Cuban Spanish
Español Cubano
Spoken in	Cuba
Native speakers	11 million  (date missing)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Gallo-Iberian Ibero-Romance West Iberian Spanish Cuban Spanish
Writing system	Latin (Spanish alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
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Spanish language
The main characters of Don Quixote, a master work in Spanish literature.
Overview
Pronunciation · History · Orthography · Varieties Names given to the Spanish language
Grammar
Determiners · Nouns · Pronouns Adjectives · Prepositions Verbs (conjugation • irregular verbs)
v t e

Cuban Spanish is the dialect of the Spanish language as it is spoken in Cuba. As a Caribbean dialect, Cuban Spanish shares a number of features with nearby varieties, including coda deletion, seseo, and /s/ debuccalization.

Overview[link]

Characteristic of Cuban Spanish is the weak pronunciation of consonants, especially at the end of a syllable. Final /s/ weakens to /h/ or disappears entirely; final /n/ becomes /ŋ/; final /r/ may become /l/ or even /j/. The fricative variants of /d/, /b/, /g/ (i.e. [ð], [β], [ɣ]) are also significantly weakened when occurring after a vowel: [ð] tends to disappear entirely, while [β] and [ɣ] become weak approximants, with no friction at all and often barely audible as consonants. All of these characteristics occur to one degree or another in other Caribbean varieties, as well as in many dialects in Andalucia (in southern Spain) -- the ultimate origin of these characteristics.

One of the most prominent features of Cuban Spanish is the debuccalization of /s/ in syllable coda. This trait is shared with most American varieties of Spanish spoken in coastal and low areas (Lowland Spanish), as well as with Canarian Spanish and the Spanish spoken in the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula.

Take for example, the following sentence:

Esos perros no tienen dueños

[ˈesoh ˈperoh no ˈtjenen ˈdweɲoh]

('Those dogs do not have owners')

Also, because /s/ may also be deleted in the syllable coda and because this feature has variable realizations, any or all instances of [h] in the above example may be dropped, potentially rendering [ˈeso ˈpero no ˈtjenen ˈdweɲo]. Other examples: "disfrutar" (to enjoy) is pronounced "difrutar", "fresco" (fresh) becomes "freco". In Havana, "despues" is typically pronounced "depue".

Another instance of lenition, in Cuban Spanish is the deletion of final^[1] intervocalic /d/. With intervocalic deletion (e.g. cansado [kanˈsa.o] 'tired').

Another characteristic of Cuban Spanish is the use of the diminutive -ico and -ica instead of the standard -ito and -ita. But this use is restricted to words with -t in the last syllable. For example, plato ('plate') platico instead of platito, and momentico instead of momentito; but cara ('face') becomes carita. This form is common to the Venezuelan, Cuban, Costa Rican and Colombian dialects.

Like in most Socialist states, the term compañero/compañera (meaning "comrade") is used instead of the common señor/señora.^{[citation needed]}

The Cuban Spanish of the eastern provinces (former Oriente) is closer to the Dominican Republic Spanish than to the Spanish spoken in the western part of the island.

Origins of Cuban Spanish[link]

Of all the regional variations of the Spanish language, traditional Cuban Spanish is most similar to, and originates largely from the Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands of Spain. Cuba owes much of its speech patterns to the heavy Canarian migrations, of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Migrations of other Spaniards such as Galicians, Catalans, Basques and Asturians also occurred, though without as considerable an influence.

Much of the typical Cuban replacements for standard Spanish vocabulary stems from Canarian lexicon. For example, guagua ('bus') differs from standard Spanish autobús. The word guagua originated in the Canaries and is an onomatopoeia stemming from the sound of a Klaxon horn. An example of Canarian usage for a Spanish word is the verb fajarse ('to fight').^[2] In standard Spanish the verb would be pelearse, while fajar exists as a non-reflexive verb related to the hemming of a skirt.

Much of the vocabulary peculiar to Cuban Spanish comes from the different historic influences on the island. Many words come from the Canary Islands, but some words are of West African, French or indigenous Taino origin, as well as peninsular Spanish influence outside of the Canary Islands, such as Andalusian or Galician. American influence has lent several words such as pulover (which is used to mean "T-shirt") and chor ("shorts", with the typical Spanish change from English 'sh' to 'ch') for clothing. The unique political situation today has led to the development of words which are specific to modern Cuban culture.

Manners[link]

When speaking to the elderly, or to strangers, Cubans speak more formally as a sign of respect. They shake hands upon both greeting and saying farewell to someone. Men often exchange friendly hugs (abrazos) and it is also common for both men and women to greet friends and family with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Informalities like addressing a stranger with 'mi corazón' (my heart), 'mi vida' (my life), or 'cariño' (dear) are common. "Mi amor" (my love) is used, even between strangers, when at least one of them is a woman (for example when being served in a shop).

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Guitart, Jorge M. (1997), "Variability, multilectalism, and the organization of phonology in Caribbean Spanish dialects", in Martínez-Gil, Fernando, Issues in the Phonology and Morphology of the Major Iberian Languages, Georgetown University Press, pp. 515–536 

External links[link]

	Cuba portal
	Languages portal

• Learn Spanish and Cuban Slang

Cameron Diaz
Diaz at the 2012 premiere of What to Expect When You're Expecting
Born	Cameron Michelle Diaz (1972-08-30) August 30, 1972 (age 39) San Diego, California, United States
Occupation	Actress, model
Years active	1988–93 (model) 1993–present (actress)

Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, and There's Something About Mary. Other high-profile credits include the two Charlie's Angels films, voicing the character Princess Fiona in the Shrek series, and Bad Teacher. Diaz received Golden Globe award nominations for her performances in the movies There's Something About Mary, Being John Malkovich, Vanilla Sky, and Gangs of New York.

