Read related: What does it mean to be Latino or Hispanic in the US.
She looked at me from head to toe and said:
“Why don’t you use multi-colored clothes? You’re Latin!”
I looked at my very classic winter dark-colored outfit trying to discern what was wrong with it. At first I didn’t know how to respond; her comment took me by surprise. Why would I have to dress in any particular way?
COSTA MESA, CA - JULY 24: Unidentified Mexican dancers perform in traditional costumes on stage at the Orange County State Fair in Costa Mesa, CA on July 24th 2010. Photo: Christian Araujo / Shutterstock
Then I took the time to explain that I was born in Bogotá; that Bogotá is not exactly the idea that you have of the tropics; that Colombia has different regions where people behave differently, dress differently, like different kinds of music…
I lost her. She was not really interested in my answer, of course; why did I bother? In her mind Latin = tropic = hot = sleeveless and colored.
How we stereotype one another
Since I moved to the United States, I’ve been more aware than ever of the tendency we all have to stereotype one another. We talk about Miami and we think Cubans discussing with passion. We talk about Immokalee in Florida and we think Mexicans picking tomatoes. We talk about New York and we think “Nuyoricans” making music.
We observe, compare, classify… systematically. I guess this is our way of trying to understand who we are, who the others are.
But of course, we tend to focus on the stereotype that they shoot at you, foreign bird. Frankly, there are some that I can ignore, but others that make my blood boil.
Common stereotypical comments
Read on the Internet:
“Latinas are hot and sexy.” That’s a good one, no? Maybe they think we all look like Shakira or J.Lo. Not mad at that one.
Then, also read on Internet:
“They’re great in bed, but they’ll stab you to death for flirting with a cashier.”
I wouldn’t identify with that, but know of some women who maybe would! What do you think? Latinas only?
And then the labels that really bother me are mostly related to immigrants and the perception many Americans have of those who can’t speak or speak very little English, and of those who work in the fields: just a small percentage of the 50 million Hispanics in the U.S.
Generalizations blind the people that make them
"In her mind Latin = tropic = hot = sleeveless and colored."
When I arrived in Collier County, Florida, in 2003, Golden Gate city was almost 40 percent Hispanic. However, the library didn’t have any employees who could communicate in Spanish. I offered volunteer services there, mostly lectures on stress management and nutrition, en español. The classes filled up quickly. These meetings served as support groups for an overwhelmed population that felt discriminated, segregated, frustrated and out of place.
The stereotype according to which people are poor because they’re lazy, didn’t apply at all. These people worked really hard.
I met
- A Bolivian economist who worked as a babysitter.
- A dentist from Colombia who worked as a construction worker.
- A photographer from Mexico who worked in a restaurant kitchen.
- A doctor from Cuba who end up working as a cashier.
And many more who were unemployed, double-employed or partially employed. All of them, waiting for papers, trying to learn some English and to decipher the American system.
The English barrier was stressful, but worse than that was that they had come to this promised “land of opportunities,” and hadn’t found what they expected this country would offer them. It was easier to find someone who could translate the words, but who was there to translate the culture?
Labels miss the point
I don’t think those who label us really get what it means to be an immigrant, a Latin American or for that matter, as in my case, a female Latin American immigrant!
We leave everything behind, including personal history, connections, and support systems. If we don’t master the English language, we sound silly. We get jobs that are totally unrelated to our background. We’re forced to develop new skills to survive. And we want someone to be empathetic with our fate.
And there comes another stereotype, not from the understanding that we’re rookies trying to assimilate the new, but from the idea that our troubles stem from deficient education and our credentials are worth nothing. I actually heard somebody commenting about my medical degree. “But it’s not like being a real doctor; like if she had graduated in the States, right?” Mmmm. (I hold a medical doctor´s degree in Colombia).
Still, the ticket that bothers me the most comes from the idea that our standards are not as good as theirs. And of course, I hate the divisive “them” and “us.”
Accepting generalizations such as that we’re not punctual is not a problem. I actually think that most Hispanics have a different sense of time, and are a little more flexible or have different priorities when it comes to time management. And I’m okay when they say we’re loud.
But then, being a Colombian, and even though I have learned to laugh at the jokes about cocaine, I hate it when somebody hints that we either don’t have the money to buy something expensive, or if we do, it might come from narcofinances!
Read related: The need for a bilingual America
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