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I am always surprised with how quick people in the United States label all Latinos as one race. The government doesn't do it but the people do as is represented in the media.
I am shocked by this because upon my many travels to Latin America, not once did I hear anyone consider Latinos a "race" of people. People down there categorized themselves as either; mixed (Amerindian/Spanish), white, black or other. But in the United States, all Hispanic people are tought of as Latino.
Why is this? Do Americans really think that Andy Garcia and George Lopez are the same? One is white, the other is clearly more Amerindian looking. Sammy Sosa and Dominicans look totally different from Argentineans. White Cubans can and do look as American as any other White American. Afro-Latinos from Cuba and Puerto Rico can look as black as a Jamaican or African American. Why are they seen as so different?
Why is there such confusion over Latinos in the US?
I think it is mainly done group people into bigger buckets. Latino doesn't make a whole lot of sense for anything. Hispanic is semi-useful for marketing purposes to pick a language. I don't think people really thought of it as a race, more a group of people, but, maybe I am wrong...
A lot of people in the US see it as a race. In the media whenever they mention race they include Latino as one and tend to portray the one Latino people in the US are most familiar with; the Mexican.
I think that in the US, many migrant workers that come over tend to be the poorer darker skinned Latinos of mixed races. So people in the US, who for some reason need easy catch all labels to identify people, see the darker skinned Latinos as race of people to easily identify them.
Darker skinned Latinos tend to be displaced more because of the structural racism in their own countries. White Latinos tend to dominate the upper crust in their countries so they rarely migrate to the US except for vacation.
The only exception are the White Cubans in Miami who were expelled by Castro (a white Cuban himself) during the Cuban Revolution.
It's just funny to see how Americans view all Latinos because when Castro was depicted in a Simpsons cartoon they portrayed him as a dark skin man, when in the Latino world he is seen as a white man.
It's just funny to see how Americans view all Latinos because when Castro was depicted in a Simpsons cartoon they portrayed him as a dark skin man, when in the Latino world he is seen as a white man.
Not just that show but on the Critic during the early 90s.
But that is not the main point and this is not a generalization. Just because there are good number of people who can tell the difference it doesn't mean that the majority do too and it shows in American media.
It's a staple of the American way to divide ethnic people by race. Whenever there is anything involving a group of peopel featured in advertising or creating diversity in media, the Latino is always a dark skinned person, not a black skinned person or a white person or even an olive skinned person, it's a "brown" person. Which is also ridiculous considering the many shades Latinos do come in.
It's about creating an image that is easier to share. It's an example where commerce tends to dictate reality and create an image that is not real.
Latino culture is so varied with each nation having their own customs, dialects and history that its impossible to have a unified Latino culture other than in the media and for the sake of creating political blocs. Heck even that is impossible since a lot of more affluent Latinos tend to be Republican and see themselves as no different than white americans.
Idk, me and everyone i know usually call our "latino" friends by their first name.
"hey juan lets go play some cod!"
no one would ever say,
"hey you latino, lets go play some cod!"
Only time he would be labeled "latino" is probably the Census or a Job application, but i guess on a job application you don't have to put your race/nationality.
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