Latinidad
PLEASE NOTE: Just to clear up any misinterpretations, this cartoon refers to the construct of “Latinidad” as it exists in the United States and how it is utilized as an ideological tool. What Latinidad is outside of the U.S. is an entirely different discussion.
For those of us who self-identify as Latinx, have we ever thought about what it really means to be a Latinx? Amongst Latinxs, do we EVER self-identify as just “Latinx.” No, we identify by our country of origin/heritage, by department or region, by town or pueblito, and even by street and barrio. That’s how specific and unique our identities really are. And yet here in the U.S., we end up getting lumped together as a singular homogenous mass. How does being Latinx really benefit us? If “Latinx” doesn’t really benefit us, then who does it benefit?
If you think about it, “Latinx” and “Hispanic,” are interchangeable mechanisms that compartmentalize most people from the Western Hemisphere into a homogenized demographic that is easier to process and manage under the stewardship of American whiteness. In fact, in the Census, we are really just a glob of vague browness that is another shade of white. There have actually been multiple efforts to develop an identity of “América Latina Unida” led by Latinoamericanxs, but they have always been thwarted by the country in this hemisphere that seeks to be the ONLY America.
Consider this: American whites weren’t always “white.” They used to be a melange of diverse ethnicities, languages, and cultures, but in order to access the resources and privileges of capitalist socioeconomic mobility, they had to become American whites. They had to give up who they were at their roots so they could sit around a table celebrate Thanksgiving and call slave-owning assholes as their Forefathers.
Latinidad in the end is just another form of Americanization toward whiteness (or close enough). In the end, what whiteness really needs from us Latinxs is to stand in between them and the Black population.
UPDATE: I have received the very valid criticism that this post erases the presence of Afro-Latinxs within Latinidad. I apologize for that erasure through omission as that was not my intent at all. Quite the opposite in fact, I believe that “Latinidad” as it operates in U.S. is about purposefully erasing the presence of not only Afro-descendent Latinxs but indigenous peoples as well. And that process is not difficult at all because colonization in Latin America has already worked to erase Black and indigenous peoples from historical narratives as well as from popular culture via the processes of mestizaje and ladinización. Quite frankly, most of us who are non-Black Latinxs are complicit in this. We participate in and perpetuate this erasure. Or in some cases, we uplift indigenous voices bu continue to relegate Afro-Latinxs to the background of obscurity. I take full responsibility for any offense that I may have caused to any Afro-Latinx sisters and brothers.