Homogenizing 'Hispanics'

By J.C. Arenas

To liberals, those of us with origins in Spanish-speaking cultures are a voting block or interest group. They aren't interested in celebrating our real diversity, only in mobilizing political power to support their policies. The bigger the group, the bigger the clout, so create an imaginary identity like "Hispanic" or "Latina" with no cultural roots or authenticity.

Case in point: Ruth Marcus published an article the other day entitled Souter with a Salsa Beat that goes to the heart of liberals' racial profiling and stereotyping.

The title of her article serves as no surprise to me, after all the liberal think tank of Hollywood, perpetrates this behavior all the time.

How often do we see in movies some Latin heartthrob enter into the scene and a track of Spanish music is cued in the background?

I am going to give Marcus the benefit of the doubt and assume that she chose a "salsa beat" because salsa is popular amongst Puerto Ricans. However, if she had really wanted to demonstrate some level of knowledge, she would have chosen a reggaeton beat, a popular Spanish mixture of hip-hop and reggae that originated in Puerto Rico--Cubans are credited with the origination of salsa.

Marcus's circumscribed view of Latinos allows her to attribute a "salsa beat" to a Puerto Rican nominee to the highest court in the land and exemplifies the problem with the "Hispanic" classification.

The Latin American culture is one that should be celebrated for its inherent multiracial, multinational, and multicultural nature. To assemble all of us under the same umbrella rationalizes ignorance to the fact that we embrace and represent our own individual nationalities. Our multifarious appearances, uses of the language, and tastes in food and music -- just to name a few -- are clearly unrecognized by the Left.

Why many of us have embraced their discriminatory philosophy and brethren whom fail to recognize even the basic variability amongst our various nationalities is beyond me.

Do we want to be taken seriously as a distinct faction of American society or do we just want to be pandered to for votes with chants of "Si, se puede"?

The political party that realizes they should do the former will have our allegiance and the latter can walk off in defeat to a salsa beat.