Early life[link]

Diaz, the younger of two daughters, was born in San Diego, California. Her mother, Billie (née Early), is an import-export agent, and her father, Emilio Diaz (1949–2008), worked for the California oil company UNOCAL for more than 20 years as a field gauger.^[1][2] Diaz has an older sister, Chimene. Her father's family came from Cuba, before settling in Tampa's Ybor City, and eventually California, where Emilio was born. Her mother is of German and Cherokee descent.^[3][4][5] Diaz was raised in Long Beach, California and attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School.^[6]

Career[link]

Modeling[link]

At age sixteen, she began her career as a fashion model, contracted with modeling agency Elite Model Management. For the next few years, she worked around the world for contracts such as with major companies, modeling for designers such as Calvin Klein and Levi's.^[7] When she was age 17, she was featured on the front cover of the July 1990 issue of Seventeen.^[8]

Acting[link]

Diaz at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival with Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio for the movie Gangs of New York.

Tom Cruise and Diaz at the MTV Movie Awards, June 6, 2010

At age 21 Diaz auditioned for The Mask,^[9] based on the recommendation of an agent for Elite, who met the film's producers while they were searching for the female main actress. Having no previous acting experience, she started acting lessons after being cast. The Mask became one of the top ten highest grossing films of 1994.^[10] Diaz's performance as the sultry lounge singer "Tina Carlyle" earned her nominations for several awards^[11] and launched her as a sex symbol.^[12][13]

Preferring to feel her way effectively into the industry, Diaz avoided large studio films for the next three years and took roles in the independent films The Last Supper (1995), Feeling Minnesota (1996), She's the One (1996), and Head Above Water (1996). She was scheduled to feature in the film Mortal Kombat, but had to resign after breaking her hand while training for the role.^[14]

Diaz returned to mainstream films with My Best Friend's Wedding and A Life Less Ordinary, both released in 1997. The following year, she played the title role in the smash hit There's Something About Mary (1998), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for the category of Best Actress – Musical or Comedy.^[7] She received critical acclaim for her performance in Being John Malkovich (1999), which earned her Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Golden Globe Award, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG Awards). Between 1998 and 2000, Diaz featured in many movies, such as Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her, Very Bad Things, Any Given Sunday, and the successful adaptation of Charlie's Angels.^[7] In 2001, she won nominations for Best Supporting Actress for the Golden Globe Awards, the SAG Awards, the Critics' Choice Awards, and the American Film Institute Awards for Vanilla Sky, and also voiced Princess Fiona in the movie Shrek,^[7] for which she earned $10 million.

In 2003, Diaz received another Golden Globe nomination for Martin Scorsese's 2002 epic Gangs of New York, and became the third actress (after Wedding costar Julia Roberts) to earn $20 million for a role, receiving the sum for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Her next movies were In Her Shoes (2005) and The Holiday (2006). She was preparing to work again with The Mask co-star Jim Carrey for the film Fun with Dick and Jane, but resigned to feature in In Her Shoes. Diaz reportedly earned $50 million during the period of a year ending June 2008, for her roles in What Happens in Vegas opposite Ashton Kutcher, and the Shrek sequels.^[15][16][17] In 2009, she starred in My Sister's Keeper and The Box.

In 2010, Forbes Magazine ranked Cameron Diaz as the richest Hispanic female celebrity, ranking number 60 among the wealthiest 100.^[18][19] Also that year, Diaz voiced Princess Fiona for the movie Shrek Forever After, and reunited with her Vanilla Sky co-star Tom Cruise in the action adventure Knight and Day. In 2011, she played "Lenore Case", the journalist in the remake of the 1940s film The Green Hornet, and was the central lead in the hit comedy Bad Teacher. She was listed among CEOWORLD magazine's Top Accomplished Women Entertainers.^[20]

Personal life[link]

Diaz in July 2010

Diaz received "substantial" defamation damages from suing American Media Incorporated, after The National Enquirer had claimed she was cheating on then-paramour Justin Timberlake.^[21] She endorsed Al Gore publicly during 2000. Diaz wore a t-shirt that read "I won't vote for a son of a Bush!" while making publicity visits for Charlie's Angels.^[22] Diaz has also been involved with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the first and largest nonprofit organization for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has spoken as an advocate for military families.^{[citation needed]} Although she was quoted by a 1997 Time magazine article as saying she was germophobic,^[23] Diaz specifically denied this on the June 26, 2009, edition of Real Time with Bill Maher, saying that a small comment she made 12 years earlier regarding public bathroom doorknobs was distorted out of proportion.^[24] On April 15, 2008, Cameron's father, Emilio Diaz, died at the age of 58 from pneumonia.^[25]

Relationships[link]

From 1990 to December 1994, Diaz cohabited with video producer Carlos de la Torre.^[26][27] In 1995, Diaz dated actor Vincent D'Onofrio during the production of Feeling Minnesota.^[27] Later in 1995, she began a relationship with actor Matt Dillon. The relationship ended in December 1998.^[28] She began dating Jared Leto in 1999 and the couple became engaged in 2000.^[29] In 2003, they ended their four-year relationship.^[30] Diaz dated singer Justin Timberlake from 2003 to 2006.^[28] In October 2004, Diaz and Timberlake were in an altercation with a tabloid photographer outside a hotel. When the photographer and another man tried to photograph them, the couple snatched the camera. Pictures of the incident appeared in Us Weekly. Representatives for the pair claimed that they were acting a scene on a set.^[31] Diaz was in a romantic relationship with New York Yankees baseball star Alex Rodriguez from July 2010 to September 2011.^[32]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cameron Diaz

• Cameron Diaz at the Internet Movie Database
• Cameron Diaz at People.com
• Cameron Diaz at Yahoo! Movies

This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (April 2011)

Michael Parenti
Michael Parenti
Born	1933 New York City
Occupation	political scientist, historian, and media critic
Nationality	American
Education	City College of New York, B.A. Brown University, M.A. Yale University, Ph.D.
Subjects	History, Politics, Economics
Children	Christian Parenti
www.michaelparenti.org

Michael Parenti is an American political writer, historian, and culture critic who writes on scholarly and popular subjects. He has taught at American and international universities and has been a guest lecturer before campus and community audiences.^[1][2] He has played an activist role in political struggles, and in various anti-war movements.

