According to our textbook more than 70% of approximately 4 million foreign born residents are from Latin American countries. It has been estimated that eventually Hispanics will become the majority population in the state of Texas. Politicians fall over themselves trying to relate to Hispanics in order to sway votes and support their way. We are a large majority and our vote is important. We should come together as a group and feel empowered about the influence we can have in today's political sphere. Instead of that happening it turns out we would rather turn on each other. Ruben Navarrette from the Texas Insider wrote a great article on how Latinos will turn on one another if they do not think someone is authentically Latino. I found this article to be interesting and couldn't agree more with him. Because of some previous articles he wrote criticizing President Obama regarding his stance on deportation, he was rudely labeled as not being an authentic Latino. He took offense to it; I would have too. He wrote, "That line of attack is racist, rude and condescending. I can't imagine being so forward as to tell a black person that he isn't 'black enough,' or a gay person that he isn't 'gay enough.' But apparently, it's fine to do that with Latinos."
He then quoted Christine Aguilera and Jessica Alba who both are of Latino descent but because they don't fluently speak Spanish aren't considered "Latina enough." Latino bloggers went on to publicly challenge their ethnicity. Being a Mexican American myself I believe, because of previous experiences I have had, that I can relate to them and the author of this article. First of all, I may be Mexican but I still can't speak Spanish. After all these years I still have relatives that speak to me in Spanish while I sit there with a blank look on my face. But one situation especially sticks in my mind that I have never forgotten. I used to work at a hospital here in Austin where the majority of patients are Spanish speaking, and sometimes, directly from Mexico. It was well known that, coming to this hospital, you would receive medical services even if you could not pay. I was taking care of an elderly Hispanic woman. She couldn't speak English and I couldn't speak Spanish. Because she reminded me of my grandmother, I made sure to take especially good care of her. Later on her family showed up. When I went to check on her, her daughter asked me a question in Spanish and I tried to let her know I didn't speak Spanish. She proceeded to yell at me, in English now, that I didn't take care of her mother's needs and that I should be ashamed of myself for not speaking Spanish. I won't repeat what I said back to her but, although it was said in English, I know she understood me. I have had other incidents like that before and since then.
Latinos have to understand that even though some of us don't speak Spanish fluently it doesn't make us less Latino. When it comes to politics it should be understood that our voting preferences are as diverse as everyone else. Politicians stereotype us and don't take into account that we are different in how we speak our language, our likes and dislikes, our religion and our political points of view.
Entiendes?
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