On Latino Culture, Skin Color And Race

“Yes” I answered.

“That makes sense why they are blond” said the stranger.

Blond? Makes sense? Whaaaat?

I was lost. I have been talking to this lady for about an hour, but for the past five minutes I haven’t been paying full attention to the conversation. I am distracted with my fearless toddler who is serious about jumping from the top of the big slide of the playground.

When I finally made sure that my crazy kid stops her attempt to pay a visit to the ER, I apologized to the lady and asked to repeat her question again.

She seemed annoyed.

“I was asking if you were Spanish and you said that you were, aaaand that makes sense why your kids are blond. Kids from Latin America are not blond,” she said boldly.

Her answer confused me again. I am not sure it was due to her bad attitude or her ignorance, however, I think I kind of understood where her remarks came from: Latinos have a mixed racial identities. Maybe she didn’t know that, and of course she doesn’t understand what it means.

The distinction between race and color can be complex and confusing when it is applied to the Latino community. In the 2010 Census, many Latinos chose “other” as their race because the options for race in the census didn’t fit everyone.

Race for Latinos should be determined more about culture than color. Culture defines the beliefs, attitudes, customs of a group of people and it is transmitted to one generation to another. Color, at other hand, doesn’t define anything because Latinos come in all shades and sizes.

Unfortunately, our Latino culture still have traces of the absurd hierarchical system of race classification created in Latin America during the colonial period, the “sistema de castas” where phenotype dictated privileges and opportunities. I think it’s absurd how an ignorant system created more than five hundred years ago still affects us.

Regardless of the skin color and where your parents come from is you what matters and what you are doing now to write your story. Let’s change the narrative!

Comments

Tanya @ Mom's Small Victories says

March 29, 2016 at 2:39 pm

We’ve encountered this many times as well, people trying to guess our nationality because of skin color. I’m darker skinned and my family is from India but I’m often mistaken for Latina. My husband is fair skinned with dark hair and his family is from Mexico but he’s often mistaken that he’s not Latino. Our multicultural kids confuse people too. I think it’s ignorance on the part of the commenter. I think many times people are curious and for my kids and I anyway they think we look “exotic” so the comment is not made as an insult. It’s a fine line though when you’re talking about color and race.
- Hispanic Mama says
  
  March 29, 2016 at 4:09 pm
  
  Hi Tanya! Thanks for sharing your story! I also think comments are not made as an insult. Although, they can be very funny!