Intersectional authenticity and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's hyphenation problem
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claims she isn't bothered by her nickname, "AOC." But she is aggrieved by the various Fox cable news stars' purported misuse of her hyphenated last name. By further explanation, she totally fabricated how children of South and Central American and Spanish parents utilize last names, via hyphenation. She can't have it both ways. However to a politician who believes that facts don't matter, as long as you are "morally correct," truth obviously doesn't really matter.
Using and continuing the names of both parents is an honorable and understandable Latin custom. However, in the countries that commonly use both names, those names are not hyphenated.
For example, a child named Rocio, whose mother's last name is López and father's last name is González, would legally identify herself as Rocio González López. Everyone in those countries would immediately understand that González is her father's last name and López is her mother's.
When a woman in any of those countries, such as Rocio, marries Juan Rodríguez, she might commonly refer to herself as Rocio González de (of) Rodriquez. However, since the global spread of the women's rights movement, many Latin women now drop the "de" and simply call themselves by their first and husband's last name: Rocio Rodríguez. Or they don't use their husband's last names and continue to carry both last names of their parents.
For a non-Latin foreigner, living in one of these countries, the practice can be quite confusing. However, when foreign-born Latinos move to the United States, rarely do they hyphenate their two last names. Instead, they follow the American culture of taking their husband's last names or simply keep their own.
Ocasio-Cortez's ruckus is merely another made-up micro-aggression with which the desperate Democrats attempt to bolster their disgraceful campaign of victimology and identity politics.
Image: Dimitri Rodriguez via Flickr.