Background[link]

Parenti received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. He is the author of twenty four books and many more articles. His works have been translated into at least eighteen languages.^[3] Parenti lectures frequently throughout the United States and abroad. He wrote The Assassination of Julius Caesar,^[4] He is the father of Christian Parenti, an author and contributor to The Nation magazine.

Parenti's writings cover a wide range of subjects: U.S. politics, culture, ideology, political economy, imperialism, fascism, communism, democratic socialism, free-market orthodoxies, conservative judicial activism, religion, ancient history, modern history, historiography, repression in academia, news and entertainment media, technology, environmentalism, sexism, racism, homophobia, Venezuela, the wars in Iraq and Yugoslavia, ethnicity, and his own early life.^[5][6][7] Perhaps his most influential book is Democracy for the Few,^[8] now in its ninth edition, a critical analysis of U.S. society, economy, and political institutions^[9] and a college-level political science textbook published by Wadsworth Publishing.^[10] In recent years he has addressed such subjects as "Empires: Past and Present," "US Interventionism: the Case of Iraq," "Race, Gender, and Class Power," "Ideology and History," "The Collapse of Communism," and "Terrorism and Globalization."^[3]

Michael Parenti was raised in an Italian-American working-class family and neighborhood in New York City about which he has written.^[11] For many years Parenti taught political and social science at various institutions of higher learning. Eventually he devoted himself full-time to writing, public speaking, and political activism.^[12]

In 1974, Parenti ran in Vermont on the Liberty Union Party ticket for U.S. Congress and received 7% of the vote.^[13]

In Washington, D.C., in 2003, the Caucus for a New Political Science gave him a Career Achievement Award. In 2007, he received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from U.S. Representative Barbara Lee and an award from New Jersey Peace Action. In the 1980s, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.

He served for some 12 years as a judge for Project Censored. He also is on the advisory boards of Independent Progressive Politics Network, and Education Without Borders; as well as the advisory editorial boards of New Political Science and Nature, Society and Thought.^[14]

Social and political analyses[link]

Parenti has covered many subjects in 45 years of teaching, writing, and speaking. The broad outlines of some of these are summarized below.

Racism[link]

Parenti argues that western racism is systemic and historical in nature and should be regarded as more than just an attitudinal problem^[15]. He identifies the origins of western racism in imperialism and slavery: To justify the colonial plunder of another nation or entire continent (as in the case of Africa) as well as the enslavement of conquered populations, imperialists and/or slave traffickers dehumanize their victims and define them as moral inferiors and subhuman.

Parenti maintains that racism serves several functions for ruling interests in the United States:^[16]

1. It divides the working class against each other.
2. It creates a "super-exploited" group of people who are forced to work at below scale wages thereby depressing wage levels for the entire workforce.
3. It distracts the (United States) white population from its own legitimate grievances by providing an irrelevant scapegoat in the form of minority populations

Culture and social structure[link]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, becoming increasingly critical of the existing socio-economic system, Parenti argued that images of the United States as a pluralistic, democratic society were more ideological than accurate. He did not deny the existence of a vast plurality of social, ethnic, and regional groups in America, but he felt that this group pluralism did not translate into a democratic pluralism in political life. Only limited portions of the political process are accessed by the general populace. Power in America is not broadly distributed, according to Parenti, but is highly concentrated in a social structure dominated by corporate moneyed interests, whose influence predominates in most mainstream institutions and major policy areas.^[8] Parenti maintains that the resources of power are lodged in the social structure itself, the culture, institutions, and established social roles, and that ruling elements maintain their dominant positions not only by raw economic power but by attaining “cultural hegemony,” a concept formulated earlier by Antonio Gramsci (whom Parenti cites).^[17]

Role of US media[link]

With respect to the US media Parenti has maintained that, while news coverage can be marred by problems of deadlines, space, and ordinary human error, much of the misleading coverage is the result of carefully honed ideological production. Reporters, he says, often exercise much skill to avoid the more important points of a story or news analysis so as not to offend anyone who wields substantial political and economic power, including their own bosses and corporate advertisers. Parenti concludes that their goal is to avoid fishing too deeply into troubled waters thereby maintaining an appearance of objectivity and moderation. Their careers, he suggests, depend in part upon their ability to equate centrist views with “objectivity,” and to stay within the prevailing ideological orthodoxy.^[18]

Parenti’s treatment of entertainment media (movies and television) continues the argument that the media are not neutral and favor elitist interests. Exploring a wide range of films and programs, he has attempted to demonstrate that the entertainment media do more than entertain; they indoctrinate by propagating values in keeping with their corporate ownership and corporate advertisers.^[19] Most recently, he wrote the foreword to Matthew Alford's Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy (Pluto Press, 2010).

Parenti often attacks specific examples of the misleading coverage provided by the US media. In Blackshirts and Reds^[20] he cites historian J. Arch Getty's figures to demonstrate the exaggeration elsewhere in the US media of the executions effected by Joseph Stalin in the Great Purge. Parenti critically reviews Slobodan Milosevic and the Destruction of Yugoslavia^[21] in "The Demonization of Slobodan Milosevic"^[22] and To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia ,^[23] finding similar exaggeration of war crimes in the breakup of the second Yugoslavia. In "Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth"^[24] he observes, "western news media, travel books, novels, and Hollywood films have portrayed the Tibetan theocracy as a veritable Shangri-La" then goes on to detail what he feels were its negative aspects.

