Cultural Question: Why do Non-Hispanic Americans Get offended by Hugs & Kisses as Greetings? (Miami: home, legally)

[WINTERFRONT]

yes, double cheek kiss is a latin yuropean thing. In LATAMAmerica only South Americans use the double cheek kiss, and Argentinians are the ones who do that the most, even between men.

[miami_zed]

It's awkward when meeting someone (women) for the first time and kissing on the cheek.

[mari1969]

Im hispanic and I like/ prefer the american way of hand shakes but i guess we hispanics feel that if you try to shake the hand with a person here (South america) you are putting a barrier/distance

[miamihurricane555]

Originally Posted by mari1969

Im hispanic and I like/ prefer the american way of hand shakes but i guess we hispanics feel that if you try to shake the hand with a person here (South america) you are putting a barrier/distance

yes I get insulted when my uncles give me handshakes instead of hugs but I must say I find it the funnest thing when my cousins come down from Virginia for the holidays and put out there hands to shake to friend of the family and they wind up in a hug and the look on there face is of complete and total shock and says why are you touching me we shouldn't be touching.

[North Beach Person]

So we've learned that different cultures have different greeting protocols and one should be aware of them.

[WINTERFRONT]

Originally Posted by miamihurricane555

yes I get insulted when my uncles give me handshakes instead of hugs but I must say I find it the funnest thing when my cousins come down from Virginia for the holidays and put out there hands to shake to friend of the family and they wind up in a hug and the look on there face is of complete and total shock and says why are you touching me we shouldn't be touching.

You are the first person I've ever seen who complains for not getting touched by his uncle.

[kmarc]

Originally Posted by WINTERFRONT

You are the first person I've ever seen who complains for not getting touched by his uncle.

OK, now that's just too funny right there, I don't care who y'are.

[sjnative]

Originally Posted by miamihurricane555

As you could imagine this thread is about my letting out my frustration at Americans who are shocked/offended when instead of offering my hand to shake, in the case of girl I kiss them on the cheek and with guys I give them a Hug.I mean we live in Miami this is not the North where I could understand they would consider it fresh(I got slapped by a white girl in gainsville on my first time there), but here if Miami they should be used to it by now. Non Hispanic and Hispanic americans alike please comment.

This is revelatory of the dominant mentality of the newly and, in so many cases, illegally-arrived. That mentality is "here we are, we're outbreeding you so you need to speak our language and do things our way now."

That's a hot-button issue in itself, but another issue is that you aren't willing to observe other people's cultures which, as you don't seem to tolerate, are different than your own.

I'll spell it out for you- in some other cultures, you don't kiss other people in public. At all.

Last, you may realize that your choice of words reveals your lack of respect for those of other races and cultures, e.g. white "girl" rather than "woman" or "young lady." Do you really refer to Latinas by the same term- "girl"- by which you refer to 5 year-olds? I didn't think so.

I think you're the one not showing tolerance or respect and that you're a member of an entire and growing demography who doesn't do so.

[unclealbertt]

Oh please, relax. He just sounds like a young guy.

[kmarc]

Originally Posted by unclealbertt

Oh please, relax. He just sounds like a young guy.

She. You haven't been paying attention. But you're correct, the original post does come across as a tad naive, distressed and over-emotional. Immigrants are frequently homesick and disoriented in the US, this is not as happy a place for them as you'd think, which should be obvious by now. Most often the reason for being here is purely economic. For whatever reason, they can't go home, so they try to re-create the conditions of their homeland and it really doesn't work out for them. Gone are the days of the immigrants happy to be here, the prevailing sentiment is resentment, if anything the Boston tragedy should have taught us that.