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Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Whats in a word ?

So for years now I have struggled with perfecting the Spanish language.
Being able to speak the language is an amazing feat alone.
For me its been a journey that continues. As a young child I lived with both my parents who exclusively spoke English to me. The only spanish I spoke was to my Spanish speaking grandparents. The converstions were generally filled with " Hola, como esta"...and...."estoy bien y tu" and a few "quiere comer's"....and that was that.

In school of course I had Spanish class but nothing that really stuck with me. This had a lot to do with the school I attended which was about 95% Hispanic with children who came from spanish speaking households. These kids got 90's and 100's while my grades suffered in this subject.


I on the other hand learned to wing it. I believe I picked up most of my Spanish from simply trying, speaking what I knew and feeding off of others. In the beginning I would hold a conversation with the person speaking Spanish to me and simply reply in English. Funny enough I understood more than I could speak .
My English replies were partly due to my fear of using the incorrect grammar as well as the correct wording.

Slowly but surley I gained the confidence to speak up and hold a conversation in Spanish....not perfectly but trying.

So as I learn I find that there are many words that when translated to English take on a different meaning, as with many lanuages this tends to happen.
One word in particular I have trouble translating, whether its from English to Spanish or vice versa is describing my nationality.
How do you say I am black?
Now I know many Spanish speaking people use the word " moreno" to describe a black person.
I find that this word has a negative connotation to it?
Am I correct in assuming that? Is this word politically corrrect to use?
Moreno, being a widely used word, definitely may not be thought of as negative in another persons mind.
But I hesitiate, do I say....mi mama es morena y mi papa Ecuadoriano????
Or Africano Americano?
Very confusing yet valid.

posted by Black Latina Movement @ 11:53 AM   3 Comments

3 Comments:

At February 2, 2010 at 2:31 PM , Blogger Alanna said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
At February 2, 2010 at 2:33 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interesting that you mention the "morena" thing... Here in the DR, it doesn't have a negative connotation, necessarily. They use it as an identifier ("Eh, morena, ven aca."), just like they call me "rubia" all the time. Though, there are various classifications here - indio oscuro, indio claro, moreno, rubio, etc. and then there´s prieto/a which is someone dark, but I'm not sure if that's insulting or not. Still figuring that one out. I'm not sure you would be classified morena here. That usually means someone darker, but then again, I can only think of them identifying people as moreno/a or rubio/a when calling out to someone. I'll try to pay more attention.

Wanna come visit?

Cheers,
Alanna
savageinthedr.blogspot.com

 
At March 8, 2010 at 5:35 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

OMG. I could have written this myself. I still answer in english when spoken to in spanish for fear of sounding stupid or "off". When asked my nationality or the more crass "What are you?" I always simply break it down. My family is from Trinidad and Venezuela. That answer is satisfactory to most. What NO ONE (except other Trinidadians and some other South Americans) seem to understand is that the Venezuelan side is black. I actually have a tia that traced our roots back to the tribe in west africa that we are from. I wish I could get people to get that. Ah well. :)

 

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