It was 2016, and Trump tweeted “Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!”
While Cinco de Mayo is indeed of merely regional historical interest, that was not the problem - it was just the sour cream on the burrito.
Again, confused:
I live in San Antonio and the idea that CdM is “fake” is laughable. Is it a “traditional Mexican holiday”? Not at all. But, “fake”? Again, try telling that to all the people drinking on 5/5/whatever. 
Every single one? Somehow I missed doing that.
Yet he stood fast, and showed the world the error of its thinking, armed only with a humble (though authentic) taco bowl.
Sure. I’m thinking a person born in say Poland, what would they think of some cities Polish festival?
Well sort of. The Danish festival I linked to above, its a mixture of authentic, stereotypes, and purely american events. For example the city crowns the oldest persons of pure Danish heritage. They have a parade that mixes Viking stuff with purely american things like cars and covered wagons. They have “aebleskiver” (Danish pancakes) eating contest as well as root beer float tents. They have booths selling traditional Danish food and crafts and well as selling other items. They also have traditional Danish dancers. Most cities have clubs where members practice traditional dance and yes, many of those people have never actually been back to the home countries.
Even back in the home country, how many people still do actual traditional dances?
But basically their are very few actual Danish speakers in Viborg South Dakota anymore. Although the event it attracts Danish tourists, students, and many families Danish relatives come to visit. One year the mayor of Viborg Denmark came.
Its probably the same for other areas where few actual native speakers are there anymore and the festivals become less authentic.
Well maybe its just an excuse to find a holiday to stick in a certain date? I mean traditional Mexican Day of the Dead is too close to halloween.
Oh I see. My dad was born in Italy, next time we speak I’ll ask him.
I remember seeing an interview with some Lithuanian visitors to the US attending a Lithuanian festival.
They were a bit bemused by some of the traditions and said it was several generations out of date. Apparently celebrations tend to be inspired by what was common practice at the time of the migration that founded the community. The culture back in the old country is dynamic and evolves. But an immigrant community many thousands of miles away may not keep up with trends unless there is a lot of people going back and forth. Festivals in the New Country seem like an interesting cultural relic. Kind of quaint.
The whole subject of people moving around the world and how they adopt new identities but also want to keep a connection with the heritage of the old country that fades over time is very interesting.
Some communities want to keep a foot in the old country as much as possible and people go back and forth and it can be reinforced by marriage, regularly bring in new migrants from the old country.
On the other hand I have met people who told me that when they emigrated they consciously decided to become a ‘American’ or ‘Australian’ or ‘Canadian’ and embrace that culture in preference to that of their heritage.
I guess this might have made sense in former years when emigrations was a often a one way ticket. But we live in a different and what seems a far smaller world today.
Americans here. However, both of my children are adopted from Korea. They are Americans, too, but we take them to Korean heritage events.
They’re great. We’ve been to a few. Great way to expose kids to their heritage, especially since Mrs. Mahaloth and I are not Korean and have not even lived there. We go to one at the University of Michigan every year and there are some others for Lunar new year and a few other holidays as well.
Kids enjoy the food, dressing up in formal Korean clothing, Taekwondo demonstrations(both lessons themselves), and all the other stuff.
They’re not less authentic, they’re the local version. Traditions change all the time, everywhere.
After Franco’s death, Spaniards were informed that we were supposed to feel guilty for every bad thing that had ever happened in the Americas or the Low Countries (nobody thought of blaming us for stuff in Northern Africa, Italy or Portugal, for some reason, and of course nobody mentioned that in Belgium we’re the good guys). We weren’t supposed to use the word Hispanidad nor speak of Raza unless we meant animal breeds. One of the first things I encountered in the US was a Puerto Rican parade where those words were all over the place. Later I’ve worked with people from several Latin American countries, and in several of those countries, and enjoyed both the local culture and discussions on terribly serious subjects such as “the many variants of huevos rancheros.” I’ve been received more often as a sort of distant cousin (in some cases, literally) than as a sideways descendent of rapists and murderers.
I’ve enjoyed and been among the people serving food in the Spanish booth at my American university, and enjoyed cultural festivals from many places, in the US and not. Learning about other people’s cultures and sharing the things you like best about your own is always cool and tends to involve good food. I’m all in favor of good food. I’ve got a way-too-large T-shirt from a Native American Cultural Festival I’ve used as a sleeping shirt for about 25 years (they didn’t have any in my size).
The Littlest Nephew is from Bulgaria. His parents have been instrumental in helping organize Bulgarian lessons in their home town; last week at the Christmas dinner, my SiL was given a plaque commemorating her contribution. Completely unrelated, one of the places his dad does frequent business with happens to be Bulgaria, so he’s taking lessons as well. They stay in contact with the kid’s “third grandma” (actually the first one in temporal order, being his former foster mom) and have had his “cousin” visit and gone to visit as well. I’ve got a video of his parents trying some traditional Bulgarian dances during the dinner
:dubious: Cars and covered wagons are purely American? In what way? I’m sure they have/had them somewhere else, and both weren’t invented in America.
Yes, agreed. The annual Songkran festival in my neighborhood is, at the same time, traditional, up-to-date with the homeland, (with celebrities from Thailand like Pete Pol), and a syncretic representation of how the Thais have integrated into this district, indicated by things like “Thai-Mex Cuisine.” 66% of the people who live in East Hollywood were born in another country, with the majority of the immigrants from El Salvador—though that’s just a plurality of 22%. There is no real majority in East Hollywood—just people from all over the world speaking nearly 50 different languages (according to L.A. Unified data of the children in the district), and the “ethnic events” reflect this reality.