One More Thing Texas Can Be Embarrassed About, No.1 in Teen Birth Rate
Put forth on July 27, 2007 by XicanoPwr
Posted in Mobilization, Raza, Texas, patriarchy
It has been well documented that being a parent as an adolescent can have a long lasting effect on families and on the mother and her child. These consequences comprise of poverty and other adverse socioeconomic circumstances, such as poor health, physical abuse, neglect, prison and the continuation of the teen pregnancy cycle. In fact, this is one area I know very well in both a professional and personal level. As a macro level social worker, I saw the different types of programs that semi-worked and ones that didn’t; and on a personal level this issue hits home.
In this country, the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any industrialized world; and in Texas the state has the highest teen pregnancy rates (63 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19) in the nation, according to a newly released study of children’s health, according to a recent research report, KIDS COUNT Data Book, issued by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Way to go Texas, we not only lead the nation in imprisoning its citizens, it also has the highest incarceration in the country and the world, and now, we can add the state with the highest teen birth rates.
Sadly, Texas achieved this title in 2003 and it seems nothing really changed in 2004. More concerning, Texas surpasses the National average of 41 births per 1,000 teens nearly by 20 points. According to the National Vital Statistics Reports, in 2003, the number of teen births in Texas was 51,091.
Even though Texas has seen a decline in the number of teen births, apparently this was not enough to lower our ranking. One reason, according to Frances Deviney of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, Texas has a high rate of Hispanics, (35 percent of Texas population) they tend to have more teen mothers than other groups. What exactly did she mean by this statement? Unfortunately, we cannot blame the media for misquoting her; it is a statement she also made on a press release. The reason this concerns me, one can assume that the basis teen pregnancy is high among young Latinas is because they are hyper sexualized, a stereotype that continues to plague Latinas as being voluptuous, sexy, morena, vixen, exotic, and sensual, in other words, a hot mamacita with an insatiable appetite for sex.
The problem with stereotypes, it forces people to live out their lives in accordance with these extremely pervasive roles. Therefore, statements such as these continue to seep into the collective public sub-conscience causing us to believe that Latinas do have a large sexual appetite where they are ready to hop into bed at the site of a man. However, the facts do not support myths. According to a study published by the National Center for Health Statistics, it was found that Latinas 15-17 years of age are less likely to have sex than their non-Hispanic black or white counterparts.
The same is true for 18-19 year olds. In the first age group 30% of non-Hispanic white girls, 41% of non-Hispanic black girls, and 25% of Hispanic girls report having had sexual intercourse with a male. In the second age group 68% of non-Hispanic white girls, 77% of non-Hispanic black girls, and 59% of Hispanic girls report having done so (p. 24). And, of those girls who had had sex in the previous four weeks, 19% of non-Hispanic white girls had had sex 4 or more times in that period compared with 13% for both black girls and Hispanic girls.
While teen pregnancy and birth rates have declined in the Latina/o community, the reality remains that one in two Latina teens (51%) are still getting pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20, according to the National Campaign Latino Initiative. That is nearly twice the national average. Why is there such a difference between higher pregnancy and birth rates and less sexual activity? The reasons behind why Latina teens get pregnant are both complicated and numerous. One thing is for sure, the old methods of advising a young female adolescent to “put a penny between your knees and keep it their” is ill advice and so is “sexual silence.”
It is important to recognize that teen pregnancy is both a cause and consequence of poverty. That is, high rates of Latina teen pregnancy and childbearing reflect in part the existing disadvantage and limited opportunities for many in the Latina/o community. It is important to understand that many Latina youth are at high risk for teen pregnancy due to the same factors as other minority youth, such as socioeconomic status and educational attainment. However, it is also vitally important to understand that there are other risk factors that contribute. These factors tend to be related cultural reasons, such as acculturation, family values, attitudes about motherhood, religion, and traditional gender roles. It is easy to tout off stats on the dangers of teen pregnancy, for some it does make a difference, but enough to curb this issue. To get to heart of the matter, we must have a firm understanding how these cultural risk factors play a role because it is these factors that influence the level of knowledge or lack of knowledge one possesses about sex and contraceptives.
