Latinx/Hispanic Racialization: Mexicans & Puerto Ricans and the lie that we bought

Unidos, by Marissa Molina

Lawrence, 19 October 2022 – To clarify, I am writing this blog as Puerto Rican so you will see that I will use 'us' and 'we' because I am including myself in the conversation. 'Yo soy Boricua, pa' que tú lo sepa!'

History

When we talk about the Latino population in the US it is one that has increased over the years and even helped on its growth. “The 19% increase in the Hispanic population was faster than the nation’s 7% growth rate, but slower than the 23% increase in the Asian population. In 2021, Hispanics made up nearly one-in-five people in the U.S. (19%) – the 50 states and the District of Columbia. This is up from 16% in 2010 and just 5% in 1970…U.S. population grew by 23.1 million from 2010 to 2021, and Hispanics accounted for 52% of this increase – a greater share than any other racial or ethnic group.” (Krogstad, 2022)

And if we look at the Hispanic origin groups You will notice that the two main ones in the U.S. are Mexicans and Puerto Ricans this is something that it will be obvious if we know about the real history of the U.S. Present-day states California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming were part of Mexico territory but it wasn’t until the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) where they had to ceded the territory for a treatery. Soo Mexicans lands and roots are tides on this States for that they feel the need above any situation that may have happened to be here in the U.S.

The following is a map of Mexico 1845 after Texas annexation by U.S:

A map of Puerto Rico: A US Colony in the Caribbean:

Puerto Rico was a territory of Spain it was ceded in 1898 as a means to end the Spanish-American War. It wasn’t until 1917, that the Jones-Shafroth Act was signed, under which Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans were granted statutory citizenship but this was a very opportunistic and political move to make Puerto Ricans join the military and later on signing a compulsory military service. So yes, Puerto Ricans are U.S citizens, but those who live in Puerto Rico do not have all the same rights or follow the same policies as those who live in the states just to mention one example: we don’t vote for a president in PR.

Racialization

Now that I talked a little bit of history now why and how do we racialize even in our own ethnic groups? At first, I personally can say because of the colonization. The racism and mistreat of people of color goes way back but we can recall the slavery that the Spanish caused to come to America. The white supremacy mentality was totally present. And they have taught in history classes and in media to idolize the colonizers which were white me. That has generated a mentality were being white means having power meaning better lifestyle, opportunities, health, and wealth when in reality it has never been true. It just brings us back to how race has turned into a political struggle and to discriminate our own compatriots “These racialized constructions are the product of the ways that each group has internalized its Spanish colonial world’s view of the African and Indigenous populations subjugated in Mexico and Puerto Rico. Added to that foundation, these groups then re-racialize each other under the discursive logic that structures the meaning of race in the United States. Mexicans take what they learned from their Spanish colonizers and fuse that with what they quickly learn about the meaning of race in the white supremacist United States” (Almaguer, 2012 )

How Mexicans views race in Mexico and United States? “Interestingly, the majority of the other terms Chicanos use to designate blackness are less inflected by these zoomorphic referents and, instead, foreground dark complexion. For example, disparaging references to African Americans as ‘prietos’ (blackish, dark),’ tintos’ (dyed, stained), ‘oscuros’ (dark), tostados (toasted, dark brown), ‘quemados’ (burned, very dark), or simply ‘negros’ (black, swarthy) all focus on their dark complexion as the key signifier in this racialization. (Almaguer, 2012)

So how Puerto Ricans view race in Puerto Rico and United States? As for Puerto Ricans we have a similar references “Among these racial categories and skin-color referents are blanco (white), trigueño (wheat-colored or brunette; usually light mulatto), moreno (dark-skinned; usually dark mulatto), mulato (mixed-race; rarely used in public); indio (literally, Indian; brown skin with straight hair); prieto (dark-skinned; usually derogatory); negro (black; rarely used as a direct term of reference); and negrito (literally, little black) (Duany 2002b).” ((Almaguer, 2012) Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are a product of two or more races this is undeniable but then again due to the colonization and the fallacy that identifying as white is being more well that’s what has been sold to us.

Border situation

In this Customs and Border Protection photo, 127 migrants are intercepted by border agents in the El Paso Sector March 7, according to the agency.

Jaime Rodriguez Sr./CBP via Flickr

As promised, President Biden's Cabinet is historically diverse compared to former Presidents Donald Trump's and Barack Obama's.

Laura Cavanaugh/FilmMagic; Aurelien Meunier; Stephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty Images

Due to this incongruity and picking on each other, is most of the problems that we generate because if we as Latinos don’t stick together generating that sense of brotherhood/sisterhood and we racialize one another, the people who are not will do the same to us and see us as ‘non-civil’, ‘drug dealers/users’, etc. As we go back to Omi & Winant the complexity of race brings that United States sociohistorical process is not stable. This has made the government take some actions that have affected millions and millions of families (death, separation, etc.). The people were so worried about Trump because of how clear and open he was with the whole Border situation. I was really against him because of what he was saying and doing. But it turns out he wasn’t too much to worry about. That brings me to this quote: “Beware of the quite ones…” this quote can mean different things to different people but in this case… we will take it literally. We have talked about how the Obamas administration has deported more immigrants than any other president of the U.S. Not only Puerto Rico saw Obama as a solution to PR’s social economic state but also the whole Latin/Hispanic community of the U.S. Turns out that he surprised us all working everything ‘under the table’. The same thing is happening with Biden’s administration. This only let us the Latin/Hispanic community know that no political party is working to better the border or migration situation instead their working to make it impossible and benefit their interests and others.

Media

There are many great Latin/Hispanic artists that have put their country on the map in a very positive way even though there are some that have generated some kind of controversy, like everything, right? Instead of an individual I will talk collectively. A popular example of Latinos representation in mainstream media I can mention is the Netflix Series ‘Narcos’ where it was one of Netflix’s top series at the time of released and afterwards. It had a star powered Latin cast and it was nominated and won many awards. The positive it opened more opportunities to Latin representation on the screen and catapulted actor’s careers to more commercial works such as Diego Luna and Pedro Pascal into Star Wars. The negative, yes, the series is based on true events all dealing with the drug war and industry on Colombia, Mexico, and US. But that doesn’t mean that every Colombian or Mexicans are drug traffickers. Most of the time when we see a Latino actor in a movie or series either his playing as a drug dealer/lord or as a criminal in general. There has been this stereotype on how Latin people are portrayed on screen. But thanks to some representation now there is a diversity on the roles that Latin people are playing… Like hey, we are in Star Wars!!!!

Thanks for reading and see ya’ on the next one!

Resources:

Krogstad, J. M., Passel, J. S., & Bustamante, L. N. (2022). Key facts about U.S. Latinos for National Hispanic Heritage Month. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/09/23/key-facts-about-u-s-latinos-for-national-hispanic-heritage-month/#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20Hispanic%20population%20reached,increase%20in%20the%20Asian%20population.

“Race, Racialization, and Latino Population in the United States,” by Thomás Almaguer in Racial Formation in the Twenty-First century by Daniel Martine HoSang, Oneka LeBennett, and Laura Pulido, Published by University of California Press, 2012.

Racial Formation in the United States from 1960s to 1990s. A book by Michael Omi & Howard Winant. You need to read: Part II, Section 4, Page 53-to the end of page 62.