What happened to the term wet back?
When I was young, during the 50's and 60's, I always used to hear the term "wet back", when some one was talking about an undocumented alien who was Latino. Now I never hear that term. Is that because of political correctness or something else? I live in Honduras, and everyone here always refers to Latino undocumented aliens in the U.S. as "mojados", including the mojados themselves. So what's up with that? I don't understand it.
3 Answers
Welllll . . . I would say it's political correctness or just common decency. Nowadays in the USA the media doesn't even say "illegal aliens". Now it's "undocumented workers". It's a political football so to speak, in US politics. All I can say is that I haven't heard "wetback" in a long time. Part of it has to do is courting the power of the Latino vote in elections, which is a good thing. The down side, (in my opinion) is the patronization of the Latino vote without really respecting their values and aspirations. But, again, it's just my opinion, I don't pretend to actually know anything.
As a conservative American, I don't like illegal anything. However, my sister, who is a religious sister in a multinational Catholic order, tells me that many of the Latino sisters have family members in Mexico who have been murdered by the drug gangs and that their families are trying to enter the USA illegally simply to save their lives.
"I am made to think" (and that is a metis expression) is that we in the USA need to help the Mexican government defeat the drug lords and enable Mexico to realize it's great potential.
I hear it in Spanish in the state of Jalisco, used by Mexicans - "los mojados". It is not used in a derogatory sense; they are talking about family members or friends who are "mojados en Estados Unidos".
I think it is political correctness. I only hear it used in derogatory ways.