Why Young Latinas Get Pregnant
In a study done by the National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy, found that Latina teen mothers aged 15-17, about one in four had a partner who is at least five years older. I used to work at a community center and I was amazed to see the number of young teen mothers coming in to seek services. When the counselors would talk to them, they would find out that many of them engaged in sexual activity with men who were several years older. It seems common within the Latina/o community; studies have also this type of behavior among Latinas.
Some studies have found that teens that do have romantic partners that are three or more years older are less likely to use contraception, are more likely to report later that they didn’t really want to have sex in the first place, and increased their chances of becoming pregnant as a teen. It is important to understand how patriarchal gender roles tends to be a big influence in developing these types of relationships. It is known that in the Latino community, men are held to different standards of sexual behavior than women, where men have an arrogant view that they are responsible for making decisions about whether to use birth control.
Other reasons for teen pregnancy include insufficient or medically inaccurate sex education, improper or lack of use of contraception, the influence of the media, attitudes about sexuality, and limited access to contraception and family planning services. Religion may play a role in why Latina teens do or do not get pregnant, depending on if teens and/or their families adhere to religious views about abstinence, contraception, and abortion. Second, third, and fourth generation Latino youth, however, may not identify as strongly with religious beliefs, hence the influence of religion may not be great among certain teens.
Characteristics of Effective Pregnancy Prevention Programs
If we really are serious about curbing teen pregnancy, it definitely will not be done through Bush’s “Abstinence-Only” Program. Even though the Latino heritage is a rich and diverse, it is not monolithic. The Latino culture in the US varies not only by country of origin, but by regions and ethnicities within those countries. Yet, there are some common values among many cultural heritages. Some of these core values can be used to great effect when designing or implementing prevention programs in Latino communities.
The foundation of an effective program should be built on a core set of values shared by many Latina/o cultures. These are familismo, colectivismo, and respeto. Building on that foundation, an effective program targeting Latinas/os must be clear and consistent, age-appropriate information, reinforce cultural values, educate parents, involve the community, include young males as well as females, and take into account youths place of origin, generational status, and language preference.
We must also keep in mind there is no such thing as a generic Latina/o youth. There are varying levels of Spanish language usage, different cultural traditions and values, an urban Tejana/o will have a different set of values from a Tejana/o from the Valle or from Califas and so on. There are also different levels of perceived discrimination, degrees of political organization, and social and economic dislocation among Latino subgroups
A “one-size fits all approach” is not the solution. The approaches tend to stereotype community members and their needs, in the end, waste valuable resources by designing inappropriate prevention efforts, and inadvertently neglect of the needs of specific groups in the community.
As Tejana/os we must do better, as Latin@s/Xican@s, we have to do better.
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Tags: Abstinence-Only, patriarchy, Raza, teen pregnancy, Texas | 
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This is the blog of Edmundo "XicanoPwr" Rocha, a social worker, an activist, freelance writer and founder and editor of The Sanctuary. My interests include: immigration reform, critical race theory and it's interaction with equality/inequality and freedom/oppression as they relate to the experiences of people of color in the Americas.
Para Justicia y Libertad is a Latino-centered political blog focusing on the humanistic perspective of politics, history, and society as they relate to the Latina/o community throughout Texas and the United States.
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You should be happy. Young Latinas getting pregnant propagates ‘the Race.’ Seriously, though, how can poverty be blamed for immoral behavior? And if you’re going to engage in premarital sex and you’re poor, doesn’t it make more sense to spend $10 on a box of condoms than risk the monetary cost of a new life? Of course, given the fact that unwed mothers get higher welfare benefits and illegal immigrants can use the ER for free, maybe they don’t incur those costs. Maybe the answer is cutting off welfare. Blaming Bush can only go so far.
