"Spanish"

Spanish
adjective: 1. of or pertaining to Spain, its people, or their language.
noun: 2. a Romance language, the language of Spain, standard also in most of Latin America except Brazil.


Therefore Spanish is what I speak NOT what I am.

I have to admit that a growing pet peeve of mine is when people use the word Spanish to describe a group of people who are not from Spain yet speak Spanish aka Latinos (or Hispanics...the use of this label is for another blog)

Spanish food: This label doesn't bother me as much because it is in reference to food and not people but at times it will be such a vague reference that I'll get confused and think I'm going to eat paella and tapas somewhere only to find out I'm getting rice and beans with pernil. Please people, try to be more specific. If you are going to a restaurant, most likely it's from a specific country or region, therefore you should use that term. This might seem like it doesn't matter but people will only learn about our culture if we teach them. For example, mangu is a key food in the Dominican culture and a Spanish person would never even know where I comes from...there for it isn't Spanish food.

Now to the big one, "Spanish People". I know old habits are hard to break but we need to start somewhere. We have to stop calling ourselves Spanish. I think this issue is more prevalent in New York City because years ago groups of Latinos were all over the city and people didn't know any better but to categorize us by the language we speak. After so many years of being in this country and assuming this generation has a better education than the last, we should set higher standards. I went to school in Harlem where everyone just said the school was "mostly black and spanish" I've never considered myself Spanish and after living in Spain I KNOW we def aren't Spanish. The culture is very different and even the Spanish we speak is different. I think the hardest part is hearing Latinos referring to other Latinos as Spanish. I know it's just a habit but ideally we would break this habit and correct others as well. It's not offensive but it is very inaccurate and living in a society where people would be quick to call all of us Mexican or maybe Puerto Rican depending on what city you're in, we should be the ones to get it right.

Here's a little story: a few weeks ago, someone in the Twitter world started a trending topic called "#uknowuspanish" and the way it works is you write that followed by something that makes you "spanish" so this topic kept going around. I saw tons of stereotypes flying around like "...if u like reggaeton" or "...if you go crazy when daddy yankee "gasolina" comes on"...womp womp...obviously these people don't even know Gasolina has been in the "played out" category for the last 5 or 6 years lol Either way...I think it bothered me because it was obvious that the people who started this whole thing were def not in touch with our culture and it almost became ridicule.

All that to say...we are not Spanish we are Latinos/(maybe Hispanic if u still prefer that) and (insert country here). We speak Spanish and on occasion go to a Spanish restaurant for some good sangria or jamon serrano...but unless u have a parent or grandparent from Spain...you aren't Spanish either.

Ok...wow...felt good to get that one out!

Don't get me wrong...you don't have to tiptoe around me when you feel like saying "Spanish" and I'm not going to sentence you to 50 lashes for using the wrong term lol. This is more of an awareness blog. Just something to keep in mind because one day you will run into some ignorant person that will put you in a box and then they'll point the finger at you for "saying it first".