Rancid wrote:I don't believe this is true. As far as I know, only Argentinians and Uruguayans really speak Castillano. The rest of us dirty Hispanics speak spanish that is closer to Andalusia Spanish (Southern Spain) or Canary Island Spanish.
When people say that the language is Castilian, they are referring to the language, not the dialect :P This is a bit difficult to understand, but the idea is that basically, there isn't really a "Spanish" language just like there isn't a "British" language. English, Scots, Welsh, Gaelic etc are all British languages, in that way. Similarly, some people argue that Castilian, Galician, Leonese, Catalan, Basque etc are all Spanish languages, so one shouldn't refer to Castilian as being 'Spanish'. Believe it or not, there is a huge debate about the subject, on whether the language should be called Castilian or Spanish :P
And the huge problem is that Castilian is also the name of the dialect of the Castilian/Spanish language that is spoken in Castela. Like the dialect of the English language spoken in England is called 'English' too sometimes (i.e. English English - lol)...
Overall, I had no idea people actually don't consider Hispanics to be western. I've always assumed so, as we all speak Spanish, and much of our culture is derived from Spanish culture. For fucks sake, many of us are Catholics and Christians!
Because the indigenous component is still strong in most of the continental Hispanic America (except Uruguay, Chile, Argentina and Paraguay to an extent). Like, if you go to youtube right now and research in the culture of each central american nation, you will see a few things. First, the people in all those nations (including Costa Rica, which is normally considered a white country) is mestizo. In the case of Guatemala, the indigenous component is really really strong. In the case of Nicaragua or Panama, it is not strong, but not weak either. And in the case of Costa Rica, it is a bit weaker, but still there (most Costa Ricans have lighter skin, yet the indigenous traits are easily identifiable). The second thing you will notice is that the clothing is very different than what is normally considered western/european. It is clear that the clothing comes basically from the indigenous tradition. The same is valid for the food. And, in the case of Guatemala, the language.
In fact, the impression I had seeing those youtube videos was that those countries were not western at all
I saw videos for Mexico, all Central American countries, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay and Chile. The only ones that really looked western to me were Chile and Paraguay. All the others looked quite alien to me... Even Costa Rica, which I expected to be very western, looked indigenous to me... And Paraguay, which I expected to have a strong indigenous component, turned out to be a very "European" nation, pretty much like the rest of the Southern Cone.
The explanation for Paraguay is actually very interesting. The country had a very indigenous mestizo population up to the 1870s, when the Paraguayan War took place (long story short: the Paraguayan dictator was crazy - very similar to Hugo Chavez - and he invaded Brazil and Argentina to conquer more land... in turn, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay declared war on Paraguay and obviously won). After the war, like 90% of the Paraguayan population was lost. So they started a massive immigration program, which brought lots of Europeans into the country. Those immigrants adopted the native customs. They even started speaking Guarani! But they were white. And that is why the indigenous component in the Paraguayan society isn't as strong as in the rest of the Hispanic World. It is still there, though...
Anyway, I know this contradicts pretty much everything I said so far, so I will research more and think more about it before getting to a final conclusion.
We don't worship the sun.
Hmm, this is a very bad argument, to be honest. First, because the West is not defined as the area where christianity forms a majority. If that was the case, most of the sub-saharan Africa, plus the Philippines and South korea would be considered part of the West.
And second, the language argument isn't very good either. All of Africa speak European languages in a manner similar to how it is in the Hispanic World, with native languages taking a secondary place. Nobody would consider Africa to be western, though...
Last, as a Latino that grew up in Miami. The only time I've ever heard anyone say "La Raza" was from a Mexican. I don't think the idea of "La Raza" is some sort of Universal Hispanic thing...
Well, as I said, I was talking about the colonial concept of "la raza", which was what defined all castes in the Hispanic caste system. The more Spanish you were, the better caste you were part of
The Mexican-American "la raza" ideology came much later than what I was talking about...
PoFo ethnic party statistics: http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8&p=14042520#p14042520