XP–you opened up a really important topic for discussion, thank you for that.
I agree with you that teen pregnancy is a problem–but for different reasons than you, I think–i see it more of a problem in that a woman’s life is so negatively influenced by the pregnancy in the form of increased poverty, lack of adequate schooling facilities, lack of childcare, etc–this system is set up in such a way as to make birthing young a catastrophe–usually for the woman. the lack of alternatives given to young women who birth early is nothing more than a way for a capitalistic system to begin the “weeding out” process–if you don’t do it the “right way” you deserve to loose your place in the line.
I don’t think that we should solve the problem of capitalism (lack of childcare, educational choices, safe and affordable housing choices, health care, etc) by further controlling and stigmatizing the bodies of young latinas. I think we should change the system. make alternative methods of joining the “system” available–spend that billion dollars a week we are spending on the war on highschools that have daycare centers in them, on universal health care that, like you said, incorporates a great sex ed program, on community centers where young women can talk amongst themselves about sexuality, baby raising and anything else they want to–A billion dollars a week is a lot of fucking money–more than enough in my mind to create a comprehensive community based program that teens help to run and create.
Yes, more socialism! That’s the answer! It’s the government’s job to be the nanny, to teach people how to act, to take care of them from the cradle to the grave! No consequences for your actions!
With such thinking, no wonder latin America is the way it is.
Labeling everything you hate as socialism for your moralistic indignation can only go so far. This is unhelpful, to put it mildly, all you did was invalidate, dismiss, and minimize Brownfemipower’s opinion without providing a valid argument to the points she brought to the table. Making hasty generalizations this does not add to the discussion.
It is obvious that you are suffering from a fair dose of self-righteousness and sanctimoniousness. Your continuation of mocking the Latino community is further proof that moral indignation is the opiate of the uber-American right — and those who enjoy making self-centered public pontification are especially susceptible to addiction.
PRCaldude, get a life and stop trolling.
XP,
I agress with BFP. Whenever I hear the arguement about teen pregancy, there is always this vibe that says there are not enough social services for latinas/blks to have so many children and instead of looking at the system, we look at the latinas and try and figure out what is “wrong” with them. Why is the choice to have a child ever based on economics? and why does not having money somehow mean you shouldn’t have children?
I wonder what being a pregnant teen was like pre-colonialism… What I am trying to say is, if we weren’t living in this capitalist system, would being a seventeen-year-old mother/father be wrong? Really, I am asking. What do you think?
I also don’t think it helps that we discuss the issue by saying “latinas are getting pregnant,” “Latinas are looking for social services for their children,” “Latinas need to be educated about safe sex.” It is as if men have nothing to do with this. What about the boys in this? what about their safe sex education? whenever their is a teenage mother, their is a father somewhere and in many cases it is a teenage father. but we don’t say there is a problem with teenage boys and pregancy….
I don’t thinkI know I didn’t express myself clearly regarding the patriarchal demands placed on women, i.e., the dichotomy of la virgen/la puta. BFP and luisa, I do thank you both for pointing that out to me. I am still learning and still pealing off the layers. I do admit there are probably more layers that I need to shed and I thank both of you for being my moral guide.I still have more to say, but I have to step out for the moment, I will continue when I come back, there are a lot of great points both of you bring up.
BFP -
I think we are seeing eye-to-eye on this issue. I think I should have been a little more clear.
As I wrote this, I was debating on how much I should spend on that issue. I do realize that the patriarchal demands placed on women is a major influence when it comes to teen sexuality because in reality, boys and girls are socialized differently, particularly concerning sexuality. I wanted to elaborate the impact patriarchal gender roles have on sexuality on a separate post. There are a couple of reasons for this, 1) as I was writing this post, I was reminded of an old e-mail I wrote you, BFP, regarding the firing of Melanie Martinez, former host of the Good Night Show, on PBS KIDS Sprout, for appearing in a video called “Technical Virgin;” and 2) it also has to do with the recent discussion you are having regarding sex. Reading your post and the comments reminded me so much of a series of conversations I had with a co-worker. She had expressed almost the exact same experiences you and your commentors expressed.
it is the capitalistic system that is upholding hegemonic masculinity in society. The consequences it continues the dichotomy between this country’s professed support of equal rights and its adherence to patriarchal gender roles which places women in a lower social position.