Culture across the globe[link]

Parenti maintains that, far from being neutral, culture is often ideologically driven in a highly skewed system of social power, benefiting some groups at the expense of others. “Growing portions of our culture are increasingly commodified and mass marketed.” “So we buy more and more of our culture and create less and less of it.” Rather than being accepted at face value, Parenti says that all cultures should be subjected to critical investigation to be judged by “universal human rights standards” and by the criticisms voiced by those who are victimized within the various cultures of the world. Parenti gives extensive attention to those who are regularly victimized by their own cultures, providing examples in chapters entitled “Custom Against Women,” “The Global Rape Culture,” and “Racist Myths.”^[16]

Role of voting fraud in US elections[link]

Parenti is among those who have cited a variety of studies claiming that the 2004 presidential election was fraudulent. In an essay entitled "The Stolen Election of 2004"^[25] he argued that modern voting technology allowed powerful corporations to manipulate the electoral results. He concluded the article by observing, about the forthcoming US election, "Given this situation, it is not likely that the GOP will lose control of Congress come November 2006. The two-party monopoly threatens to become an even worse one-party tyranny." In an updated analysis of the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, he adds a postscript explaining why—despite the massive crossover reported in the polls away from the GOP-—the Democrats won only a slim victory in the Congressional 2006 elections.”^[26]

Class and class power[link]

Parenti stresses the role of class in all societies, particularly the purportedly classless US one. He extends the definition of class as a demographic trait relating to status, education, lifestyle, and income level to include the effects of social interrelationships. He observes that there can be no rich slaveholders without poor slaves, no powerful feudal lords without serfs, no corporate bosses without workers. The interrelationship is highly asymmetrical. It centers on the organized wealth of the society.^[8]

Parenti also believes that there is a third factor involved in class relationships, specifically the productive resources (land, agriculture, herds, natural resources, factories, technology, etc.). The dominant group in class relationships owns or controls these economic resources. The weaker class historically has had only its labor to sell. Hence the “dominant money classes” exercise a preponderant influence over workforces, markets, major investments, consumption patterns, media, and public policies. Parenti concludes that when discussing class, class power—how it is used, for whose interests, and at whose expense—must also be discussed.^[27]

US downplay of class[link]

Parenti has repeatedly criticized the tendency among many who profess to be progressive to downplay the importance of class and class power as a formative force as compared to race, gender, and culture. He allows that each of these other categories of social experience have imperatives that are distinctly their own, sometimes of a life-and-death urgency. Still they should not be seen as being mutually exclusive of, or in competition with, considerations of class power in society, he argues, and should not be used as a means of evading class analysis.^[28]

Democracy and capitalism[link]

From the late 60s well into the 80s, Parenti was one of many radicals and socialists who questioned the validity and value of what they called “bourgeois democracy,” seeing it more as a charade to mislead the people into thinking that they were free and self-governing. By the late 80s, however, he noticeably modified his position, arguing that democracy should not be thought of as merely a subterfuge or cloak created by ruling elites, although it certainly can serve that purpose. More often, Parenti claimed, whatever modicum of democracy the people attain in any society is usually the outcome of genuine struggle for a more equitable politico-economic order. He asks why the corporate class should be credited with giving people a “bourgeois democracy,” when in fact the ruling plutocrats furiously opposed most democratic advances in U.S. history, such as the extension of the franchise or the struggle for ethnic and gender equality, more direct forms of representation, more room for dissent and free speech, greater accountability of elected officials, and more equitable socio-economic domestic programs.^[8]

According to Parenti, reacting to mainstream commentators who turn every systemic vice and deficiency into a virtue, leftist critics of the status quo, seeing no real victories or progress in the centuries of popular struggle, have felt compelled to turn every virtue into a vice. To counter this trend, he says, people should recognize that real gains have been made, democracy refuses to die, and both at home and abroad popular forces, continue the democratic struggle, even against great odds.^[29]

For Parenti, democracy has two basic dimensions, the procedural and the substantive, both of which are equally important. Procedural democracy consists of the basic political forms: free speech and assembly, the right to dissent, accountability of officeholders, the right to vote in regular and honest elections, etc. Substantive democracy consists of egalitarian socio-economic outputs that advance the well-being of the populace, protect the environment, and curb the abuses and often untrammeled powers of great wealth. Parenti quotes the German sociologist Max Weber who remarked almost a century earlier that it remains to be seen whether democracy and freedom can exist under the dominion of a highly developed capitalism.^[8]

Parenti concludes that “there is no one grand, secret, power elite governing this country, but numerous coteries of corporate and governmental elites that communicate and coordinate across various policy realms. Behind their special interests are the common overall interests of the moneyed class,” which is not to say that differences never arise among these elites.

Technology, money, and deficit spending[link]

Parenti believes that people's thinking about past and present developments needs to be contextualized, that is seen in a social context of power and ideology. He gives the examples of technology and money. Both are seen as neutral entities that are inherently neither good nor bad. This may be true hypothetically, he writes, but, in reality, both technology and money have been developed within specific historical contexts by powerful interests that gained great advantage from their development. Almost all technology, he argues, is devoted to advancing the interests of higher circles, maximizing profits and corporate production, or in the case of government, maximizing surveillance, communication, and military striking power. New advances in technology are not neutral things. They impact upon us and our environment in ways that can advantage some and hurt others, according to Parenti. He writes similarly about money: "Like technology, money has a feedback effect of its own, advantaging the already advantaged", liquefying wealth, making it easier to mobilize and accumulate. With the growth of moneyed wealth comes a greater concentration and command over technology by the moneyed class.^[30]

