Posted on 11/21/2015 10:03:54 AM PST by Kaslin
I ask because much of U.S. punditry (on both left and right) don't seem to regard the Cuban-American Republican presidential candidates as either "white" or "“Hispanic." And I'm pretty sure they're not black.
Let's have a look at some recent coverage. And here I'll borrow a line from the old Crossfire program: On the Left here's MSNBC's Chris Matthews from just last week:
"I'm not sure the right word is Hispanic for them (Rubio and Cruz), because they are Cuban nationals or whatever, or come from Cuba."
And here's The Daily Beast from a couple years ago:
"Rubio put a kind, nonscary --and nonwhite-- face on a party dealing with an image problem and seemed to have dry mouth with his reach for water."
Now on the Right, here's Breitbart News from Feb. 2013:
"Apparently, the Washington Post and New York Times don't like the idea of a non-white U.S. Senator acting all uppity...both news outlets ripped into Texas Senator Ted Cruz for not knowing his place."
And here's The Wall Street Journal from Aug. 2012:
"Mr. Cruz's triumph also shows the degree to which the GOP now has a growing number of nonwhite rising stars."
"White" used to be synonymous with "Caucasian," also meaning European. Spain is a nation in Europe comprising most of the Iberian Peninsula which was known as Hispania when part of the Roman Empire. This area of Europe was originally peopled mostly by Celtic tribes.
Unlike the rest of what came to be known as Latin America, when Columbus landed Cuba had a tiny indigenous population. Most of these hapless Native Americans quickly perished, mostly from disease also from brutalities by the settlers. So by the 1700 Cuba was populated overwhelmingly by Spaniards. Later African slaves were brought in to work the sugar plantations. But according to the UN in 1957 Cuba's population was 71 % white.
For the crime of presenting these historical facts I'm about to be denounced as a "racist." I can sense it. So here I'll turn over the floor to a Marxist Mexican: "Cuba has a tremendous advantage in national integration over other Latin American countries because of a largely homogeneous white Spanish immigrant base," wrote UN economist (and Mexican Marxist) Juan Noyola who in 1960 was invited to Cuba by the island's "Minister of Economics" Che Guevara. "Cuba's smaller Negro population is also culturally integrated. Those feudal modes of labor that exist in the rest of Latin America, don't exist in Cuba. The Cuban campesino does not resemble the one in the rest of Latin America The Cuban campesino, in all respects, is a modern man. They have an educational level and a familiarity with modern methods unseen in the rest of Latin America."
"Gosh?" Cuban-Americans often hear during introductions at social settings. "But you don't look Spanish?"â€
"That's probably because we're actually from Spain," we snark back.
Technically of course Matthews is wrong about Cruz and Rubio's non-Hispanicism. But in the ebonics of current American political discourse he's right. In current American political usage "Hispanic" has come to mean a person of mostly native American ancestry whose ancestors were conquered by people from the former Roman province known as Hispania.
So please give the American pundits I mentioned above a break. After all, most Americans have no idea what a Spanish person looks like. Immigrants from Spain were relatively rare in the U.S., even during the Great 1880-1924 spasm of European immigration. During this spasm Spain's "huddled masses" went mostly to its former colonies, with economically developed Cuba and Argentina as top destinations.
So people with Spanish surnames in the U.S. don't look like people with Spanish surnames in Europe, where the surname originates.
Most immigrants arrived in America poor (especially by U.S. standards.) Some arrived destitute. Almost all Cubans arrived destitute. The Castroites stole everything they owned. Yet in his classic work, The Spirit of Enterprise George Gilder titled a chapter, "The Cuban Miracle." "No other immigrant group so quickly and successfully transformed a city, while achieving such multifarious business breakthroughs as the fugitives from Castro's regime who made Miami their home after 1960."
More infuriating still (for the Democrat-Media Complex,) the 2000 census showed that second-generation Cuban-Americans have educational and income levels higher–not only than most ethnic groups who dutifully punch the clock at the Democratic plantation but also higher than the U.S. population in general.
Naturally none of these characteristics endear Cuban-Americans to liberals, especially as Cuban-Americans have traditionally voted Republican.
Forget all the $500 per-hour, carefully -coiffed and useless (if not actually harmful) Republican campaign consultant s. If you have many Mexican-American or Puerto-Rican friends ask around (discreetly) how they feel about Cuban-Americans. Best (i.e. most honest) answers will issue forth after a few Margaritas, PinaColadas or Coronas
See what I mean?
