On another subreddit, in a discussion, I mentioned being a Latina being born and raised in the U.S. A Brazilian guy replied saying that “respectively you are not Latina” when I call myself that because of where my heritage is from. I don’t call myself a white American or African American, I’m a woman of latino heritage that’s still connected and is always learning about my cultures. I called him out out of annoyance but why are U.S latinos not enough for south American latinos? Why do they feel the need to gaslight into telling you don’t belong because you being born somewhere else?
That’s like if I told someone they aren’t Japanese because they are Japanese-American.
Comments
It’s not gaslighting. There’s no “not being enough”. It’s just that we are not the same. You are not less than us. You are not more than us. You are similar to us. But you are not the same. Your experience growing up in the US is significantly different to ours.
Because we don’t give a fuck about heritage. For us latino is someone who lives in Latam.
Japanese is a nationality as well as an ethnicity, Latino is not an ethnicity or a nationality. A Latino/a is someone born and raised in Latin America. You can be a white Latino, black Latino, Asian, etc. You’re American with Latin heritage thats all, hope this helps
Hold on guys…. I got this one.
It’s because LATINO isn’t a race!
And yeah someone who has parents from Japan but is born in America is American not Japanese!Edit: Japanese was a bad example because Japanese doubles as an ethnicity.
Fastidia que me digan latino eso es algo estadounidense soy peruano punto .
First of all, what do they mean in the United States by Latino? Is not someone whose native language originates from Latin?
Because only Americans do that Japanese-American, Hispanic-American, African-American or Italian-American thing.
That’s the very proof you’re more American than you are Latino, because we don’t do that. lol
Because you are an American. All those hypenated nationalities are also just Americans.
I know it is a part of your culture to separate each other into stupid little categories based on your ancestors, but it doesn’t mean the rest of us have to accept it.
And we won’t, so you better learn to deal with it.
Btw, a person of Japanese descent who is born and raised in Latin America is way more one of us than you or any other American.
Ultimately you should stop caring about what others think of you, if you want to call yourself Latina, just do it and stop seeking validation from strangers on the internet.
>That’s like if I told someone they aren’t Japanese because they are Japanese-American.
But exactly… They aren’t Japanese…
>I don’t call myself white American or African American
Latino is not a race lol, you’re either latin American or you aren’t. You are the one gaslighting yourself to fit an ethnic checkbox because God forbid being just plain American
Not that is your fault though, but you got to understand that for anyone outside the US that’s sounds plain stupid
>That is like I saying someone is not japanese because they’re japanese-american
But that’s exactly what they are, japanese-americans. Brazil has the biggest ethic japanese population outside Japan. They are as latino as I am, they belong here not in Japan lol
lmao what does “enough” mean? Being latino is not something aspirational or a goal to fulfill
you were born and raised in Latin America? You’re a latina
You were born and raised in the US? You’re an estadounidense
And your example is the same, someone with japanese parents that were born and raised in the US is an estadounidense, and is not more or less, just different
… They aren’t Japanese.
Maybe if they are first generation born, hold the passport and speak the language, but if they’re Japanese-American because their great-grandfather was Japanese then no.
This whole Latino thing doesn’t make any sense
The term Latino comes from the United States so if anything you’re more Latino than him. The word Latino was made so Mexicans, Cubans, Puertorriqueños, Guatemaltecos, and Brasileños in the United States could identify themselves.
If a Colombian from Bogota and Mexican meet and say de donde eres? None of them are going to respond soy Latino 😭😭😭
They say soy de Colombia o Mexico o whatever
So again YOU are more Latina than HE is Latino because you come from where that word actually started and had meaning
So us being “Latina-Americans” and not “the real thing” is like depressing you?
This whole “am I not enough to be___“ conversation from fellow americans has a lack self satisfaction to it, get citizenship in whatever country and live their for the rest of your life and then no one can counter your claim if it thats what you really yearn for man,
But remember that our family left their respective countries for a reason💀 My great grandparents left mexico and it’s a beautiful place and I love visiting but while the people look like me it’s not home
Sigh. I will answer this question even though it gets posted here almost every day. Being Latino is more than having parents or grandparents born in Latin America. Speaking Spanish, Brazilian, or even an indigenous language like Guarani is more than speaking a language. The language you speak shapes you and makes you understand the culture you are interacting with. Many American-Latinos don’t speak the language at all. Have you lived surrounded by other Latinos and communicated in their language? Do you truly understand what is like to live in Latin America? If you haven’t, then what makes you a Latina? You don’t even mention your heritage. Simply being “Latina” is not an identity. We are nationals from our countries first, Latinos second or third, and that’s what makes us Latin Americans. American-Latinos almost always seem to identify more as Latinos than as Mexicans, Cuban, Salvadoreans, etc. What makes your culture yours?