Few phenomena in the social order can operate with neutral effect even if supposedly pursued with neutral intent, according to Parenti. The national debt is a good example. Considered merely as a “problem” of excessive government spending, the national debt in fact works well for certain interests, specifically the moneyed class, Parenti claims. By 1977,he noted how the national debt brought a transfer of income from the taxpayers to the wealthy creditors, the holders of government bonds. The greater the debt, the greater the upward transfer, as the government continues to borrow money from those they should be taxing (the big money interests). Parenti concludes it is no accident that the biggest deficit spenders have been conservative presidents like Ronald Reagan and both George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. The national debt is in effect a way of privatizing public spending and defunding the federal budget, Parenti argues. The bigger the debt, the less money available for domestic programs, and the more money that goes from the pockets of ordinary taxpayers to rich creditors.^[8]

Fascism[link]

Parenti’s treatment of fascism differs from that of the many writers who stress the irrational features of fascism: its state idolatry, nationalistic atavism, and leadership cult. While not denying that these are key components in the propagation of fascism’s appeal, he invites us not to overlook the “rational politico economic functions” that fascism performed. “Much of politics is the rational manipulation of irrational symbols,” he claims. The emotive appeals of fascist ideology have served a class-control function, “distracting the populace from their legitimate grievances and directing their frustrations at various scapegoats.”

Most of the immense literature on the subject of fascism and Nazism focuses on who supported Hitler’s rise to power. Relatively little, Parenti writes, is said about whom the Nazis supported when they came to power. In both fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, he points out, wages were cut drastically, domestic programs were rolled back, huge subsidies were given to heavy industry, labor unions were broken, taxes on the very rich were greatly reduced or eliminated altogether, and workplace safety regulations were ignored or abolished. Fascism, he concludes, has a much overlooked politico- economic agenda; it involves something more than just goose stepping.^[31]

Empire[link]

U.S. foreign policy is neither confused nor bungling, according to Parenti. It is quite consistently directed toward certain goals, and is largely successful. For the most part, U.S. leaders have maintained friendly relations with those governments that have opened up their countries to Western corporate investors, and have shown hostility toward those countries that have tried to use their land, labor, natural resources, and markets for their own self-development, Parenti believes. Iraq was targeted for “having committed economic nationalism,” with a state-run economy that pretty much shut out Western investors. The same holds true for Yugoslavia, he claims. Both countries were bombed and invaded, and their public economies were shattered. Parenti believes that Yugoslavia was transformed from a viable social democracy to a cluster of little right-wing mini-republics.

Parenti's beliefs led him to become head of the United States chapter of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milošević,^[32] in which capacity he added to the criticisms of bias in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia^[33][34]

Parenti also maintains that the U.S. empire feeds off the U.S. republic. The empire’s expansion abroad entails increasing costs for the republic. Ventures that are profitable for military contractors and overseas investors have to be paid in blood and taxes by the American populace. The many third world countries that are the targets of colonial intervention pay the highest price, he writes. They suffer not from underdevelopment, but from “maldevelopment,” a result of generations of overexploitation.^[35]

Communism[link]

Many on the left continue to deliver impassioned and blanket condemnations of deceased communist countries, Parenti states. “Those of us who refused to join in the Soviet bashing were branded by left anti-communists as ‘Soviet apologists’ and ‘Stalinists,’ even if we disliked Stalin and his autocratic system of rule and believed there were things seriously wrong with existing Soviet society.”^[20]

Parenti did in fact make a number of criticisms of the Soviet Union. In 1986 he wrote: "In the USSR there exist serious problems of labor productivity, industrialization, urbanization, bureaucracy, corruption, and alcoholism. There are production and distribution bottlenecks, plan failures, consumer scarcities, criminal abuses of power, suppression of dissidents, and expressions of alienation among some of the population."^[36]

More recently he wrote that the state-owned economies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union suffered “fatal distortions in their development” because of the years of “embargo, invasion, devastating wars, and costly arms buildup; excessive bureaucratization and poor incentive systems; lack of administrative initiative and technological innovation; and a repressive political rule that allowed little critical expression and feedback while fostering stagnation and elitism.”^[6] Some on the left heavily criticized Parenti for what they saw as his defense of such regimes, however, in his book Blackshirt and Reds.

Parenti argues that “despite the well-publicized deficiencies, crimes, and injustices, there were positive features about existing communist systems that were worth preserving, such as the free medical care and human services; affordable food, fuel, transportation, and housing; universal literacy; gains in women’s rights; free education to the highest level of one’s ability; a guaranteed right to a job; free cultural and sporting events, and the like.”^[6] He supported Gorbachev’s campaign of perestroika and glasnost until 1990 when it became evident to him that the Gorbachev reforms were leading to the implantation of free-market capitalism and were, as he saw it, bringing hardships to the common people.^[37]

Social democracy[link]

Parenti maintains that the structural problems of free-market transnational capitalism will only worsen the living standards of people in the United States and abroad, while deepening the environmental crises. He advocates a greater measure of public ownership in the USA. Parenti asks “can socialism work? ... Is it not just a dream in theory and a nightmare in practice? Can the government produce anything of worth?”^[8] He goes on to point out that it already does, citing publicly owned transportation systems, utilities, banking, education, and health services that are run efficiently by the governments of the USA and various social democracies and at a far lesser cost than their private counterparts.

Ecology[link]

Parenti points to the increasingly catastrophic droughts, storms, floods, and abnormally high temperatures in many parts of the world to justify a hypothesis that the widely discussed ecological crisis of global warming will not be upon us “by the end of the century” or “in the lives of our grandchildren,” but is already happening today. He builds on this in an essay, "Why the Corporate Rich Oppose Environmentalism,"^[6] to argue that immediate and immense profits that come at a cost to the environment are of more concern to corporate investors than the diffuse and long-run damage done to the global ecology.