I do believe that an alternative should however, before building any type of program, there should be a foundation. The foundation or core values (or whatever somebody wants to call them) I mentioned - family, collectivism, and respect - are the same values that are the same guiding principles that the Zapatista used. Granted their ideology goes way beyond the three values I used, but as a start, I feel that these three guiding principles can help develop a truly successful community program. And of the three, I believe if we can utilize some form of the Zapatista model as a way to head towards dignity, we will be able to response to abandonment and destruction created by the negative aspects of this country. The political economy of our Capitalist system has already damaged our collective sense and ability to direct our own destiny. Most communities are neither expected nor encouraged to give opinions on the lack of dignified jobs, inferior education, toxic dumps or the utilization of land. They are carefully ignored and suffer from lack of appropriate education, information and misinformation. I truly believe if we are allowed the chance to create alternative methods, we will be successful.
luisa - the point you made about including men is important. If it seems like I glossed over this fact, I apologize, that was not my intention. As the saying goes, it takes two to tango. Adolescent fathers are rarely seen, and they’re heard from even less. Even in the community center where I worked, it seem that they were always given a pass. The agency’s fatherhood program was striped away from its grant because those who ran the program went out recruiting because the excuse was they could never find teen men interested in being part of the program. I suspect they didn’t believe in the program and that is why the program failed.
One of the problems we have has to do with the misconception having to do with “machismo “. I know it won’t be concept has been taken and has been twisted and turned into a negative connotation - chauvinist, a brute, uncouth, selfish, loud, abrasive, capable of inflicting pain, and sexually promiscuous. The good news is there are organizations like National Latino Fatherhood and Family Institute who are trying to redefine those gender roles through programs like Con Los Padres.
You stated that you wondered what it was like being a pregnant teen during pre-colonialism, my hunch would be, nothing like we have now. Archival documents show that it was the Spanish who imposed the patriarchical structure for all indigenous peoples through conquest and colonialism in the New World, which led to dramatic role changes for both Aztec men and women. It has been found, based on archaeological and historical information compiled from codices and excavations, that the Aztecs believed women’s involvement was essential in creating a well-balanced and ordered society. Aztec communities provided women with social, religious, and political power, making them significant and, in many cases, equal contributors to Aztec social world.
It is impossible to say whether a person can be too young to get married. Would being a seventeen-year-old mother/father be wrong, in all honesty, I really don’t think it would be wrong. I believe in my heart that is we were to live in a true collective society, being married at 17 with a child would not be view negatively.
However, in today’s capitalist society, we have created norms that make it difficult to survive because we are always chasing this illusion of “making it.” We are so distracted with our insecurity about finding a job and establishing financial independence in “the real world.” For men, in order to be viewed as “making it” it means that men should 1) have a J.O.B. and 2) should be successful in their careers.
We start playing the “what if” game so much we are plagued with pain and stress. People respond to this uncertainty differently. Some find it unbearable. They want to secure a future.
Sex roles are constantly perpetuated and reinforced by the mass media and society in many ways, some obvious and others more subtle. Under the current patriarchal structure women are considered successful when she marries someone equal or higher amount of wealth or social power. This is easily seen on any dating site, one of the most requested criteria women put done on their profiles is that men who be financially independent or secured.
In this country, we are constantly reminded of our place in society if we do not meet our expected role. It also dictates what careers are thought proper and what courses of action are expected for each individual. For example, my sister, being a doctor, she landed a job that will be pay her over $100K, when she found out, she emailed everybody in the family, in her email she wrote:”read carefully….. i am now an official contributor to society with a real job and real pay!”
