I don't know why but this weeks class got me thinking more about culture in general and in particular why I don't see more Hispanics or Latinos in the things I enjoy doing.  I went to a Minnesota Twins game last week, (yes they lost) and was wondering why there was not a more diverse crowd in attendance.  I would say close to 20% of the players are either Latino or African American so why is it more than 99% white people in the audience?
I am an avid fisherman and I can say I see the same thing, in Minnesota I see very few people of different races other than white out in boats or even fishing from shore.  I wish I had an explanation, for this observation, oh well more to come as I continue to make observations.

I leave for Miami for work tomorrow and hope to have some experiences to share upon my return.

Journey to Canada

Last week I unfortunately had to miss class because of a work trip to Sudbury Ontario Canada, Sudbury is about a 5 hour drive north west of Toronto.  What does this have to do with Latino Culture you may ask, well actually not much at all.

Sudbury is a city comprised of a group of smaller towns which now is called Greater Sudbury.  Greater Sudbury has a population of 160,000, this community was built on the mining industry.
I checked Wikipedia for the demographics of the area and found that there is a very small to almost non-existent population of people with Hispanic/Latino decent.  Below is a chart from the Wiki page for Sudbury Ontario, as you can see there are no Latinos mentioned which means there are very few in the region.

Reported ethnic origins, 2006 Ethnic origin Population[38] Percent[note 1] Canadian 64,345 41.2 French 62,460 40.0 English 35,715 22.9 Irish 30,415 19.5 Scottish 26,575 17.0 Italian 13,410 8.6

Reported ethnic origins, 2006 Ethnic origin Population Percent German 12,140 7.8 North American Indian 8,160 5.2 Ukrainian 7,590 4.9 Finnish 7,275 4.7 Métis 6,315 4.0 Polish 4,750 3.0

I took a tour with the Economic Development Director for the city and saw almost no Hispanic/Latino influence in the community, I did see a Mexican restaurant but did not have time to stop to see what nationality owned or ran it, my guess is not a Latino but probably French.

So while my trip to the Great White North didn't produce much in the way of any information regarding people of Hispanic/Latino backgrounds, it did show one thing, and that there is very little documentation of a great population in that part of Canada.  I guess the Latino community is smart enough to stay away from the extreme climate of northern Canada.

Introduction

Hi everyone, my name is Barry Greive, this is my first time "blogging" so please bear with me.
I am taking a class at Inver Hills Community College in Minnesota titled "Hispanic/Latino Cultures and Civilizations.  I am excited to be participating in this and have hope of learning a lot about the history and culture of the people.  I don't know a lot about the subject at this time but should be able to ask questions more intelligently when done.

A few take a ways from the first class this week was that this should be an educational class but also fun and enjoyable, our facilitator seems to have a lot of real life experience in the subject and will make this fun as we go on our journey for the next 7 or 8 weeks.

I have  a lot of reading to do and just ordered the text book, I hope to have time this weekend to get caught up.  I will have to travel for work during a few of the classes and am sorry to the partner I was teamed up with for the duration of the class.  Michelle, my partner, gave me a suggestion of watching a movie called "A Better Life",

I am going to try to locate and watch it, she said it is heart warming so I will need to watch it when no one is home if you know what I mean :)

A few of the items I am to cover for this weeks assignment are covered below:

1. My first impressions of  this class are…
   I am really looking forward to this class, I think I will learn a lot as I know I have much to learn on the subject, I have always wanted to learn how to speak Spanish and hopefully this class will put a renewed spark in me to pursue that.  The class seems like there will be quite a bit of reading on my own but it is a hybrid class with some classroom and online components.  I am not 100% of the exact items that we will be covering but the Facilitator/Professor has a good outline for us.  I can see being excited to go to class to see what is in store for us and he is making it interactive and participatory which will make the time go faster and should be more fun.
2. My first impressions of my classmates/ class lead are… 
   Oh boy where do I start, just kidding, we have a nice mixture of young and old and male and female, many at least 40% are bi-lingual which will be interesting and valuable.  I have a great partner (Michelle) who speaks Spanish and is immersed in the culture.  We were also teamed up in groups, I have 4 in mine and they seem very nice and I look forward to meeting with  them weekly.  The class lead seems to be intelligent but has a sense of humor that will keep you on your toes.  I can tell there will be very few dull moments in this class.
3. My first impressions of what my next 8 weeks will be like are…  
   Informational, fun filled, educational, and enlightening.

More to come so keep an eye out for new posts, as the title says this is a journey for me and I look forward to the road I will travel on the way.
Next week I will have to miss class due to work (sorry Michelle) but will keep up on the assignments and this blog.  I intend to see if there is much Latino culture in Sudbury Ontario Canada.

Thanks,
Barry

Text book

I found the required text book on Amazon for $13.00, I purchased it so I can start reading, I have 60 pages to read by next week.

First Post

I just got my  blog set up and am excited to use it and get immersed in this class, more to come later.