social commentary by aileen reischl, where you can find it exclusively on my blog.

My film class today inspired me to write another guest blog. We were discussing the movie Born in East L.A. The term 'Chicanos' came up and our Turkish professor asked what the difference between Chicano and Latino was. A Mexican-American guy proceeded to explain that Latino is a term used by Americans to refer to Hispanics, while Chicano is a term used by Hispanics to call themselves. Apparently, it is their way to reclaim they're own identity. This may be true, but it is only true for MEXICANS, not all Hispanics. I raised my hand (I never talk in class) and said that Chicano only refers to Mexican-Americans, while Latino refers to all Latin American people. I learned this in Spanish class in 9th grade. Everyone in the class seemed confused and doubtful. It's like it didn't occur to them that there were other Hispanic people in the United States. When someone says Hispanic or Latino, they automatically assume Mexican. While this is probably a safe assumption in California, this is not the case in the rest of the country. For example, the majority of Hispanics in New York are Puerto Rican, and most Hispanics in Florida are Cuban.

Today's class just reconfirmed to me that Californians are so egocentric. It's like people here don't know what's happening in the rest of the United States. California is supposed to be this diverse place with people of various nationalities and backgrounds. But why does that matter when these various groups don't even associate with each other. Asians only hang-out with other Asians, Caucasians only hang-out with other Caucasians, Hispanics only hang-out with other Hispanics, and African-Americans only hang-out with other African Americans. I don't know about other states, but at least in Florida, all these groups willingly interacted and coexisted happily.

Then in my mammalogy lab today, this one guy happened to have a Time magazine with a poll on public opinion about the war. Apparently almost 80% of the country supports the war now. The people in my class were complaining that this poll must be so inaccurate and biased. I was like, hello, most of the country does support the war, only Californians don't realize this. But of course I didn't say anything out loud because everyone in my class is super liberal and I would probably get killed. But seriously, it's like they don't know anything about what's going on outside of the state. I'm sure this isn't true for all out-of-staters, but it seems like most of the people I know from the east coast have a much better understanding of the world. Most of them have a general sense of history and politics and have knowledge about other states and countries. I guess being in Berkeley for the past four years has just made me realize that it's really important to live in more than one state during your life. Every state has very different dynamics, and I think it's necessary
to experience these different aspects in order to be a well-rounded person.