Racial terminology (part 2)

I'll answer this one too mostly because it's region dependent. In the west coast People of hispanic decent like to be called Latinos, in the mid-west I think they prefer Hispanic, but in the east coast these peeps call themselves Spanish (maybe it's because of the language) which took me a while to get used to.

Ted Cruz...he's Cuban, again a regional questions. Well to do Latinos in the east coast might identify with him. But in the predominantly Mexican South West / West Coast / Chicago no fucking chance in hell he gets their vote

Oops I got Cruz confused with Rubio (from Florida) . But still, I don't think Cruz has a chance.

Cruz is Cuban, too. I have the impression that a lot of Hispanics in Texas would vote for Cruz. They seem to be better assimilated than the Latinos of California and therefore less stuck in the grip of the Democratic Party.

What the hell, you guys.

Ted Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta. He is a freakin' Canuck. I take no pride in claiming him as a natural citizen of the greatest land on this planet.

Sadly, it is true. His birth certificate said it is so. Canada is not an asshole-free country for all its other estimable qualities.

@farmerart: We're his parents US citizens, or Canadian? I'm pretty sure the latter would disqualify him for the Presidency for which he is currently running, and we'd have heard about it from the media by now.

@georg,

The father of Ted Cruz is a Cuban and lived in Canada for several years running his own seismic company in Calgary. In truth, Cruz Sr. was sort of a competitor of mine in the 1970s but I did not know the man. Birthplace of Cruz' mother is unknown to me.

I know that your constitution has language barring non native born Americans from becoming POTUS but that prevision has been breached in the past when Chester Arthur became POTUS upon the assassination of Garfield. Arthur was born in southern Quebec in a village very close to the Vermont border.

'Native born' seems to have a very loose meaning.

It appears that Cruz' mother was a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth, which makes him the "natural born citizen" that our Constitution requires. For reference, this was true for Obama as well.

"Natural born" does not require birth on US soil. Otherwise, several million children of military members would not be citizens, and they clearly are.

Aha.........seems that I don't know as much about your constitution as I thought I did, georg.

The wording is 'natural born' and not 'native born', is it? I understand the different shades of meaning. Why mention this in your constitution in the first place, georg? Surely citizenship would be sufficient rather than place of birth or place of birth of the prospective president's parents?

Thank you for the history/civics/politics lesson, Professor Microdong.

I believe the intent of the "natural born" clause, along with the age and residence requirements, was to make sure the person was raised in the U.S., amidst the traditions of freedom and liberty. A foreign born person might not have the same respect for America that such a natural born person would.

Hasn't really worked out that way, if that was the intent. Virtually every president since the turn of the 20th century has worked to erode freedom and limit liberty. Arguably even before that.

As an American-Descended-From-People-Originally-From-Spain-Who-Settled-in-The-New-World ;) , the general deal with Hispanic/Latino is that "Hispanic" is a category used by the Census, "Latino" is a term that was adopted among the various ethnic/national groups themselves. Most of us use Latino when communicating among ourselves but on the one hand for many it's no big deal if Hispanic is used in communication across different cultures, while on the other, for many others Hispanic is the word used in a police report or in a government statistic, Latino is the one used in the community's literature and academia. George Lopez once said in his stand-up: "There's a difference between Hispanics and Latinos. Latinos have jobs."

In either case it's preferrable to misidentifying a Cuban vs a Mexican vs a Puerto Rican vs. whatever, THAT raises hackles.

Re: natural born citizens, another point when the nation was being founded, they wanted to prevent some European from carpetbagging. The requirement is that the person be natural-born citzen, or have been a citizen at the time of founding, and have resided for 14 years -- which the last two combined would have meant the first eligibles in 1789 would have to have resided through the entire Revolution.

LOL I didn't think ANYBODY knew what catsup was. Hilarious and great to know someone knows at least a LITTLE bit about food.

Native-born US citizen means you were a US citizen from birth and never rejected your US citizenship. Cruz technically also had Canadian citizenship but he never exercised any of the rights of a Canadian citizen, which would technically be a rejection of US citizenship. Anyone with at least one American parent can be native born.

John McCain was born in Panama but is native born under the same rule.

I'm a Hispanic guy and personally don't know the difference b/w Latino and Hispanic – Latinos/Hispanics cannot be grouped together b/c they speak the same language anymore than Canadians; Brits; and Americans; can get grouped together b/c they speak the same language.

I am a Caribbean born Hispanic and I'm more used to the term Hispanic although I'm fine being called Latino – it seems to me the term Latino is often used more relating to Mexicans which are the largest Latino population in the U.S.

Hispanic/Latino is probably akin to Anglo/Caucasian – most people probably don't know the difference and probably use the terms interchangeably.

There are Caribbean Hispanics; South American Hispanics; and Central American Hispanics; it seems people from different regions use one term more than the other.

“... Do Hispanics who look white think of themselves as white, or does this change as they live here longer ...”

I am 45 y/o and immigrated to the U.S. when I was 9 – I was raised in a Spanish-speaking household and with typical Hispanic customs – so I identify myself as a Hispanic and not Caucasian – even though I'm often told that I look more white or European than I do Hispanic.

For 2nd generation Hispanics; i.e. those born and raised in the U.S. but of Hispanic parents; they may see themselves more as American or Caucasian than Hispanic.

I've gotten a lot of lap dances from Latinas but none from a Hispanica. :)