I understand race and ethnicity in the US is different. I understand you all face a lot of racism and discrimination and feel the need to find your own people. But you don’t have to be a white American or African American. Why would you need to label yourself when you already have your own country? Here in Latin America it is the opposite. If someone here calls themselves Italian just because their grandparents were Italian, they would be mocked. Immigrants here are expected to embrace the new culture and raise their children in that culture. That on itself is part of the Latin American “culture.”
You are not Latina. You’re American and Americans are not Latinos. Latino is not a race or an ethnicity, it is a geographical denomination fot diverse group of nationalities belonging to the region of Latin America. It is not our fault Yanks racialize everything.
My folks were Portuguese, but you will never see me claiming to be European. That would be silly and laughable in Europe and Brazil. The same logic applies here. I’m Brazilian and Latino because that’s where I was born. You’re American and gringa because that’s where you were born.
Also Japanese-Americans are not Japanese, they are… you know, Americans. Heritage does not make someone belong to a different people.
Ok, gringa. Whatever.
I mean, come on
https://i.redd.it/a4hr857gcjve1.gif
People assume you mean “latin american” instead of “cultural group from the US”. “Latino” as in “US subgroup of the population” is what you are and what we aren’t. Latin American is what we are and you are not.
Hope that solves it.
Being Latino is an accident of birth. Nothing special about it. You cannot help being born Boricua, Chilean, Mexican, Brazilian, Argentine, Salvadoran or whatever. We are simply the living people in the Americas particularly of a region. We are first and foremost who we identify to be ie our country of origin, the people we associate with ie our family, friends and community. We are speakers of Latin derived languages and share Latin roots from Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, but also from around the world. Many of us are descended from Natives and Europeans, Africans and whomever decided to venture to Latin America.
What’s special about it being Latino? Hint! Nothing more than an accident of birth. Be happy with yourself and who cares what some Brazilian says. Gaslighting? That only happens when you’re insecure in yourself. Don’t be.
People don’t understand that in America you’re identified by your ancestry. But also Americans don’t understand that being Mexican American or a Latino living in the US is different from the people who live in those countries. For example take Italian Americans. Americans definitely identify as Italian but they also aren’t comparing themselves to real Italians. You wouldn’t look at the cast of Jersey shore and say that’s how ppl in Italy are.
You don’t share our corruption, violence or struggles.
Even if you are in the better countries like chile Uruguay argentina
With the case of some of us our family members are educated and we had no need to run off to another country but you guys make it seem like we’re all poor and uneducated
They not like us
Us latinos despite sharing things in common, sharing some of the same views and even being genuinely friendly towards each others, we don’t take pride in being “Latino” or having Latino heritage, we are not really that big smiling community where we treat each other as family. The reality is, we are just the forgotten bastardos de Europa, most of us can’t even trace back who were their great grandfather, plus, in terms of race, literally anyone can be called Latino as long as they were born and raised here. Latino for USA is just a mestizo or mulato looking person. Latino for us is just someone who was born here and that can be literally anyone: mestizo, blanco, negro (no, is not a bad word here), mulato, nativo…
I have a friend born and raised in El Salvador whose parents are from Germany. She refers to her as Latina and not Germanic because she was born there.
Repeat after me, “Latino is not a race nor an ethnicity”
We don’t sort ourselves into american-made slots, we seldom refer to ourselves as “latino” unless we are dealing with, you guessed it, an american or engaging in american-based online platforms like Reddit. We view nationalities as the only differentiating factors that seperates us into groups and they are the first thing that comes to our minds when we are asked to identify ourselves in a foreign country. Following this, In order for you to bear a given nationality, there are some conditions that must be met, like being born, growing up or living in that country for a few years.
They seem to not have a phrase, or not value, whatever neighborhood upbringing you have. This is on top of LATAM being part of the American continent, whereas most other nationalities are separate.
You and I are American with Latino heritage…and native Latinos will laugh at how less Latino you are by association to the U.S. The labeling I can accept, mockery shouldn’t be a thing on either side…but it is.
Granted, Latin American is so diverse with definitions and lingo that even this is laughable. “Gringo” and other words has different context all over, even that can’t be agreed on for all of LATAM.
”i’m a shoe maker, i never made a shoe before but my grandfather did”
thats you