History and historiography[link]

Much of Parenti’s work draws upon history. In his History as Mystery^[38] he takes the old adage that history is written by the victors and fleshes it out with examples drawn from ancient and modern times. In regard to early Christianity, for instance, he maintains that, contrary to popular notions, the “Jesus worshipers” did not gather most of their followers from the poor and downtrodden but from the more affluent strata. Some Christian leaders discouraged slaves from converting to Christianity. Slaves were prohibited from becoming church deacons or priests, he maintains. Contrary to conventional US notions, he argues that the Christians were not the keepers of learning and scholarship during the Dark Ages but played a relentless role in destroying all the advanced learning and all the libraries of antiquity that were in their reach.

In The Assassination of Julius Caesar,^[4] he states that many historians, both ancient and modern, have treated popular insurgencies and the common people with fear and loathing, depicting them as mindless rootless mobs of ne’er-do-wells. He also argues that Caesar and other popular reformers of the Roman Republic before him were assassinated not because they were violating the Roman constitution but because they were advocating reforms that benefited the commoners at a cost to the aristocracy. He does not draw a link between Caesarism and the eventual descent of the Republic into the despotism of the Empire.

References in popular culture[link]

• New York City based punk rock band Choking Victim use a number of samples from Michael Parenti's lectures in their album, No Gods, No Managers.

Appearances in Film and Television[link]

Apart from several recordings of some of his public speeches, Parenti has also appeared in the 1992 documentary Panama Deception and the 2004 documentary Liberty Bound as an author and social commentator.

In addition, he was interviewed for two episodes of the Showtime series Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, speaking briefly about the Dalai Lama (Episode 305 - Holier Than Thou) and patriotism (Episode 508 - Mount Rushmore).

Bibliography[link]

• The Anti-Communist Impulse, Random House, 1970.
• Trends and Tragedies in American Foreign Policy, Little, Brown, 1971.
• Ethnic and Political Attitudes, Arno, 1975. ISBN 0-405-06413-6
• Democracy for the Few, First Edition circa 1974, Eighth Edition 2007.^[8] ISBN 0-495-00744-7, ISBN 978-0-495-00744-9
• Power and the Powerless, St. Martin's Press, 1978. ISBN 0-312-63372-6, ISBN 0-312-63373-4
• Inventing Reality: the Politics of News Media. First edition 1986, Second Edition 1993. ISBN 0-312-02013-9, ISBN 0-312-08629-6
• The Sword and the Dollar: Imperialism, Revolution and the Arms Race, St. Martin's, 1989. ISBN 0-312-02295-6
• Make-Believe Media: the Politics of Entertainment, St. Martin's Press, 1992. ISBN 0-312-05603-6, ISBN 0-312-05894-2
• Land of Idols: Political Mythology in America, St. Martin's, 1993. ISBN 0-312-09497-3, ISBN 0-312-09841-3
• [1] Against Empire Published by City Lights Books, 1995, ISBN 0-87286-298-4, ISBN 978-0-87286-298-2, 217 pages
• Dirty Truths, City Lights Books, 1996. Includes some autobiographical essays. ISBN 0-87286-317-4, ISBN 0-87286-318-2
• Blackshirts & Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism, City Lights Books, San Francisco, 1997. ISBN 0-87286-329-8, ISBN 0-87286-330-1
• America Besieged, City Lights, 1998. ISBN 0-87286-338-7, ISBN 0-87286-338-7
• History as Mystery, City Lights, 1999. ISBN 0-87286-357-3, ISBN 0-87286-364-6
• To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia, Verso, 2000, ISBN 1-85984-776-5
• The Terrorism Trap: September 11 and Beyond, City Lights, 2002. ISBN 0-87286-405-7
• The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome, The New Press, 2003. ISBN 1-56584-797-0.^[4]
• Superpatriotism, City Lights, 2004. ISBN 978-0-87286-433-7
• The Culture Struggle, Seven Stories Press, 2006. ISBN 1-58322-704-0, ISBN 978-1-58322-704-6
• Contrary Notions, City Lights Books, 2007.^[6] ISBN 0-87286-482-0, ISBN 978-0-87286-482-5
• God and His Demons, Prometheus Books, 2010
• The Face of Imperialism, (Paradigm, 2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Michael Parenti Political Archive maintained by Michael Parenti
• Booknotes interview with Parenti on The Assassination of Julius Caesar, September 7, 2003.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Michael Parenti

Michael Parenti's articles[link]

• GIobal Rollback: After communism
• Dubious Design (Creationism & Intelligent Design)

Audio[link]

• Talks by Michael Parenti - MP3 format.
• TUC Radio's Michael Parenti Archive - recordings available for purchase.
• Michael Parenti talks about “The Culture Struggle” May 2007 on Democracy Now radio.
• October 2006 interview on KPFA radio.

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Spanish American

David Farragut · Manuel Dominguez · Vicente Martinez Ybor · Rita Lydig · Leo Carrillo · Adele Mara · Rita Hayworth · Bob Martinez · Héctor Elizondo · Martin Sheen · Raquel Welch · Frank Lorenzo · Kenny Ortega · Daisy Fuentes · Mary Joe Fernandez · Lilian Garcia · Julian Casablancas · Jerry Garcia
Total population
Spaniard - 635,253 (2010 Census) [1] White Hispanics (of Spanish ancestry) 26,735,713 (2010 Census)
Regions with significant populations
California, New Mexico, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Western United States
Languages
American English · U.S. Spanish · European Spanish
Religion
Roman Catholic (predominant) · Agnostic or Atheist · Jewish minorities
Related ethnic groups
Spaniards · Basque Americans · Catalan Americans · French Americans · Italian Americans · Portuguese Americans · other European Americans · White Hispanic Americans · Portuguese people

A Spanish American is a citizen or resident of the United States whose ancestors originate from the southwestern European nation of Spain.^[2] Spanish Americans are the earliest European American group, with a continuous presence since 1565.^[3]

Immigration waves[link]

