I imagine that most minorities who are self-aware have the occasional, or perhaps even perpetual, underlying fear of fulfilling racial stereotypes. It's an anxiety that I'm still trying to unpack. I have recently identified this part of myself and am now sifting through the unpleasant muck. Part of me doesn't give a fat rat's butt what others think of me, but another sliver of me feels stifled by the white male gaze (not to be confused with the white male gays). I feel unease as I shoot back tequila, hoops dangling from my earlobes, psychedelic toucans sprawled across my dress.
I started thinking about all of this after a man commented on my article about Latinas for Women's History Month. In his perplexing comment, he insisted that I was fulfilling stereotypes for identifying myself as "sassy" in my blog description. What I didn't understand is why he thought sassiness was a negative trait. I've also never thought that this characteristic was specific to Latinas. My role models in sass have been very diverse-- from my foul-mouthed aunt to Sofia from the "Golden Girls" to Shirley from "What's Happening." I have always admired the boldness of mouthy women. I could only hope to be that sharp-tongued one day. Needless to say, I found his comment to be irritating and reductive.
I realized, however, there were several stereotypes that I did, indeed, fulfill.
I can be loud. I don't think this is solely because I'm Latina, but mostly because I come from a family in which everyone yells over one another. My laugh, a.k.a. my "bird call," has also been known to startle strangers everywhere I go. There are moments that I am really yucking it up, flailing my hands about like a mime on stimulants, and then I suddenly feel uncomfortable. Are the white folks looking at me all mean-like and classifying me as just another loud Mexican? Do they want to call INS to get me out of this bar? Why should I even care? What about loud white people? Do they get a free pass because they are not "genetically predisposed" to boisterousness?
My sense of style is fairly flamboyant. Plaster a bunch of birds or hamburgers (or both) on a dress, and I will likely buy it, maybe I'll pin some feathers to it. I like leopard print. I like colors so loud they may permanently damage your retinas. I don't know if this is because I'm Latina, because I'm an artist, or both. But lordy, I love outfits that would put Mimi Bobeck to shame. I also prefer clothes that are form-fitting since I am very comfortable with my non-emaciated body. But sometimes I do wonder if people look at and think of Carmen Miranda.
I will also admit that I am feisty, fiery, fervid, or whatever heat adjective you want to use. I am a fairly reasonable person, but there are certain injustices that will undoubtedly get me all worked up into a frenzy, particularly instances of racism, sexism, or classism. When I am angry, my working class Ciceronian heritage does make a memorable appearance. Somehow, I suddenly fail to properly pronounce words (oh hells nah! mothafucka! why you gotta be so whaaaack?!) and my neck gets all jivey and attitudinal. When I was younger, I would try to erase where I come from, but as I grow older and care less of what others think, I realize I can't. I am from Cicero, son!!
And regardless of its different forms of manifestation, isn't so much of our anger valid? This stereotype is such a burden to both Latinas and black women, particularly because of how we're portrayed in the media. But why the hell shouldn't we be angry? There are terrible things happening in our communities. Don't we have the right to be utterly pissed without the world dismissing it as on of our savage-like characteristics?
I think that what makes this anxiety so frustrating is that so much of these stereotypes are a result of TV and film. According to Hollywood, we are simply sexy spicy maids or some white dude's hot girlfriend. Unfortunately, that is the only lens through which so many people see us.
Sure, I admit that I fulfill stereotypes, but I also defy many. I'm a complex, nuanced person. I'm not simply loud, flamboyant, and angry. I'm an endless string of adjectives that have nothing to do with my ethnicity or race. I'm composed of contradictions and paradoxes. One day I might be talking about Chaucer whilst eating Flamin' Hots until my fingers are stained red. One day I might recite my poetry in a tight animal print dress. I might want to "pegar un grito" while listening to Leonard Cohen. I am American, goddamn it.
Follow Erika L. Sánchez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@OhHellsNah
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
In my case, I am a gay Chicano man, and as far as I'm concerned I got it going on. Sometimes I fret at the contrast between me and the milky white skin they insist on comparing me to, but then I think of women like you, like my sisters, like Mary J Blige, and I say......screw that, a-ma do me. I think it's great though, that we have a forum for this, talk about this, unpack it, as you say, and get over it cuz honey, before you know it time has slipped by and we've wasted so much time on caring what other's think. Feel me....
Wow you're a regular pioneer.
Perhaps living in a small town in North Dakota might have "stetched" your view of the planet more?
Just a thought...
I wouldn't fret too much about fulfilling "La Tina" stereo-types as much as I would recommend you NOT endorse, promote or accept them just because they are presented by "La Tino" panderers who don't know the difference between a tired stereo-type with all its inherent and negative attributes, and a Hispanic-cultured person in the USA today who lives an authentic life of integrity
There is a HUGE gulf between those 2 realities and sadly the former is the most "common" and most accepted by lesser beings who hang on the opinion of others instead of embracing themselves and their OWN self-respect.
My Corsican grandmother in Puerto Rico used to tell her grandchildren:
...."nunca pidan permiso de otros para ser quienes son y NUNCA dejan que otros les den la razon por ser quienes son..."
She had a 3rd grade education but could think circles in 3 langauges around today's "La Tino" spokes-idiots.
Translation:
..never ask others for permission to be who you are and NEVER allow others to give you your reason for being who you are...
And then spend some time understanding that "La Tino/a" is NOT a race, NOT a culture and NOT an ethnicity...try it...it will be liberating to understand that others of Hispanic cultured backgrounds don't see the world through your salsa-splattered kaleidoscope.
You should've used a dictionary while you were reading my comment. I studied Latino/a studies in College and in graduate school, please refrain from spreading your inaccuracies and lack of knowledge in public. Race is socially constructed, culture isn't.
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." -Martin Luther King, Jr.