latino in america -- part 1

[as i blatantly disregard my work to write this ... lol]

So at like 9:15 last night i looked at the time and realized that oh crap! It was 9:15 and Latinos in America started at 9, so off I went.

Uummmm ... what to even say about this mess of a show that lasted 2 hours?

First of all, why is "America" used to automatically refer to the USA? This country is in North America, and is part of the Americas, North & South. Maybe being South American contributed to this personal gripe of mine but I really think that that needs to change.

Back to the show ...

First and foremost, I am not upset about what they showed. It's a [sad] fact that Latinos are at the bottom of statistics regarding education. We either don't go, or we go and drop out. Yes, some Latinas get pregnant young, yes some young Latinos are suicidal [and honestly this is an issue seen across all ethnicities so I'm not really sure why it was even mentioned as a Latino issue but whatever]. Yes some Latinos have a huge problem embracing their culture and keeping it alive, especially when living in an area like Charlotte where Latinos make up a smaller demographic, and yes this country is littered with bigots like "Jody" who apparently feels like having a spanish speaking mass is "accomodating" us ... thanks Jody. You're an asshole and you're fat. Let's talk about how you are ruining the environment for me because apparently, the fact that you're fat and eat more than an average person should adds to pollution since you're too lazy to walk anywhere so you drive more. So how about my people will learn english so you can all be "unified" under your all English speaking masses when you get on a treadmill and stop contributing to global warming. How's that?

My problem is that is all that they showed. There was no counter actions to any of the story lines. There was the young Latina struggling through high school and now pregnant. Where was the Latina that did not have to wake up at 6am to help in the bodega and whose parents believed in her?

Then there was the Dominican family who moved to Charlotte from the Heights and felt that they lost their culture by doing so. How that even made sense is beyond me. I know many, many, MANY people who grew up in NYC, surrounded by all sorts of Latinos, and don't speak Spanish or barely know it, and they don't know it because it was never taught to them, not because they were surrounded by people of another ethnicity. [Please also note that I have a very different perspective of what "being able to speak Spanish" means. If you speak broken Spanish, says words like "el roofo" when referring to a roof, or cannot participate in a Spanish conversation without switching back and forth between English every other sentence, then I'm sorry you don't know Spanish, you are just familiar with it. The definition of being bilingual is that you can communicate in two languages with equal FLUENCY.] But back to that family ... they CHOSE to not speak to their children in Spanish at home. They feel at home in the Heights and what brings them together is "el cafecito". Well my dear Mrs. Garcia, you can drink ese mismo cafecito in Charlotte and the bigotry and ignorance of Latinos that goes on outside of your walls should not affect what you do in your home. Where was the Latino family living in Oklahoma that was making every attempt possible to not lose their cultural identity, despite their zip code?

As for Jody's stupid ass, I'm glad that they showed that discussion because it happens everywhere. It's a sad truth that will hopefully change, but no time soon. There are many people that feel that wasting time, energy, and money on making things bilingual is senseless and everyone should just learn english. It is what it is. [Oh and the first person that can tell me where "Latin" is on a map gets a prize.]

The last 15 min or so were dedicated to Latinos in Hollywood and I thought that maybe they could save themselves here, and they both did and didn't. I am the first person to say that Latinos are rarely ever cast as themselves i.e. Latinos, and when they are they fit stereotypes. Jennifer Lopez has played an Italian/Caucasian woman more times than I can count. Andy Garcia played an Italian in the Godfather. ER had 2 Latino actors in all of its 15 years of airtime: Trudy, who was just a nurse and never anything more than that, and John Leguizamo who was a doctor [hooray!], but also a crackhead [thumbs down]. They barely touched an Eva Longoria [wtf] although they did talk to George Lopez, which I appreciate because he managed to get an entire sitcom on the air with an all-Latino cast. But that was it. Where oh WHERE was Edward James Olmos, who I adored and watched over and over in Stand & Deliver, a story about a REAL LIFE Latino that worked his heart out to get his Latino students OUT OF THE STEREOTYPE in the education system?!?! [You do know that's based on a real life story, right?]

:: sigh ::

Whatever .. once again, I'm not upset at WHAT they showed because they are all realities in "our" world. I am just sad that they didn't show the other [more positive] side of our lives in this country. Today's subtitle is "chasing the dream" and I hope and pray that the stories end positively, and don't just portray Latinos chasing the dream and failing.

Ok CNN, let's see if you can get it together today ...