Anyway -- I've got one:
"You know you're a redneck IF -- you refer to all Hispanic (or Latino) people as "Mexicans."
You know -- some of the Spanish-speaking people in our country are from Texas.
Texas is not in Mexico.
Some of the Spanish-speaking people in our country are from Guatemala. Some are from Panama.
Guatemala and Panama are not in Mexico.
Neither is Puerto Rico, or Cuba.
Nothing wrong with Mexico -- it's fine to be referred to as "Mexican" if one is indeed from the country of Mexico.
In the part of the country where I live, I always notice it but it doesn't surprise me, when one of these "cap-guys" (God bless them) refers to any - and - all Spanish-speaking people as "Mexicans." However, one day I heard the "Mexican" reference incorrectly used & was so surprised - !
"Person 900" is a woman who works at the company where I work. I see her almost every day, M-F. She is a cute person, with a cute personality, and lots of style. She bubbles over with laughter and enthusiasm, and she works really hard. She's from Mexico and has worked in America for years; as I understand it she has some kind of dual citizenship.
(Whenever I wear or do something new or different -- hair, make-up, shoes, whatever -- she appraises, nods approval, and pronounces me "Sexy!")
She's just so funny.
Person 900 knows I take an interest in current events and politics; we both like Pres. Obama. (Last year before the Election, watching Barack O. speak, Person 900 said to me, squinting, with both doubt & optimism, "He -- handsome. Right?"
When the president nominated Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, I arrived at work and as I passed by Person 900's working area, she called out my name; as I walked toward her she said, "Obama! He nominate Mexican to Court Supreme!"
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This hit me on a couple of levels. "Court Supreme. So cute. Of course in Spanish the adjective often comes after the noun -- "a girl very pretty," etc.
But what really surprised me was hearing her refer to Sotomayor as a "Mexican"! Might expect that from one of my cap-guy friends. But Person 900 is actually Mexican; she knows very well that the Bronx, where Sotomayor was born, is most certainly not in Mexico, and neither is Puerto Rico where the Latina Justice's ancestors were from.
Person 900 was simply using the word "Mexican" to mean anyone who's Hispanic. She's such a relaxed, social, cheerful person -- it's her style to "go with the flow" on something like that, instead of taking offense, or correcting people.
Like the saying, "When in Rome do as the Romans do."
(Some of these guys, I swear, if they were indeed IN Rome, they'd be calling the Romans "Mexicans" too!)
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(In a Book Review, reading about a book detailing Franklin Roosevelt's difficulties and machinations with the Supreme Court -- the reviewer listed people on the Supreme Court at that time, the 1930s. One name: Benjamin Cardozo. Saw that and I thought, Could current media be mistaken in saying Sonia Sotomayor is first Hispanic person on Supreme Court -- "Cardozo" sounds like an Hispanic name, to me.
Looked him up: he was from New York City; his grandparents on both sides were "Sephardi Jews" -- Jewish people who lived on Portugal's Iberian Peninsula. Some of those left during the Inquisition [always a great time to get the hell out] and went to Holland, and some to England, and later some of those emigrated to America.
Cardozo: a Portuguese name.)
Sum up: Sonia Sotomayor is indeed first Hispanic person on Supreme Court.
And Benjamin Cardozo was not the first Jewish person on the Supreme Court; he was the second.
First was Louis Brandeis, earlier in Twentieth Century.
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