In colonial times there were a number of Spanish populations in the present–day U.S. with governments answerable to Madrid. The first settlement was in St. Augustine, Florida, followed by others in New Mexico, California, Arizona, Texas, and Louisiana. In 1598, San Juan de los Caballeros was established, near present day Santa Fe, New Mexico, by Juan de Oñate and about 1,000 other Spaniards. After the establishment of the American colonies, an additional 250,000 immigrants arrived either directly from Spain, the Canary Islands or, after a relatively short sojourn, from present-day central Mexico. The Canary Islanders settled San Antonio de Bejar, San Antonio, Texas, in 1731.^{[citation needed]} Most of the Spanish settlers in present-day Texas, California, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona were of ethnically-mixed ancestry, or mestizo. Most self-identified Spanish-Americans in the Southwest differentiate themselves nominally from the population of Mexican-Americans who came after the Mexican Revolution.^[4][5]

The earliest Spanish settlements in then northern Mexico were the result of the same forces that later led the English to come to North America. Exploration had been fueled in part by imperial hopes for the discovery of wealthy civilizations. In addition, like those aboard the Mayflower, most Spaniards came to the New World seeking land to farm, or occasionally, as historians have recently established, freedom from religious persecution. Some of the new Spanish settlers were descendants of Spanish Jewish converts, while others were descendants of Spanish Muslim converts.

Basques stood out in the exploration of the Americas, both as soldiers and members of the crews that sailed for the Spanish.^[6] Prominent in the civil service and colonial administration, they were accustomed to overseas travel and residence. Another reason for their emigration besides the restrictive inheritance laws in the Basque Country, was the devastation from the Napoleonic Wars in the first half of the nineteenth century, which was followed by defeats in the two Carlist civil wars. (For more information about the Basque, and immigrants to the United States from this region, please see the article Basque Americans).

Immigration to the United States from Spain was minimal but steady during the first half of the nineteenth century, with an increase during the 1850s and 1860s resulting from the social disruption of the Carlist civil wars. Much larger numbers of Spanish immigrants entered the country in the first quarter of the twentieth century—27,000 in the first decade and 68,000 in the second—due to the same circumstances of rural poverty and urban congestion that led other Europeans to emigrate in that period, as well as unpopular wars.The Spanish presence in the United States declined sharply between 1930 and 1940 from a total of 110,000 to 85,000. Many immigrants moved either back to Spain or to another country.

Beginning with the Fascist revolt against the Second Spanish Republic in 1936 and the devastating civil war that ensued, General Francisco Franco established a reactionary dictatorship for 40 years. At the time of the Fascist takeover, a small but prominent group of liberal intellectuals fled to the United States. After the civil war the country endured 20 years of Autarky, as Fanco believed that post World War II Spain could survive or continue its activities without any European assistance. As a result, in the mid-1960s, 44,000 Spaniards immigrated to the United States. In the 1970s, when Franco abandon Spain's autarkic economic system, prosperity began to emerged in Spain, and Spanish immigration to the United States declined to about 3,000 per year. In the 1980s, as Europe enjoyed an economic boom, Spanish immigrants to the United States dropped to only 15,000. The 1990 U.S. census recorded 76,000 foreign-born Spaniards in the country, representing only four-tenths of a percent of the total populace.

Much as with French Americans, who are of French descent but mostly by way of Canada, the majority of the 24 million strong Spanish American population have come by way of Latin America, especially Mexico, but also Puerto Rico, Cuba, and other areas. Some are descendants of colonial settlers in the southwestern states, especially New Mexico, before they became part of the United States. They are today the largest Latin group in the United States, followed by Italian Americans (18 million) and French Americans (12 million).

People born in Spain[link]

Assimilation in the United States[link]

Spanish Americans are readily accepted into American society.^[9] The Spanish work ethic is compatible with the values of both pre– and post–industrial Europe. Leisure time is used to maintain essential social contacts and is identified with upward social movement.

Stereotypes of Spanish immigrants derive in part from legends created and spread by the English in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when the two countries were rivals for European and world domination. Revulsion is expressed at the alleged cruelty of bull fighting, a practice that is believed by supporters to exalt individual worth through the demonstration of almost chivalric courage. Other stereotypical images, including exaggerated ideas of wild emotional intensity, create the misperception of Spain as the land of the tambourine and castanets, fiery flamenco dancing, and the reckless sensualism of Bizet's opera heroine, Carmen. Most of these elements are only connected, and in a much attenuated degree, with the southern region, Andalusia. As in matters of religion, northern Spaniards often view the character of life in their own regions as profoundly different.

Spanish language in the United States[link]

Spanish language spread across the United States.

Spanish was the first European language spoken in North America. It was brought to the territory of what is the contemporary U.S. in 1513 by Juan Ponce de León. In 1565, the Spaniards founded St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest, continuously occupied European settlement in the modern U.S. territory.^[3]

Like other descendants of immigrants, Spaniards have adopted English as their primary language.^[10]

Influence[link]

Culture[link]

See: Hispanic Heritage Sites (U.S. National Park Service)

Many Spanish Americans still retain aspects of their culture. This includes Spanish food, drink, art, annual fiestas.^{[citation needed]} Spaniards have contributed to a vast number of areas in the United States. The influence of Spanish cuisine is seen in the cuisine of the United States throughout the country.

Cowboy[link]

See: Spanish Cowboy and Cowgirl

The cowboy has deep historic roots tracing back to Spain and the earliest settlers of the Americas through the New World tradition of the vaquero. The Spanish originated what we now consider the cowboy tradition, beginning with the hacienda system of medieval Spain. This style of cattle ranching spread throughout much of the Iberian peninsula and later, was imported to the Americas, specifically Mexico. The need to cover distances greater than a person on foot could manage gave rise to the development of the horseback-mounted vaquero.

