wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on Mar 31, 2007 13:09:46 GMT -5
Dawn's Latina friend was Amalia. She seemed pretty cool. Yeah, Amalia is cool. She seems like the least messed-up person in California Diaries. (Not that I'm saying people aren't allowed to be messed-up. If you crossed Maggie Blume with Alex Snyder and added a little dash of Sunny Winslow, you would get me. And I swear I'm not the most annoying person in the world, although that makes it sound like I should be.) CD#14, Amalia: Diary Three is about Amalia dealing with racism. I've never met anybody named Alma in real life.
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janey83
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 374
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Post by janey83 on Oct 10, 2007 15:58:19 GMT -5
Well, if MA's mom was Mexican, then MA wouldn't have had such sensitive, fair skin (not saying it's impossible, but it's unlikely).
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Post by aln1982 on Oct 11, 2007 15:46:38 GMT -5
I'm not sure why people think MA's mom was Hispanic. It never even crossed my mind until I read it on here, and I'm still not sure where it comes from (other than maybe the name though it doesn't sound hispanic to me.) I'm probably stereotyping but usually Hispanic surnames aren't "Baker" and I don't think she was hispanic on her mother Verna's side as I never got that indication from any of the books. Also, she doesn't look Hispanic in the picture in MA's book. One interesting thing I noticed with MA's mom is that one of the early books mentioned she was from MD. Then the later ones make it sound like she had always lived in IA. Possible inconsistency....
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Post by greer on Oct 11, 2007 17:59:20 GMT -5
"alma" means "soul" in spanish. but it also means "soul" in italian and can also be derived from a hebrew word that means something else. it's a latin root--think of the word "alm."
there is another book that says ma's grandma is in nebraska. bad bad ghostwriters.
i don't think ma is hispanic. the books would have said so. i think that the reason that there wasn't a real hispanic presence at the beginning is because perhaps at that time latino culture was less at the forefront of american culture. if the bsc books were introduced today i think it would be a glaring omission, and i think that's why they made a latina character one of the main ones in ca diaries.
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Post by aln1982 on Oct 11, 2007 19:23:06 GMT -5
^ I think you're right that she is from NE. I think Seth Engle's parents were from IA. Agree about the lack of latina characters and hispanic presence in general.
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Post by booboobrewer on Oct 11, 2007 19:55:56 GMT -5
Seth's parents are in Nebraska. Karen visits them in Karen's Plane Trip.
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Post by aln1982 on Oct 11, 2007 23:54:41 GMT -5
That's what I was thinking at first. So MA's were the ones in IA at some point in the books. Maybe they moved to NE (at least in the ghost writers' minds ;D)
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Post by sotypical42483 on Oct 12, 2007 21:39:58 GMT -5
yeah I don't think we're supposed to read into Alma's name and think she's hispanic My niece has a typically hispanic name and she is white as snow. Well actually, she's super tan, but you know what i mean
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starlett2010
Junior Sitter
It's been YEARS but I'm back!!!! :)
Posts: 696
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Post by starlett2010 on Oct 13, 2007 0:34:17 GMT -5
Well, if MA's mom was Mexican, then MA wouldn't have had such sensitive, fair skin (not saying it's impossible, but it's unlikely). It's not that unlikely, people of Mexican descent typically have Spanish in their blood line as well so it's not uncommon to have light skinned Mexicans. Contrary to popular belief, you can't define someone's heritage from their skin color and it is rather narrow minded to think so. Not to sound rude or anything but this comment rather offended me, seeing as I am both Mexican and Native American and have very light skin.
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Post by greer on Oct 13, 2007 2:07:00 GMT -5
That's what I was thinking at first. So MA's were the ones in IA at some point in the books. Maybe they moved to NE (at least in the ghost writers' minds ;D) no, it was just a ghostwriting mistake it one book.
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Post by aln1982 on Oct 13, 2007 8:19:14 GMT -5
^ That's what I thought. Not exactly the first time. ;D
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fluffy
New To Stoneybrook
Posts: 180
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Post by fluffy on Oct 14, 2007 1:42:51 GMT -5
Since we know Mary Anne has some Russian-Jewish ancestors, I always assumed that Alma was a Hebrew name. There wasn't any indication that Mary Anne's grandparents were Jewish, but maybe if her mother had lived, MA might have had more of the culture in her upbringing.
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Post by greer on Oct 14, 2007 14:00:33 GMT -5
i think ma only knows about her father's side so i think it would be richard, not alma, who has russian-jewish ancestors. i always alma sounded old-fashioned, like verna.
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Post by booboobrewer on Oct 14, 2007 14:11:59 GMT -5
I think MA says in Aloha Baby-sitters that she also has German and Norwegian ancestry but I'm not sure.
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janey83
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 374
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Post by janey83 on Oct 15, 2007 7:56:16 GMT -5
Well, if MA's mom was Mexican, then MA wouldn't have had such sensitive, fair skin (not saying it's impossible, but it's unlikely). It's not that unlikely, people of Mexican descent typically have Spanish in their blood line as well so it's not uncommon to have light skinned Mexicans. Contrary to popular belief, you can't define someone's heritage from their skin color and it is rather narrow minded to think so. Not to sound rude or anything but this comment rather offended me, seeing as I am both Mexican and Native American and have very light skin. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone with my comment.
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