Racism Swept Under The Rug, Latinos Still Living in That Time

Tuesday's lecture with Jorge Zaballos, the Keynote speaker for Latino Heritage Month, started with an experiment. He asked all the Latino students to stand and asked what their race was. The answers varied among the students, who said their various countries of heritage.

As the audience sat perplexed, Zaballos assured that this simple question would tie into his presentation, Comic Race, Rainbow People and other Myths: An Exploration of Latinos Racial Identity.

The Association of Latin American and Spanish Students, or ALAS, a part of ALANA, the African, Latino, Asian, and Native American Services, was hosting this lecture to kick off their celebration for Hispanic Heritage Month, the theme of which is Diversity in Latin America.

"The goal is awareness of the diversity within Latin American countries," said Alejandro Santos '10, President of ALAS.

Rodney Parker, Director of ALANA, presented the students with Jorge Zaballos as an option to be this year' speaker. "Deciding who would be the keynote speaker was not hard after this suggestion from Rodney," Santos said.

With great excitement, ALAS saw the opportunity for Zaballos to tie their theme with his presentation.

When Zaballos began his presentation, he started at the beginning with the history of discovery for the Latin American countries.

Questioning the word discovery, which is used to describe the historical events, Zaballos suggested it was the encounter of a new world: an encounter that caused genocide for the natives of these countries and a distinct separation of race. With this separation of race came a way of life that in some ways still exists today in Latin American countries.

Zaballos presented the audience with a cast system that was used to distinguish groups of people within the country. Marriages resulted in pairs such as a mestizo (Spanish father) and Indian mother, mulatto (Spanish father) and black African mother, or coyote (Borquino father) and mulatto mother. And these are only a few of the categories.

"The caste system, which is no longer officially in place in Latin America, still has some relevance," noted Zaballos. Because it was implied when the Spaniards took power that the white race was the superior race, the Latin American culture still has a disconnect with their Native American and African ancestry.

Expressions such as "mejorando la raza," meaning bettering the race by marrying White, are still used today. He showed examples from his visits to different Latin American countries of those who still use offensive terms or images for the African American community.

"These images are embedded into them, and they don't see a problem," Zaballos explained, "It is a racism towards our own culture, our ancestry."

"What is your race?" asked Zaballos. Most of the time race is seen as White or Black, categories which Hispanics do not identify with. People often refer to America as just the United States, however Zaballos made the point that there is more to America, Latin America and South America that needs to be explored.

But as Zaballos ran out of time, everything still seemed in loose ends, which was part of the lecture. "There was no clear answer, that's the point," urged Santos as he spoke to students after, "its about self reflection, only you can answer."

Kimberly Turner, Associate Director for ALANA, said, "I think it was informative. Students and faculty connected to it in different ways. I liked how he encouraged students to go and research more information on their own."

Santos encourages students to attend the other events ALAS has planned to celebrate the Latino heritage, advocating diversity within the culture.

There are posters around campus with more information.