Slur that divides Mexicans is banned by Oxnard school district
 

By Paloma Esquivel, Los Angeles Times

May 28, 2012, 5:00 a.m.
Rolando Zaragoza, 21, was 15 years old when he came to the United States, enrolled in an Oxnard school and first heard the term "Oaxaquita." Little Oaxacan, it means — and it was not used kindly.

"Sometimes I didn't want to go to school," he said. "Sometimes I stayed to fight."

"It kind of seemed that being from Oaxaca was something bad," said Israel Vasquez, 23, who shared the same mocking, "just the way people use 'Oaxaquita' to refer to anyone who is short and has dark skin."

Years later, indigenous leaders are fighting back against an epithet that lingers among immigrants from Mexico, directed at their own compatriots. Earlier this month the Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project in Oxnard launched the "No me llames Oaxaquita" campaign. "Don't call me little Oaxacan" aims to persuade local school districts to prohibit the words "Oaxaquita" and "indito" (little Indian) from being used on school property, to form committees to combat bullying and to encourage lessons about indigenous Mexican culture and history.

Indigenous Mexicans have come to the U.S. in increasing numbers in the last two decades. Some estimates now put them at 30% of California's farmworkers. In Ventura County, there are about 20,000 indigenous Mexicans, most of whom are Mixtec from the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero who work in the strawberry industry, according to local organizers.

Many speak little or no Spanish and are frequently subjected to derision and ridicule from other Mexicans. The treatment follows a legacy of discrimination toward indigenous people in Mexico, said William Perez, a professor of education at Claremont Graduate University who has interviewed and surveyed numerous indigenous Mexican students.

"One of the main themes is the discrimination, bullying, teasing and verbal abuse that they receive from other Mexican immigrant classmates who are not indigenous," he said. The abuse, which often goes unnoticed or is minimized by teachers and administrators, has left some of the indigenous students too embarrassed to speak their native languages, he said.

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Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,3018233.story

I knew this term was used in some parts of Mexico, but had no idea it was also used in the US.

I have never heard of this term. I have never been called that nor have I called anyone that.

Its because you are Mestizo and not Indigenous.

---------- Post added 2012-06-09 at 19:21 ----------

I too have never ever heard this term. It must be a very region word confined to a few cities.

My cousin used a similar slur like that when he came from Puebla, He said it jokingly to me, we were playing around and cracking jokes at each other http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/laugh.gif The funny thing is that he looked more indio than me, hehehe

I never heard this exact term, but i'm sad to say my parents' hometown Greenfield which is a farming town near soledad is notorious for calling out oaxacans. They're the joke of the town, even though the town is all mexicans except for two white families. The older generations from greenfield are from sonora, zacatecas and jalisco, while new ones are coming from south and are being hated on. My family even joins in on the harassment, which I find very disrespectful(especially being the only one who shows native pheno), when i defend them, my father just tells me how I'm not like "them" but i may look it. No matter where you go, theres always hate spreading around.