Latinos en America- guest post

I solicited a post by good friend Danielle on CNN's "Latino in America."

check it!
-N

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It was half way through the first installment of CNN’s “Latino in America” and I was ready to call it a night. But I continued watching; hoping for something that I could say was intelligent and illuminating. In the end I was disappointed, but not as much as I might have been had I actually expected CNN to produce something intelligent and illuminating. 

So, what did CNN teach us about Latinos in America?

1. If only Latinos would work harder, try harder in school, and learn English, then they could achieve the “American Dream.” Look at Eva Longoria-Parker and Edward James Olmos.
2. Guess what? Latinos come in a variety of colors and shades.  Yes, they look black, white, brown, and everything in between. (Note to CNN: The history of conquest and importation of African slaves to Latin America might have been relevant here.)
3. Latina teenagers are brats. They run away. They always seem to end up pregnant.  And they think about committing suicide frequently. Side Comment: teenage pregnancy is hardly a problem among Latinas only.  
4. Latina teenagers are brats. They run away. They always seem to end up pregnant.  And they think about committing suicide frequently. Side Comment: teenage pregnancy is hardly a problem among Latinas only.  
5. There are cultural and communication problems that are involved when groups from diverse communities mix. Um, duh. Telling us about a segregated Catholic church—that have two different services because of language differences—doesn’t say anything about the real sociological, psychological, and historical dangers of segregation. Many white Americans simply refuse to recognize their own cultural superiority and continue to insist that their language, their food preferences, and their traditions are better (i.e. they should learn English and they should learn to like our side dishes at the church picnic). 
6. There are many people who oppose immigration from Latin American countries, particularly Mexico. Duh again. CNN failed to address the complexities of this issue. There was no discussion of America’s interference in Latin American economic policies, nor of particular U.S. policies that make the transnational transfer of both goods and peoples—NAFTA, for example—easy and profitable, nor of the history of U.S. sponsored labor migrations from Latin America throughout the twentieth century. Instead, the show gave much more time to examining one (white) man’s personal bias against Latin American immigrants, the result of which was to individualize racism and neglect America’s role in creating the “immigrant problem.”
7. Sometimes, in cases of extreme individual racism, Latinos are harassed and/or beaten up for being Latino. Again, these instances have nothing to do with anything other than a single person’s or group of people’s own prejudices.
8. Latino parents are bad parents. They don’t teach their kids about their heritage and then complain about it later. They don’t appreciate the value in American education.  They would rather children stay at home or work. 
9. All Latinos have the same experiences.

Understandably, CNN undertook a huge project with “Latinos in America” (as they did with “Black in America”), but there was little effort to produce something that could actually open people’s eyes or, heaven forbid, make people think. There was no analysis, no attempt to break down the structural barriers to equality, and no explanation as to why Latino immigration is different from European immigration, among other things. No, CNN did not make this comparison, but they should have, considering that their entire show was basically about immigrants (as if there are no Latinos that have been here for generations, or even centuries).  If they had bothered to talk to even ONE scholar of Latino Studies or Latino History, they might have discovered this.

On top of that, it is obvious that CNN sought to represent Latinos in a very particular (racialized and gendered) way. Frankly, half of the stories told were largely irrelevant. I fail to understand, for example, how a group of guys in Southern California who build and show low-rider cars in their spare time are representative of Latinos in America.  Yes, some people will say that when they think of low-riders, they think of young, Latino men, but if that’s the criteria for getting some airtime on the show, then when CNN does “White in America” (they won’t, but some friends and myself have discussed the possibilities), I fully expect them to talk about polka dancers and beauty pageants for four-year-olds. 

In my mind, CNN’s only purpose was to justify stereotypes of Latinos and promote the idea of individual striving and success, also known as the “American Dream.” The other half of the stories had the potential to be educational, but because there was no context (historical or otherwise) given and no investigation into the meaning of particular experiences—white flight, hate crimes, anti-immigrant sentiment, Latino poverty, contemporary segregation patterns, high school drop-out rates, and generational conflicts among immigrants, for instance—these stories did little to actually explain what it’s like to be Latino in America.

The story of Marta, a young girl from Central America, is representative of this point.  When she was twelve, she immigrated illegally to the U.S., in search of her mother.  When discovered, she was put in Boystown, a detention facility in Florida where children are kept when they are found without documentation. It operates more like a prison than juvenile detention center.  It’s a sad situation, but the history of Boystown is interesting.  It once served as a home to child refugees from Cuba starting in 1959. Cuban parents sent their children there with the hopes of later migrating themselves, and reuniting in the U.S. Boystown was supposed to assimilate these children, with the hopes of integrating them into American society.

The differences between the facility then and now are quite stark, but CNN does not explain why this is the case. Why were Cubans welcomed so warmly? Why is Marta’s experience so different from the hundreds of Cuban children to enter the U.S. before her?  A history of American geopolitical objectives and their influence on immigration policy, and thus racial constructions, would have helped explain these disparities.

In the end, I’m convinced that CNN’s efforts did more harm than good. Some people I’ve talked to have argued that they were just glad that Latinos got some primetime airtime for a change. I don’t agree. “Latinos in America” was advertised as an authoritative piece of journalism, intended to teach Americans about a group of people who are quickly (demographically, at least) taking over. On CNN’s website, you can find a parent and teacher discussion guide for the show, further demonstrating that it was meant to be a teaching tool. It has probably already been used that way. Long term it will probably becomes a tool for teaching diversity and multiculturalism, and the real problems behind the disparities in Latino education and income will remain hidden, as will the internal biases that prohibit Latino advancement in the U.S.  But don’t be surprised if we get “Latinos in America 2.” It’s only a matter of time, unfortunately.

Danielle