So where does that leave a person like myself, who was laid off because of lack of funds and who has applied to multiple places, locally and nationally, and has not yet received a phone call? A blight on society because as a male, I failed because I did not meet my expected role.
So imagine if your 17, straight out of high school or in college or just out of college, and if you are bombarded with expected roles by the mass media. The consequence is of all this is psychologically damaging, in that they promote a desirable behaviors and beliefs which are incompatible with reality and are maladaptive to psychological adjustment. And in the end, we are corned into a do or die for survival.
When it comes to issue, it hits home in a very personal way. All I will say is, there is not a day that goes by that I am not haunted by a decision that was made mutually.
If I had my way, luisa, there would be nothing wrong being a seventeen-year-old mother/father.
a great post, 1) day care and health care seem to be the number one problem for single parents. 2) maybe overlooked is that in a lot of Latino/a families (brother & sister) the child’s– uncles/aunts– pick-up the slack of the missing parent a
The political economy of our Capitalist system has already damaged our collective sense and ability to direct our own destiny. Most communities are neither expected nor encouraged to give opinions on the lack of dignified jobs, inferior education, toxic dumps or the utilization of land. They are carefully ignored and suffer from lack of appropriate education, information and misinformation. I truly believe if we are allowed the chance to create alternative methods, we will be successful.
I couldn’t agree with you more. And I think when you begin to look closely at various communities within our communities, you see that young women especially, with young poor women, young disabled women, and young queer women especially are not expected or encouraged to have their own opinions about things. so when you start thinking about “community” learning, you have to also get into all those messy identities that are definitly not looked on as “good” in our communities–you know? Like, sex ed for a gay youth will probably need to look a lot different than sex ed for a straight female–how can we create “values” that allow for that type of diversity and refusal of gender norms?
I think if you get into our communities and allow us all the space to talk, there’d be a lot of surprise about what community members want and need–I betcha a lot of youths *would* want birth control information. But I betcha a lot of youths would *also* want viable alternatives for how to have a family AND continue school. I mean, in my community up here in Michigan–a comprehensive sex ed program would also probably include lots of scholarships for university–many people have families young because they know they aren’t going to college–why bother? It’s not going to get you a job in michigan, and it’s going to cost more than a house in loans. So if you’re not going to school, and you can’t afford to do any middle class things like travel or whatever-why wait to have a family? what’s the point of waiting? you know? but how many traditional sex ed programs would include something like that?
Sadly you are right about the need for separate classes, too many people are still jacked into the system. It is possible, but it would take a lot, but this would call for major total shift in consciousness.
You and I are seeing eye to eye, but how many are willing to disagree with the church and other systems that are meant to keep the status quo.
I remember one of the jobs I applied for right after grad school had to do with sex ed. I remember that interview like it was yesterday, I had to talk to the person in charge, but I also had to talk to teens too. They were asking what I think about sex, condoms, and all the things we are discussing right now. I told them my views, but I also told them I respected theirs. Well, the agency called me to tell me that I was a hit with the teens and if I wanted the job it was mine but other conditions I had to meet.
I think the teens here have a lot of thing in common the teens up in MI, I think what is different, is how the state and local government maintain the environment they are raised in.
I don’t get it. How do a ‘lack of social services’ and ‘education programs’ cause ostensibly poor latinas to get pregnant. Are they somehow coerced into immoral behavior by their situation? Doesn’t common sense dictate having children that you can pay for when you’ve reached an appropriate age?
Ok. Here’s my take on the latina pregnancy situation, since it in every way mirrors the African-American illegitimate pregnancy situation, but is worse: poor parenting leads to poor child behavior. Here’s some data from the CDC:
Since this is a site dedicated largely to blameshifting problems to ‘the white man’ while at the same time extolling the virtues of ‘the Race,’ how do you distinguish which are the problems endemic to the Latino community solely? Brownfemipower provides the answer:
This quote is my favorite. Grasping at the virtues of Aztec society, such as the justice of it, while failing to note the considerable vices, of which patriarchy and human sacrifice were two:
and
Charming civilization, wasn’t it?
