Hispanic "So what is South America? A country where all those Mexicans live?" "No, a continent. Okay, like North America is the United States and Canada, South America contains Columbia, Brazil, and other countries," I tried to explain to my grandmother. "So when you are living there, can we drive to visit you?" she asked. "Well, yah, I guess you could, but it would take days. Look, I'll draw you a map and show you." After quite some time of explaining what and where South America is, I finally turned to my artistic skills by doodling with a Sharpie a map on a Styrofoam plate . Because my career of mission work will probably be south of the border, I was trying to teach my grandparents how to accept the different culture, starting with showing them where I will eventually live. "Okay, here is Canada and the United States," I said pointing to North America. "Here are the Caribbean Islands, including Jamaica (where I was on that mission trip) and Puerto Rico. Now what we call Central America is considered Mexico, right here. And below that is South America and all its countries, not states." "You mean, if we want to see you we have to take a boat? 'Cause Papa is scared of flying and we would have to drive through Mexico with all those Mexicans, and that we just can't do. We've been there before, and Papa didn't like it. Those people were just way to pushy." I finally laughed it off too many times and just rolled my eyes. Why do people use the term Mexican to define every Spanish speaking, tan skinned, black hair person that comes from south of the border? Mexican in the American College Dictionary is defined as an adjective meaning "of or pertaining to Mexico" or a noun meaning "a native or inhabitant of Mexico." This comes from the suffix -an, defined as "'belonging to', 'pertaining to or relating to'" that country named ("-an"). Thus, if an immigrant came from Guatemala into the United States, he can not be called a Mexican, he is a Guatemalan. If a person comes from Venezuela, he is a Venezuelan. Just as all white people are not Americans, but Europeans, Africans, Russians, or of any other people, all people from South America are not Mexicans. Yet, they can be called Hispanic. Hispanic, another meaning for Spanish, is defined as the "Spanish people collectively" or the people from countries that "Spanish is the prevailing language" ("Hispanic"; "Spanish"). Thus, a Hispanic does not even have to be tan, but can be white, black, or any other color. Still when a person describes a Spanish speaking person coming from either the Caribbean islands or Central or South America he is commonly misnamed as a Mexican. Also, many people use the popular term Hispanic, to define immigrants from other parts of America or Caribbean coming into the United States. With this thought, the term Hispanic, or the former term Mexican, has been given a connotation linking with the word illegal. Yet however small the percentage of Hispanic immigrants is illegal, most people still use one phrase to define the other. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, "Persons of Hispanic origin were identified by a question that asked for self-identification of the person's origin or descent. Respondents were asked to select their origin (and the origin of other household members) from a "flash card" listing ethnic origins. Persons of Hispanic origin, in particular, were those who indicated that their origin was Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or some other Hispanic origin. It should be noted that persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race." (Bureau) Does this say that a person is Hispanic only when he is in his native country? No, a person is his race wherever he may be. An American is an American in America and if he goes to Jupiter. He is always an American. In the same way, Hispanic does not just define one kind of immigrant, but an ethnic group that is human, too. Therefore, in saying the term Hispanic, all that should be implied is the ethnic origin and language spoken. If a person wants to make a racist comment, most importantly he should understand the culture that he is insulting, but firstly he should not be made a fool by stating that all Spanish speakers are Mexican. When growing up, I always followed in my sister’s footsteps. If she loved the color blue, I loved it, too. If she fell down, I was right beside her. When she was in the ninth grade and I was in the sixth grade, she started taking Spanish as an elective for high school. I remember sitting in the living room watching my mom quiz my sister for a Spanish test. "Comer is to..." "Umm, eat." "El perro feo means what?" "The ugly dog.” From then until now, I have followed my sister and have fallen in love with Spanish. Every morning I awake to Spanish music; every day I eavesdrop listening to Hispanics talking while passing; every night I await a Spanish dream, and in every way I try to strengthen my foundation of the culture and language. Recently while on a mission trip in Jamaica, I reinforced my knowledge by conversing in Spanish for five hours. Our team was laying concrete for a local congregation when a Hispanic man came to help. “JP, we need your help. There’s a man that can’t understand a word of English that’s outside and no one here except you can speak Spanish. Can you help?” our team leader pleaded urgently. “Hola, me llamo Jessica. Yo sé Español, poco. Habla dispacio, por favor,” I began. For the rest of the afternoon, we conversed about lives, culture, and religion. Small talk is a blessing for strangers. When I met Lari, the Hispanic, I never expected to carry on a conversation about religion or politics, so we kept the topic light by talking about family. As time passed we opened our minds in a discussion about our cultures. I never thought our nation was lenient about dating until learning that holding hands before marriage in some countries is unacceptable. Overall, the most memorable moment was sitting down for dinner after discussing our beliefs of religion. “Gras,” he said. “¿Qué?” I asked. “Gras,” he said again. “Oh, grace.” At the beginning of our stay in Jamaica, at every meal our team would tell the cooks “thanks,” but never gave grace to God. When Lari, a non-Christian, reminded our Christian team to give thanks to God, we never forgot to pray from then on. I have learned after several experiences such as this that Spanish is not only a want, but a need. Because I am a missionary, I need to be able to communicate with the majority. With Hispanics being the largest group of immigrants coming into the United States, and Spanish being one of the top five languages spoken in the world, it is important for me to know Spanish. For me to speak is half of the communication, but the other half is someone wanting to listen to me. If I am ignorant and offend the person by calling him Mexican when he is really from Venezuela, he may hear me speak, but not want to listen to me. If every person offended does not know God because of my ignorance, my life is useless. Resources "-an." The American College Dictionary. 1964. "Hispanic." The American College Dictionary. 1964. "Mexican." The American College Dictionary. 1964. "Spanish." The American College Dictionary. 1964. U.S Census Bureau-Population Division, Ethnic & Hispanic Statistics Branch. Information & Research Services. 2 Nov. 2000