Spanish In Ohio

Ohio has many types of Latinos.

In Lorain, Ohio there is an influential Puerto Rican (or Lorainorican) community. A community that has been in Ohio since the 1940′s because of the Steel Industry.

Toledo, Fremont, North Eastern Ohio is home to migrant farm workers and sometimes debated the oldest Farm Labor Union, FLOC…think the UFW of the Midwest. While migrant farm working is still huge in the summers in Ohio some migrants have settled down in Northern Ohio. Whenever you meet a Chicano from Ohio chances are good they are from Northern Ohio and their families had been coming to Ohio for generations. In the mid-late nineties when I was working in Toledo, Ohio I was so excited to see Mexican grocery stores and restaurants something we didn’t yet have in Columbus.

Cubans have settled in large cities like Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. Coming in smaller numbers and are usually from the first wave of Cubans who came to the United States.

Dominicans and El Salvadorians have been arriving in Columbus much more recently. Still arriving in small numbers and no big communities exist as far as I know of but I have seen an increase in their representation at medical clinics and grocery stores.

Argentineans came for a good couple years approximately 2002 and 2003 after their economic crisis. It was odd seeing wealthy-white-educated Argentineans at La Clínica Latina. They were just as undocumented as the Mexicans next to them and looking for similar jobs but frustrated and depressed because they had been used to a middle-class lifestyle and professional careers.

This quarter I am taking a class titled Spanish In Ohio. I thought I would get to learn about the history of Spanish speaking people in Ohio, or the linguistics of Spanish in Ohio, or literature or political influences. But it hasn’t been like that at all. I previously wrote a little bit about the class. I want to tell you about our book.

The Hispanic Way

Before I go into how awful this book is, let me just say it has absolutely nothing to do with the course topic…Spanish in Ohio. This book is about “Aspects of behavior, Attitudes, and Customs in the Spanish-Speaking world” not Latinos but Latin Americans and Spaniards.

Let me now complain about the book. The books is titled “The Hispanic Way” would a book titled “The Jew Way” or “The African-American Way” be acceptable? The book also makes huge generalizations about all Spanish speaking people. How absurd is that to assume that someone from Madrid Spain is going to have similar customs to someone from the Dominican Republic.

Let me give you some quotes from the book:

“Since couples usually do not marry until the man has finished his education, fulfilled any military obligation, and established himself financially, the average marrying age for men is twenty-seven, for women twenty to twenty-four.“pg.33 What is this based on? What Countries? What Studies? What Statistics?

“Apparently, the tolerance level for noise is higher in the Hispanic world than in our country. In conversation, loudness is generally not a sign of anger, but could merely be an indication of enthusiasm or a reinforcement of what is being said.
In public gathering places (cafes, game arcades, carnivals, and the like), the noise level can be extremely high according to our standards, In any social gathering noise can be high, too.“pg66
“Hispanic world than in our country?” The book never defines what The Hispanic World is but I guess the United states does not have any part of “The Hispanic World” the books title says Spanish-Speaking world, and I know there are parts of this country where if you don’t speak Spanish you cannot buy goods, get directions, purchase services etc. but maybe those people aren’t really part of “our country” because our country isn’t those people. Those people who have a higher tolerance for noise level. What the hell.

“Hispanics tend to be verbose and to get sidetracked, often elaborating on topics extraneous to the subject at hand. ” pg 101

As such I will end this entry now not because I’ve been “sidetracked” but because it is getting to long.

For those of you who I text message during class with random quotes of racism…now you know why and where it is coming from.