Why did Andy ruiz pass as "mexican"?

[Smash]

so does that make most whites in america european and blacks african?

[Lenharvey]

There is no such thing as ethnically Mexican. Mexicans are a mongrel people - mixture of European Spaniards, other whites, and a whole bunch of ‘indigenous’ peoples from a variety of 89 different tribes and peoples - mayans, Aztecs etc. If Ruiz wants to identify mainly as Mexican because of his origins, even though he doesn’t speak Spanish, lives in USA AND was born there, I have no problem, not worth caring about. I like the dude.
Always will after he flattened PED cheat Joshua. It’s just a bit more complex.
If Ruiz was not a good fighter however and went to Mexico they would roll their eyes and laugh at him claiming to be Mexican.... As for Joshua - he’s part Nigerian, was born and fought for U.K., is based in U.K., only spent a few months in Nigeria and doesn’t speak any Nigerian dialect as well as being a quarter Irish.... so he can have whatever he wants too.... but if he wasn’t a successful fighter Nigerians wouldn’t count him as one of theirs you can be certain. I am descended from 6 nations so whatever. I can decide out of 6 and am eligible for at least 4 passports. Whoopie do for me..... I guess the litmus test is if you had to pick one who would it be?

[richardt]

There is no such thing as ethnically Mexican. Mexicans are a mongrel people - mixture of European Spaniards, other whites, and a whole bunch of ‘indigenous’ peoples from a variety of 89 different tribes and peoples - mayans, Aztecs etc. If Ruiz wants to identify mainly as Mexican because of his origins, even though he doesn’t speak Spanish, lives in USA AND was born there, I have no problem, not worth caring about. I like the dude.
Always will after he flattened PED cheat Joshua. It’s just a bit more complex.
If Ruiz was not a good fighter however and went to Mexico they would roll their eyes and laugh at him claiming to be Mexican.... As for Joshua - he’s part Nigerian, was born and fought for U.K., is based in U.K., only spent a few months in Nigeria and doesn’t speak any Nigerian dialect as well as being a quarter Irish.... so he can have whatever he wants too.... but if he wasn’t a successful fighter Nigerians wouldn’t count him as one of theirs you can be certain. I am descended from 6 nations so whatever. I can decide out of 6 and am eligible for at least 4 passports. Whoopie do for me..... I guess the litmus test is if you had to pick one who would it be?

You're absolutely right about the "Mexico would roll their eyes" part. Examples I've seen that show how a fighter is really perceived is when a true Mexican fights against a Mexican-American. When Oscar De La Hoya fought Julio Cesar Chavez, all of Mexico got behind Chavez and Oscar outright became the enemy; they showed a very atmospheric disdain for Oscar.

I remember when Danny Garcia went to Puerto Rico for one of his fights and the people there were nice and cordial to him and some boxing fans said "look, that proves he is well received as a Puerto Rican!" I then told those fans that they clearly just don't get it. If Garcia had come along earlier and was matched against Trinidad in his prime, Puerto Rico would have turned their backs on Garcia and seen him as public enemy #1 and embraced only Trinidad. One was embedded in the Puerto Rican culture and one clearly was not.

In short, locals will dictate who is truly Mexican and who is truly Puerto Rican and will roll their eyes or turn their backs on a fighter who is not 100% purely their culture. It's like if a 3rd generation american who ancestry comes from England or Germany goes back to Europe claiming he is one of them...even if he lived in one of those places for 5 years, Germans and Englanders would see him not as one of them.

With Mexican-Americans, their roots are closer to their origins, the Mexico border, rather than across the world like Europe, so I get that they want to rep being Mexican but Mexico will remind them very harshly that they are not true Mexican in their eyes.

[_Rexy_]

Well Frans Botha claimed he was African American does that make it necessarily so? And joe Bugner has gone from Hungarian (where he was born) to British to Australian.... so can we just choose our own nationality / ethnic origin? If so it all becomes rather meaningless. Who was that idiotic US politician who claimed they were 1/100th ‘native american’ so that made her a minority? It’s all a BS political agenda and just slightly less ridiculous than men by cutting off their d ick, getting artificially pumped full of chemicals and hormones, stopping a gaping wound in their body from healing and claiming they’re a woman. It’s all NWO agenda BS.

Frans Botha never lived in America, so he wouldn't call himself that. And Lennox Lewis is considered Canadian by many boxing fans. he won the Olympic Gold for Canada.

[Thuglife Nelo]

There is a difference with Ruiz that I have not seen in other fighters. He acts like he is ashamed of being American.

That’s absurd dude. Back in the day we saw the exact same narrative for Arreola, should he beat Klitchko that he would be the first “Mexican HW” Champ should he beat the Ukrainian. Arreola even acknowledged this narrative too, and said Andy stole the shine from him.

[Pantera_]

Imperial Valley is pretty much Mexico anyway. I think its a border town.

[richardt]

Imperial Valley is pretty much Mexico anyway. I think its a border town.

Unless a Mexican-American who lives there speaking perfect english crosses the border and tries to integrate; the locals will see him as an outsider. Especially if he competes there with someone born and raised in Mexico. Then the lines would be drawn in the sand and he would realize just how unaccepted he is as a "true Mexican". Oscar De La Hoya knows this situation all too well.