More along the lines of what I was saying above, hispanic family values seem to be the biggest contributing factor, not poverty, to hispanic illegitimacy. But when in doubt, blame capitalism or the white man. Or both!
naw dude just you, you are the sole reason for our misery. But anyway - I wouldn’t be so pious vato, it is not like the Anglo are as innocent, so highly cultured or highly evolved you like to make it out to be.
Lets talk about how sadistic Anglos can be when they creativity devise methods of killing those who dared to break the law.
In England, from as early as 1241 to as late as 1820, those convicted of capital crimes were hanged, drawn, and quartered. The prisoner was taken from his prison cell and laid on a sledge which was tied to a horse and dragged along the ground to the gallows. At the gallows, the prisoner slowly strangled while dangling from a rope (the “long drop” which snaps the spinal cord was a modern innovation in hanging). The executioner was often instructed to cut down the prisoner when “half dead” at which point the convict was disemboweled, his entrails thrown into a nearby fire, his head cut off, and his body cut into quarters. The decapitation and “quartering” of the transgressor served both dramatic and practical ends - it added power to the execution ceremony and provided five parts of the corpse which could be displayed at conspicuous sites as visible warnings to potential wrongdoers. Indeed, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries many major crossroads in London were decorated with decaying corpses hanging from trees or stuck on poles. London Bridge was adorned with the heads of the recently executed, such heads having been “parboiled” (cooked in salt and cumin seed) to delay the decaying process and render them unappetizing to birds.
I can see how that is really civilized, maybe that is not it, it was the burning at the stake that made the so-called civilized countries so evolved than the indigenous people in the new world.
There were three methods of burning at the stake. In the first method, burning wood was piled around a stake driven into the earth. The prisoner hung from the stake from chains or iron hoops. In the second method (popular in punishing witches), the prisoner again hung from a stake, but this time the wood was piled high around the victim so the observers could not see her pain and suffering as she burned. In the third method (popular in Germany in the Nordic countries), the victim was tied to a ladder which was tied to a frame above the fire. The ladder was then swung down into the flames.
Or maybe it was pressing that made Anglos civilized or could it be the drowning.
Because our national identity was based on race and whiteness, it was inevitably exclusionary. Race exclusion and racism were not aberrations, they were inevitable outcomes of our national identity. Whiteness has always been more aggressive than the belief that the British race was the best the world had seen. Whiteness was about power and privilege, about the natural God-given right to rule the world. Whiteness was a privileged and exclusive club, but membership was not necessarily based on being British or Anglo-Saxon.
Nice try, thank you for playing.
WhiteXicanopwr,You don’t here me hearkening back to those days, do you? Nice straw man. However, in the example you cited above, they were doing it as a capital punishment, not to appease some god. Granted, human sacrifice was or has been a part of every culture. It’s still found in the United States (and now Mexico) in the form of abortion. But you won’t hear anyone longing for a return to those days, as you quite shockingly do here. I prefer to deal with the present.
Doesn’t it strike you odd that the historical and racial grievance mongering found on this site is very similar to what you hear coming from the likes of al-Zawahiri and other jihadists? An interesting exercise for you might be to replace ‘Caliphate’ with ‘ancestral homelands’ and ‘Muslim’ with ‘Latino’ in some of their statements and writings and see how closely their statements resemble yours.
