Read related Latinos have a voice with VOXXI, site officially launches VIDEO
Actress Aimee Garcia of the award-winning show “Dexter”, talks during the official launch of VOXXI at the Newseum in Washington D.C. (Photo Max Taylor/ VOXXI)
My whole life as an American-born Latina, I’ve had the privilege to be able to straddle two worlds: the Spanish-speaking world of my Mexican parents and the English-speaking world of the country I was born in. But my primary language is English, and I like my entertainment and news in English. I belong to a huge segment of the U.S. Latino population that has fallen between the cracks of these two worlds when it comes to being represented in the American mainstream media.
“I am a man without a country,” says Carlos Sanchez, a Mexican-American, born and raised in El Paso, Texas, who does not speak Spanish. “I may not be bilingual, but I am bicultural. Because you are interested in Latino issues, does that mean you speak Spanish? No! My only other option is to get it in Spanish, and I can’t understand it.”
Last night, I went to the launching party for VOXXI, a new site geared to English-speaking, U.S. Latinos. The event was held on the eighth floor of the Newseum in Washington D.C. I was proud to be there among U.S. senators, congressmen, award-winning actors, journalists, lawyers, a world famous singer, and a world renowned ophthalmologist, as well as many other successful people. They were all Latino and were all speaking English.
They are the Latino positive role models whose stories we rarely read about or see in the mainstream media.
What the mainstream media does not understand is that we are mainstream America, but we are also Latino. We listen to music from Bon Jovi, Madonna, Taylor Swift, Little Wayne, Jeniffer Lopez, Marc Anthony and Mariachi bands alike. We eat burgers and fries and tacos and salsa. We dance cumbias and merengues and zumba. But we also breakdance, two-step, and slow dance. We watch soap operas, George Lopez and Saturday Night Live. We watch Brian Williams and Fox News and CNN.
What we don’t see though is Latinos in TV shows or in the news – unless they’ve committed a crime or are getting deported.
Latinos are a positive influence in this country. We are now 50-million strong, representing 16 percent of the population of the United States. Our purchasing power is now estimated at $1.3 trillion. We deserve a positive spotlight in mainstream media. We deserve a place to go to where we can read about Latino positive role models and people like us as well as about other issues that interest any regular American citizen. We are mainstream America and we want news about us in English.