Liberals claim this ethnic resentment issues from the preferential treatment Cuban immigrants get vs the hard-line against other "Latino" immigrants. The "noble Cuban political refugee" vs "job-stealing wetback" immigration syndrome. But in discreet settings older Cuban-Americans will relate how this ethnic resentment far predates the Cuban Revolution.
Oh ...and among the very few Cubans with both indigenous and black ancestry was Castro's predecessor Fulgencio Batista, the grandson of slaves who was born in a palm-roofed shack and received the support of Cuba's communist party when in elected in 1940. You'll find him characterized in the mainstream media and Hollywood as a lily-white, right-wing oligarch.
Not sure about cru Cruz, but Rubio is a Mormon.
He says he isn't now.
Unclear what he is.
Catholic or Protestant Evangelical?
The Mormon church still has them on the rosters count on that; as I am sure the Catholic Church does also.
And here is from Wikipedia:
Rubio grew up in a family that was Roman Catholic, though from age 8 to age 11, he and his family attended The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while living in Las Vegas, where his father worked as a bartender at Sam's Town Hotel and his mother a housekeeper at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino. He received his first communion as a Catholic in 1984, before moving back to Miami with his family a year later. He was confirmed and married in the Catholic Church.
Ted Cruz is Southern Baptist according to Wikipedia
Vote smart.org, just says Christian
See my post #24
He was obviously baptized as an infant in the Catholic church. I am Catholic and was baptized when I was a week old.
Sorry but as I said in a later post once a Mormon always a Mormon as far as the church is concerned, same goes for Catholic so unless they kicked him out he still belongs to both as far as the churches are concerned. The Mormons are lax about removing the dead from membership roles.
Apparently Rubio frequents a Christian church in FL.
Portuguese are also bigots although quietly. My grandmother told me when I was very young that God created the Portuguese, she didn’t know about everyone else.
She lived her life believing that people other than Portuguese did not quite measure up. Unless you knew her well you never saw it but she did not expect the same level of behavior from others that she did from Portuguese. My aunts and uncles were all the same.
Just because his parents went to a Mormon church while they lived in Las Vegas, doesn’t mean they converted to Mormonism. I am Catholic and If I go to a Lutheran church, that does not make me a Lutheran. And since Rubio is Catholic he most likely attend Mass in a Catholic Church in Miami
Some crazy liberals refer to women in general, not women of any particular race or ethnic origin as “a minority”. In reality the only MAJORITY group is women in general. I pointed that out to one loony tunes liberal woman years ago and she told me that “minority” does NOT mean to be less than a majority, according to her it had a completely different meaning. I kid you not.
“Rubio’s parents baptized him Catholic and he is now a practicing Catholic, but when he was 8, his family moved from South Florida to Las Vegas, where his mother attributed the wholesomeness of the neighborhood to the influence of the Mormon church. Young Rubio was baptized again, this time in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He spent three years as a Mormon, upheld its teachings more enthusiastically than his parents, and chided his father for working as a bartender, a no-no for Mormons who abstain from alcohol.”
http://www.religionnews.com/2015/04/13/five-faith-facts-marco-rubio-catholic-always-catholic/
“Rubio and his wife Jeanette often visit Miami’s Christ Fellowship, a Southern Baptist congregation the couple appreciates for its strong preaching and children’s programs. Rubio has donated at least $50,000 to the church, which he attended almost exclusively from 2000 to 2004. But he now finds his religious home in Catholic churches in Washington, D.C., and Florida. In his memoir, Rubio writes that he will go with his family to Christ Fellowship on Saturday nights, and Mass on Sundays at St. Louis Catholic Church. His children have received first Holy Communion.”
http://www.religionnews.com/2015/04/13/five-faith-facts-marco-rubio-catholic-always-catholic/
Wouldn’t allowing your son to be a baptized Mormon indicate thet they at least believed in Mormon dogma? I can assure you that there are many RC churches in Vegas and have been for decades. Of course the RC church would have first claim on his soul. He however, as noted, was a true Mormon believer at the age of 8.
Get over it. He’s not a Mormon
OH GOD MY MIND’S EYE IS BLEEDING.
You owe me for the 15 years of therapy it’s going to take to get over that mental image!
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