I think ‘whiteness’ is about people who bear a familial resemblance to you. Isn’t that what race is? As one person put it, ‘race is a partially inbred extended family.’ Britain achieved hegemony over much of the world through sea power. After Trafalgar, Britain ‘ruled the waves’ which gave them unencumbered access to other countries. There was plenty of racism involved in their colonial attitude, I am sure. But as you’ll also recall, the British ended their slave trade voluntarily relatively early on in their empire, so to say that racial hegemony was their only motivation would be absurd, and much of what they conquered later included relics of the Ottoman and Moghul empires. In case you were wondering, both of these were Islamic empires that practiced slavery and an extreme form of second class citizenship for non Muslims known as dhimmitude. Ask any Greek or Armenian what they think of the Turks. Ask any Indian Hindu what they thought of the Moghuls (who were responsible for killing some 80 million Hindus in the subcontinent over a 500 year period). So while the British empire probably practiced racism, it was a considerable step up from Islamic hegemony. See “The Legacy of Jihad” by Andrew Bostom for more. I would argue that ‘racism’ as we know it today probably didn’t gain significant traction until Darwin, whose theories were much loved by Hitler and the like.
That said, isn’t your criticism of whatever racism went on before somewhat hypocritical? I mean, don’t you call yourself ‘XicanoPwr’ and refer to your race as ‘La Raza’ (the Race)? Aren’t you expressing a certain amount of racial superiority yourself? Aren’t you the pot calling the kettle black?
‘La Raza’ (the Race)
generally, it’s a good idea make sure your translations are correct before you go spewing at the mouth.
“la raza”=the people
I’m not a smart man, but I am able to look up ‘la raza’ in a Spanish-English dictionary. Literally translated, it means ‘the race.’ The term for ‘the people’ is ‘la gente,’ though ‘la raza’ can be used as a denonation of the same thing. You are using it as a synonym of ‘el pueblo’ or ‘la gente’, but that doesn’t change its literal translation. Either way, if we’re to be perfectly honest, it has plenty of racial overtones.
spanish english dictionaries do not take into account how the words are used on the ground. literally, kiss my ass means take off my pants pull down my underwear and use your lips to kiss my ass. but we all know what it really means is fuck off, screw you, up yours etc etc etc. no mexican or chicano i know or have ever heard of uses la raza to mean “the race”. They use it as “the people”–it’s a term of self love and community love–it’s NOT about “we are better than you” it’s about “we are community”.
So, in other words, you wouldn’t use the term as MEChA uses it:
Sure sounds racial to me, and given the fact that there’s MEChA chapters everywhere, there’s plenty of people who buy into the racial view of it. That being the case, I’m sure you’ll agree that ‘Anglo self-determinism’ is perfectly alright also. To think otherwise would be the apex of hypocrisy. Heh.
Look vato, I don’t know what your problem ese, give it a rest. You just got schooled, take it like man, since your so inclined to be in favor of your patriarchal roles.
Look, Spanish is spoken in 20+ countries and your going educate us. Please. Are you kidding me? Your response is so typical of a monolingual gringo. Mira wey, there are many dialects of Spanish spoken all throughout Latin America. Just as there are various dialects of English in the United States, Canada, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. Here in the US, the media tries to make it homogeneous, it uses one kind - Standard Spanish.
From Wikipedia on the Spanish Language
Once again, nice try, thank you for playing, ese.
So MEChA, a predominantly Mexican organization, is using it incorrectly when it speaks of a ‘bronze people’ and a ‘bronze culture’? Every language has different usages for the same words. None of this is surprising to me, and I’ve already stated that. I’m trying to understand how it’s used by Mexicans in the United States, because they are the overwhelming majority of Latinos in the United States. Considering there are noms de plum such as ‘brownfemipower’ and ‘xicanopwr’ on this website, and given MEChA’s usage of the term and it’s neo-Nazi logo (compare with symbols of the Third Reich, it’s pretty obvious to everyone that ‘La Raza’ is a racial term. But like you said, I have no idea what I’m talking about ese.
This guy doesn’t seem to agree with your take either.
Look vato, I don’t know how long you intend in playing this game where you have me chase down your points. It is an endless and disingenuous tactic with various misdirections that evokes the game of three-card Monte game.
You can keep playing, but your playing alone this time.
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