During the 16th century, the Conquistadors and other Spanish settlers brought their cattle-raising traditions as well as both horses and domesticated cattle to the Americas, starting with their arrival in what today is Mexico and Florida.^[11] The traditions of Spain were transformed by the geographic, environmental and cultural circumstances of New Spain, which later became Mexico and the Southwestern United States. In turn, the land and people of the Americas also saw dramatic changes due to Spanish influence.The arrival of horses was particularly significant, as equines had been extinct in the Americas since the end of the prehistoric ice age. However, horses quickly multiplied in America and became crucial to the success of the Spanish and later settlers from other nations. As English-speaking traders and settlers expanded westward, English and Spanish traditions, language and culture merged to some degree.

Spanish communities[link]

Mission Santa Barbara, known as "Queen of the Missions," was founded in 1786.

Spanish communities in the United States, in keeping with their strong regional identification in Spain, have established centers for Basques, Galicians, Asturians, Andalusians, and other such communities.

Religion[link]

Many Spanish Americans are less active in Catholic church activities than was common in past generations in Spain; they rarely change their religious affiliation, though, and still participate frequently in family–centered ecclesiastical rituals. In both Spain and the United States events such as first communions and baptisms are felt to be important social obligations that strengthen clan identity.^{[citation needed]}

Employment and economics[link]

Since Spanish American entrance into the middle class has been widespread, the employment patterns described above have largely disappeared. This social mobility has followed logically from the fact that throughout the history of Spanish immigration to the United States, the percentage of skilled workers remained uniformly high. In the first quarter of the twentieth century, for example, 85 percent of Spanish immigrants were literate, and 36 percent were either professionals or skilled craftsmen. A combination of aptitude, motivation, and high expectations led to successful entry into a variety of fields.^{[citation needed]}

Politics and Government[link]

With the outbreak of the Spanish civil war in 1936 a number of intellectual political refugees found asylum in the United States. Supporters of the overthrown Spanish Republic, which had received aid from the Soviet Union while under attack from National rebel forces, were sometimes incorrectly identified with communism, but their arrival in the United States well before the "red scare" of the early 1950s spared them the worst excesses of McCarthyism. Until the end of the dictatorship in Spain in 1975 political exiles in the United States actively campaigned against the abuses of the Franco regime.

Emigration from Spain to the United States[link]

These figures show there was never the mass emigration from Iberia as there was from Latin America. It is evident in the figures that Spanish immigration peaked in the 1910s and 1920s. The majority settled in Florida and New York, although there was also a sizable Spanish influx to West Virginia at the turn of the 20th century, mostly from Asturias.

Some of the first ancestors of Spanish Americans were Spanish Jews who spoke Ladino, a language derived from Castilian Spanish and Hebrew. In the 1930s and 1940s, Spanish immigration mostly consisted of refugees fleeing from the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and from the Franco military regime in Spain, which lasted until his death in 1975. The majority of these refugees were businessmen and intellectuals, as well as union activists, and held strong liberal anti-authoritarian feelings.

2000 U.S Census[link]

In the 2000 United States Census 299,948 Americans specifically reported their ancestry as "Spaniard," which was a significant decrease from the 1990 Census, wherein those who reported "Spaniard" numbered 360,858.^[13] Another 2,187,144 reported "Spanish."

1990 U.S. Census[link]

.

1980 U.S. Census[link]

The Twentieth United States Census, 1980 was the first U.S. census that asked someones ancestry.

Spanish Americans are found in relative numbers throughout America, particularly in the Southwestern and Gulf Coast. According to the 1980 U.S. census, 62.7% reported Spanish/Hispanic as their main ancestry, and 66.4% reported Spaniard as their main ancestry.^[14][15][16]

Spanish place names[link]

Albuquerque, New Mexico is named after Alburquerque, Badajoz, Spain.

Some Spanish placenames in the USA include:

• Arizona - from zona árida, "Arid zone".

• California - The state was named for a mythical land described in a popular Spanish novel from around 1500, Las sergas de Esplandián (The exploits of Esplandián) by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo.
  • Alcatraz Island "Pelican Island, Los Angeles "City of Angels", Sacramento "City of the Sacrament", Santa Cruz "City of the Holy Cross"
• Florida - "Flowery".
  • Boca Raton - "Mouth of the Mouse", Key West - Anglicisation of "Cayo Hueso" ("Bone Island")
• New Mexico
  • Santa Fe - "Holy Faith", Las Cruces - "The Crosses", Madrid - although pronounced "MAD-rid" the city was named for the capital of Spain
• Colorado - "Reddish".
  • Pueblo - "Town", Alamosa - "Cottonwood"
• Montana - "Montaña", "Mountain".
• Texas "Tejas" in Spanish language and "slates" in English.
  • El Paso "The Pass", Amarillo "Yellow", San Antonio "St. Anthony",
• Nevada - "Snowfall".
  • Las Vegas " The Meadows".

Notables[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Spanish Americans

See: List of Spanish Americans

See also[link]

	United States portal
	Spain portal

• Californio
• European American
• Basque-American
• Catalan American
• Hispanic
• Hispanos
• El Centro Español de Tampa
• Centro Asturiano de Tampa
• History of Ybor City
• Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period
• Hispanic and Latino Americans
• Hispanic Society of America
• Hyphenated American
• Nuevomexicano
• New Mexican Spanish
• Isleño
• Notable Hispanics
• Spaniards
• Spanish-American relations
• Spanish Canadian
• Tejano
• White American
• White Hispanic
• White Latin American

References[link]

External links[link]

• Colahan, Clark (2008). Spanish American Heritage. Multicultural America.
• Ramírez, Roberto R. (2004). We the People: Hispanic Population in the United States. Census 2000 Special Reports. U.S. Census Bureau.
• Pérez, Juan M. (October 2005). The Hispanic Role in America. Coloquio Revista Cultural.
• Survey: 2005 American Community Survey:Hispanic Origin. U.S. Census Bureau.
• Asturian-American Migration Forum. A discussion board for the descendants of Asturian-Americans.

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