Making Latino Life Visible

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/us/race-related-john-leguizamo-latino-life-soy-yo.html

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(Race/Related is a weekly newsletter exploring race and ethnicity. This week, John Leguizamo, the actor, writer and producer, is serving as guest editor. Sign-up.)

A well-intentioned producer once said to me, “John, you’re so talented, but too bad you’re Latin — otherwise you’d be so much further along.” When I pitched a movie about Latinos, another producer said: “Latin? People don’t want to see Latin people.” This is not just my experience but a typical Latino person’s experience in America.

Donald J. Trump has done one good thing. He has galvanized a conflicted and diverse community.

For years, activists and politicians have struggled to get Latinos to vote and show their power. But not until Mr. Trump’s racist rhetoric shone a light on anti-Latino sentiment did we feel the need to make our voices heard on the issues that matter to us: from proper funding for our schools, better infrastructure in our communities and financial aid, to health care that doesn’t consider poverty a pre-existing condition.

There are around 56 million of us. We are the largest ethnic minority in the United States, at almost 18 percent of the country’s population. And yet Latino students drop out of high school at a higher rate than members of any other minority.

We are victims of neglect, discrimination and ignorance. We have grown up amid an entrenched disrespect for Latin culture, and we have often internalized that disrespect.

The dominant narrative is that we have just “illegally” crossed the border or are “fresh off the boat.” In fact the Spanish are evidence of America’s first original sin: We were mistreating indigenous people here long before the British brought slaves to the colonies. People forget that Latinos founded some of America’s first cities.

Latinos have been dying for America since before we were a nation. Why have our children not heard that thousands of Latino patriots fought for America in the Revolutionary War?

Bernardo de Gálvez, a Spanish general, recruited Mexicans, Cubans, Native Americans and free African-Americans to fight against the British in the South, while Cuban women donated their jewelry and money to help the patriots. Where is the Ken Burns documentary about that?

Why don’t they know about the many Latinos in the War of 1812? Or anything of the 20,000 Latinos who fought valiantly in the Civil War? Or of those who earned Purple Hearts or the Croix de Guerre in World War I? Or of the up to 500,000 who served in the military in World War II?

It’s as if our heroism and sacrifice somehow counted less, as if we didn’t exist in history at all. Without a past to glorify and uplift you, how do you propel yourself into an unknown, tenuous future?

I’m only an amateur historian. But I am an expert on my own life and career. So to bring it around to more contemporary slights: Hispanics are the most underrepresented ethnic group in film and television. “Saturday Night Live” has only just hired its first Latina comic.

Are we really to believe there are so few funny Latinos? We are similarly marginalized in business and corporate life.

This exclusion sends a painful message to every Latino child about how he is seen and judged. Latino people face a double challenge: to create our own positive self-image while battling against the way the broader society portrays us.

Without textbooks in schools that do justice to our contributions to the making of America, and without media representation expanding to include more Latin faces and voices, we are vulnerable to a demagogue like Mr. Trump claiming that we are all “drug dealers,” “rapists” and “criminals.”

But a range of studies find no link between violent crime and immigration. The fact is that immigrants as a group commit far fewer crimes than the rest of the American population. Almost every immigrant is just here to make a better life for himself.

That can be hard to do when the states where many immigrants live — Texas and Arizona in particular — gerrymander Latino communities out of political power and limit funding to their neighborhoods. Latinos aren’t uniformly liberal; some are conservative because of their religious beliefs or fiscal views. And yet if all of the eligible Latinos voted, a number of states would turn from red to blue.

We need a Latino Spring in this country. We need to demand power and equal opportunity.

A friend of mine recently did a small experiment to tease out anti-Latin sentiment. She sent out two résumés for an acting job with her picture attached. She happens to be very dark skinned (“morena,” as we say in Spanish). On one résumé she used her own traditionally Latina-sounding name, while on the other she used a traditionally white-sounding name.

The Latina name received zero callbacks while the white name received a few responses.

Where else is this racial profiling going on while we are “living while Latin”? It is going on while we are working for the promotion that doesn’t come, while we are trying to rent an Airbnb for vacation but no one will respond, while we are hoping to make our children’s lives better than our own.

Latinos need to demand our place in American history, and in corporate, political and social fields.

We must demand an equal share of the American dream, and not accept a downgraded version of it. We need to stop accepting exclusion over persecution.

In this critical election, and in the future, I urge you all to register and vote, to be counted and heard.

This essay was published on Oct. 21 on The New York Times Op-Ed page.

When I saw Soy Yo, the amazing music video by Bomba Estéreo featuring Sarai Gonzalez (above), I posted it on all my social media because it was so powerful to see ourselves mirrored back. We as an ethnic group are so starved to see our own lives reflected in the media and literature, to have a sense of value and belonging.

But what’s Sarai up to now?

Annie Correal, a Times reporter here in New York, met Sarai recently and wrote about how the song and the music video have affected Sarai and her family. Here’s what she had to say about how the video affected her:

Don’t miss Annie’s story about Sarai.

If you have other stories of Latino empowerment, or disempowerment, email racerelated@nytimes.com.

Race/Related asked me to come up with a list of recommended reading – so to catch up on all things Latino, here’s what I recommend:

Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy that Shaped a Nation, by Ray Suarez. I chose this book because, facts! We fought in every war America has ever had!

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz. This is just a beautiful work of art about Latino culture, and some history! Everyone should read some Junot Díaz.

U.S. Latino Patriots: From the American Revolution to Afghanistan, An Overview, by Refugio I. Rochin and Lionel Fernandez. This report has the digits on fact checks of our contributions, with the numbers of Latinos who served in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and other wars.

Ghetto Klown, by John Leguizamo. Yes, this book is mine (it was also a Broadway show). But I put in because it captures our experience as immigrants and what it means to be Latino in contemporary times.

Hamilton, by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Hamilton because it has the power to transport us into a world that is color blind and proves we Latin people have arrived.

The Times publishes many stories that touch on race. Here are a few you shouldn’t miss from this week, chosen by Race/Related editors.

• Donald Trump’s Call to Monitor Polls Raises Fears of Intimidation. The candidate has issued dark warnings about a “stolen” election and voter fraud, using language that is leading to anxiety in minority communities.

• My Asian Pussycat Parents. I was raised by a mom and dad who did not want me to worry about getting C’s as long as I was happy in college and beyond.

• Parent Group Seeks More Integration in New York’s Schools. The organization challenged the New York City Education Department to take further steps to rezone schools on the Upper West Side.

• Fifty Years Later, Black Panthers’ Art Still Resonates. The Black Panther Party is often associated with armed resistance, but one of the most potent weapons in its outreach was its artwork.

• Fascination and Fear: Covering the Black Panthers. Fifty years after the group’s founding, a look back at The Times’s coverage reveals the influence of the F.B.I. and how reporting on race and activism has evolved.