ethnic one of the group. which gave him some exotic-ness with the girls there. lol.
we never thought of ourselves as having a darker shade of skin color but i guess if youre in illinois where i guess everyones an albino it makes us ethnic. haha.

[dalmain]

I find that very annoying too. The why don't you speak spanish if you or a parent were born in a latin american country. Just be happy that I speak English..we are in America after all. Now if I were in Spain..than yes I would speak Spanish.

[Manolón]

When I lived in Miami there were many people that had a Greek origin and they had the same issue. Impossible to tell a Greek apart from your average Cuban at that time. They got real pis.s.ed when adressed in Spanish. Many Jews had the same issue, some even wore the Star of David, but it didn't make much diference since there were Cuban Jews wearing the same paraphernalia.

The same thing happened to Hispanics from Irish, Polish or Northern Spanish stock, they were addressed in English even if they were wearing the same kinky and gaudy clothing that was fashionable among Cubans at that time. When they replied in Spanish, most people said..."your Spanish is very good".

[JayDeee]

I'm a white guy from Kansas with German ancestry. I have light brown hair and eyes and I still get people talking to me in Spanish. You can't really assume in Miami where someone is from, but it still happens way too often.

[cixcell]

wait.. manolon doesnt even live in miami?

[somebodymiami]

lets put it this way... im white(European) and get asked why i dont speak Spanish cause i live in miami and i should apparently ..although i do... i never let anyone know hehe

[Manolón]

White Hispanics in Miami don't quite grasp that there are Non-White Hispanics that don't speak Spanish. It looks extremely weird to them.

As to people that look "iffy", brown hair, etc....many people think they are "American Wanabees" or "Desteñidos".

Since Cubans are now in their fourth generation in the States, the elders get real mad for the fact that many don't speak Spanish, so there's a clash here. Many of the offsprings are now partly Jewish, Irish, Italian, so Spanish is an issue for some of the "abuelos".

[WINTERFRONT]

People get surprised when I speak both in english and spanish.