Is There Some Cuban Stereotyping?

My mother, sister and I were lost looking for the social security office in my area. We decided to stop and ask for directions and saw this old guy, so we rolled down my window and pulled the car up next to him and asked where we could find it. He was old, it made sense. Old people would know where the social security office in our town was. And he did.

He politely told us, while casually leaning on our car with his arm on the door and his elbow hanging in the door a bit as he spoke close to the window. His face was like a foot away from, kind of leaning into the car.

Then, when he was finished telling us how to find what we were looking for, he asked, “So, where are you folks from?”

My mother answered, “Huh? Oh, we live here, we just don’t really drive out here that much.”

He lowered his voice, raised an eyebrow and was like, “No, really. Where are you from?”

My mother answered, “Oh? I was born in Cuba.”

He was like, “Oh, Cuba!” As he suddenly became nervous and quickly backed away from the car. From like five feet away he was like, “Well, those are nice people. Cubans are nice people. Nice land, nice people, Cubans.”

My mom goes, “Well, thanks for the directions.”

He answers, “Yeah, Cubans are pretty nice people. Holista la vista!”

Is there some Cuban stereotype I’m unaware of? Are we supposed to be dirty or something? I don’t get why his attitude changed so suddenly.

Well, I know your women are crazy!

Maybe he was just old and crazy. Could be a million reasons he acted that way.

Yea dude, you’re all a bunch of Castros.

No seriously, I have no idea why he’d act that way. But are stereotypes ever smart?

The word stereotype implies ignorance so I guess what I’m trying to say is who gives a shit what some old fart was thinking?


I would not worry too much about it.My wife is full blooded Cuban and her parents left Cuba right after Castro took over. They are wonderful people-but there are wonderful and not so wonderful people from all ethnic, religion, cultural and geographical backgrounds. Maybe he sort of associates Cuba with Castro, Communism and poverty, who knows.

No Biggie

keith

Pic of me and Mrs. Keith–celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary tomorrow

Que bola acere!

I’m Cuban and the only stereotype I’ve heard is that we’re always late.

“I’m running on Cuban time.”

Haha. Whatever, don’t sweat it. People are crazy.

Scarface

Im South Florida here, and there are Cubans everywhere, good and bad, rich and poor.
We dont have stereotypes(because the Puerto Ricans stole the stereo)so I dont know what you’re talking about.
I do know that the Miami Police had to take the emergency phone number off their cars because too many Cubans were stealing them thinking they were Porsches- just a joke.

The Cubans I have meet have been good family people, I think that the old guy had probably some weird perception of Cubans, just ignore him or move down here to South Florida where English is actually a Second language.

It could just be the part of florida that you are in, I know when I roadtripped across the country with my buddy who’s half mexican we had some very interesting interactions with people a little way off the main drags in north florida.

[quote]moonjumper wrote:

We dont have stereotypes(because the Puerto Ricans stole the stereo)so I dont know what you’re talking about.
I do know that the Miami Police had to take the emergency phone number off their cars because too many Cubans were stealing them thinking they were Porsches- just a joke.
.[/quote]

Dude, that is some of the funniest shit I’ve read all week. Thank you for the laugh at the Cubans’ expense.

You bring up a tough discussion here. If somone was to list typical things that are Cuban, it would be torn appart by various members. I understand that. I will throw in one though. Cubans are loud and very animated which can be good or bad depending on what type of person you are. I will post this, please don’t make me regret it… Would also say they are family orientated (just fuck with some cuban guys sister and see what happens to you) and good dancers IN GENERAL.

[quote]Keith Wassung wrote:
Pic of me and Mrs. Keith–celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary tomorrow[/quote]

Wow…you can take photos of the future!?

notice the two dashes – seperating the first part and second part of the sentence.

The only things I know about Cubans are:

Great rum;
Great cigars;
Great music; and
Great women.

What is their not to like?

I personally always liked doing the Cuban missions on Grand Theft Auto. I’m sure Tony Montana didn’t help the Cuban movement.

[quote]oboffill wrote:
Que bola acere!

I’m Cuban and the only stereotype I’ve heard is that we’re always late.

“I’m running on Cuban time.”

Haha. Whatever, don’t sweat it. People are crazy. [/quote]

Fuck, I hate how every minority has adopted the “running on [random ethnic minority] time” phrase. I’ve heard natives speak about how they’re “running on Native time” god knows how many times, and all of my girlfriend’s Filipino friends “run on Filipino time”. It makes me want to punch a minority right in the face.

  1. Scarface

  2. Elian Gonzalez - I actually worked as an intern in the Senate during that whole mess and we received A LOT of letters on it. They were split pretty evenly on both sides, but it provoked a lot of passion

  3. There is a portion of cuban immigrants who are not shy about expressing their hatred of castro and can come off as militant

Not saying that the first is true, but the 2nd and 3rd are more perceptions than anything else, and regardless of factuality, perception is reality.

[quote]AgentOrange wrote:
oboffill wrote:
Que bola acere!

I’m Cuban and the only stereotype I’ve heard is that we’re always late.

“I’m running on Cuban time.”

Haha. Whatever, don’t sweat it. People are crazy.

Fuck, I hate how every minority has adopted the “running on [random ethnic minority] time” phrase. I’ve heard natives speak about how they’re “running on Native time” god knows how many times, and all of my girlfriend’s Filipino friends “run on Filipino time”. It makes me want to punch a minority right in the face. [/quote]

most cubans arent a minority, they are as white as italians/spanish/potuguese

[quote]BigPaul wrote:
It could just be the part of florida that you are in, I know when I roadtripped across the country with my buddy who’s half mexican we had some very interesting interactions with people a little way off the main drags in north florida.[/quote]

Yes, very true. Anytime you decide to leave the big U.S. urban cities and go into Amerikkka expect some looks, stares, and “experiences” lol.

What elliot said is true for a large percentage of Cubans (not all of course IE: Sergio Olivia), many unlike most ethnic groups can appear “caucasian” such as the nice picture of Keith and his beautiful wife.

The older guy probably didn’t realize how obvious he was acting, comes with age I hear.