Reply #55: Well, you hardly have to take out a microscope to find Hispanics...

[puebloknot]

... who are fully engaged in American life -- because they are Americans.

And while we're at it: Let's have a defining of terms, so that no one is insulted here.

Latino/Latina; Hispanic; Mexican. I see in this exchange that Latino and Hispanic are in wide use. Care to help me understand just which term is preferred, and under what circumstances?

People who live in Mexico are *Mexicans." But a sensitivity has developed over even using that term. I can understand it. I remember walking into a hospital in Albuquerque, where my uncle had just had open heart surgery. In the lobby was a very nice "Mexican" family (that's what we called people with brown skin in my childhood), kids sitting quietly, playing, smiling -- but there were several of them. My dear old unenlightened aunt could not refrain from referring to "those Mexkuns" out in the lobby, as her first words to me after our not having seen each other for 35 years. To make it worse, they were probably "Cathlik," too! (She's one of the Fundies who are bringing the country down.)

My daughter's paternal grandmother was from Montgomery, Alabama. She died at 97, and until her dying breath, she referred to black children as "picaninnies." She did that while standing next to a black man and his children at a Christmas party in her retirement home. I wanted to sink into the floor. He just winked at me and put his arm around me. Somewhere along the way, we have to learn to take the long view. Those with wisdom in *every* culture eventually come to that. Being eager to sniff out every possible slight is simply exhausting.


And one more thought: My bloodlines encompass an English/Irish/Welsh/Italian/Cherokee heritage. I haven't seen much attention given in Burns' film to Native Americans (maybe that's coming later). Yet we know they participated in World War II, beyond just the Code Talker role some of them fulfilled. I once attended a powwow in California and saw a Native American man dancing with an ensignia for the Second Infantry Division (the famous Indianhead insignia) attached to his costume. My father served in that division, and I found it moving to see that.

So when are the "Indians" going to rise up and take scalps because they were excluded in large meaure from the Ken Burns film? :)

There is a great deal of minituae which cannot be found in most major productions, which may cause someone to feel slighted -- especially if they are *really* determined to be discriminated against -- but which is not the main thrust of the film in the first place.

Burns took steps. Now he deserves credit for having produced yet another magnificent piece. That a critic might have done it differently is the way it goes. And very often, the critics know little whereof they speak, in terms of any personal experience in the genre. And even if they *do* have such experience, well, then, let them make the film that will satisfy *their* inner calling! The rest of us want to enjoy what's playing at the Roxie right now!