NewsTaco

By Huffington Post Latino Voices

While Charles Ramsey has become an Internet phenomenon for his role in saving the three women abducted and allegedly raped for years in a Cleveland home, another hero’s efforts have passed by relatively unnoticed, ABC News Channel 5 reports.

Angel Cordero, who speaks only Spanish, told the ABC affiliate that he arrived at the scene first and he was the one to kick the door down, freeing Amanda Berry, who had been trapped inside for nearly 10 years.

“I helped her,” Cordero says in the newscast that aired Tuesday. “I was first.”

Cordero often visits the house across the street to have dinner, according to a report form CNN.

Reporter Stephanie Ramirez said Cleveland police brought Cordero to her for an interview, saying he had played a role in the rescue. She pointed out…

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

[Photo screen shot courtesy WEWSTV]

By Huffington Post Latino Voices

He’s outta here!

An umpire who allegedly told New Mexico high school baseball players they’d be ejected if they spoke Spanish on the field resigned last week, the Albuquerque Journal reported Wednesday.

Corey Jones sparked an uproar in the town of Almagordo last week when he told Gadsden High School’s first baseman to stop speaking Spanish, according to a written complaint cited by Las Cruces Sun-News. The complaint said the player had been encouraging a teammate in Spanish but that Jones said he couldn’t tell whether the boy’s words were insults and asked everyone to speak English in the interest of monitoring their sportsmanship.

Jones’ alleged Spanish ban angered Emmanuel Burciaga, assistant coach for the Gadsden Panthers. But when he protested, Burciaga says, Jones responded with the same anti-Spanish posture.

“Anyone who speaks Spanish – coaches or players – will be ejected,” Jones allegedly said.

The alleged ban on Spanish didn’t go over…

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

[Photo by gwilmore]

By Eduardo Diaz, Director, Smithsonian Latino Center

The majority of Latinos in the United States share an indigenous root and legacy, many more than one. As a Chicano, I was taught about the Aztec and Mayan Empires, and the widespread and diverse presence of other indigenous peoples of Mexico. I have been fortunate to visit Mexican pyramids and ruins, and the encyclopedic National Museum of Anthropologyin Mexico City. Farther afield, I have been blessed to visit historic Cuzco and breathtaking Machu Picchu, remaining centers of the vast and powerful Incan Empire.

This is all great, but what about the indigenous civilizations in the middle? If you’re lucky, maybe you’ve heard of the Kuna, and even visited the Panamanian islands of San Blas. Maybe you’ve seen a piece of contemporary Honduran Lencan pottery, probably in a gift shop. Maybe you know something of the struggles of the Miskito peoples of Nicaragua or, more harrowing, of the brutal genocide visited upon Mayan villages in the Guatemalan highlands.

If you’re like me, and you’re honest with yourself, you probably know painfully little about the pre-Hispanic civilizations and legacies of Central America. There are a lot of reasons for this, but that’s the subject of another column. For now, suffice it to say that Central America has historically received little attention except for responding to the exploits of the United Fruit Company, the building of the Panama Canal, the rise of Sandinista and Farabundo Martí movements and governments, the Contra scandal, the devastating civil wars of the 1980s and resulting diaspora to this country and the emergence of menacing street gangs.

What peoples did the Spaniards “encounter” in this region? What were their names? What do we know about their social organization, agricultural practices and foodways, arts, spiritual practices and relationships with the natural environment? Finally, and sadly, what do we know about the consequences of devastating colonial degradation, code word for imposing European disease, military operations, forced religious conversion and environmental damage?

The mission of the Smithsonian Institution is the increase and diffusion of knowledge. With pride, I can say that its Museum of the American Indian and Latino Center have hit the targeted mission with the recent opening of Cerámica de Los Ancestros: Central America’s Past Revealed, a pioneering exhibition illuminating Central America’s vibrant past, currently on view at the American Indian museum on the National Mall. The exhibition will be up through February 1, 2015.

Connecting with the Central American community, the largest immigrant group in the D.C. region, is a task to which we now turn our focus. Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Hondurans are three of the ten largest Latino populations in this country, but many Central Americans will not be able to travel to the National Mall to see the show, so we are devising strategies to engage them via the Internet. Outreach and engagement is the task at hand.

This week, I ran into my good friend Roland Roebuck, a Puerto Rican rock in the D.C. Latino community. Of the Cerámica exhibition, he said, “Bro, you’ve done four important things for the Central American community. You’ve removed the cloak of invisibility, you’ve advanced regional cohesion, you’ve engendered self-esteem and you’re educating folk so that they see the Central Americans from a new and different perspective.” It’s great to be acknowledged for your work, but the real thanks goes to the communities whose legacies we have been fortunate to study and honored to present in one of this country’s most important and prestigious national museums.

The Cerámica exhibition includes a short video with young Salvadoran and Costa Rican anthropologists and archeologists talking about the importance of studying and preserving their indigenous inheritance. “We have to get people to understand that heritage is not something only of the past or that that it should stay in the past, but that is part of us, that it forms part of who we are.” True words spoken by Costa Rican archeology student Andrea Sales, and a succinct gauntlet to those of us working in the diffusion of knowledge business.

Eduardo Díaz is the director of the Smithsonian Latino Center and a 30-year veteran of arts administration. The Latino Center works to increase and enhance Latino presence, research and scholarship at the Smithsonian Institution by sponsoring, developing and promoting exhibitions, collections, research and public programs that focus on the Latino experience. Díaz is an advisor to the Smithsonian’s Secretary and Under Secretary for History, Art and Culture as well as to Congress and other government agencies on a range of cultural development issues related to Latino communities in the United States and their impact on diverse countries of origin.

[Photo by SmithsonianNMAI]

By Eduardo Diaz, Dierctor, Smithsonian Latino Center

After the presidential election, much has been made of the impact of the Latino vote, shifting some of the national focus to issues that matter to this large and growing population sector. How this plays out on the public policy front remains to be seen; however, interest in tackling nagging and divisive immigration reform appears to be on the front burner.

Receiving less notice was pending legislation establishing the National Museum of the American Latino. A special commission, appointed by the President (George W. Bush, then Barack Obama) and Congress submitted its report in May 2011 calling for the creation of the museum. With the advent of a new Congress, authorizing legislation designating the museum as part of the Smithsonian Institution will likely be reintroduced this year. Most observers hope that this process will be handled with the same bipartisan spirit that greeted the 2011 report.

Given the Smithsonian Latino Center‘s commitment to preserving and promoting the historical, cultural and scientific contributions of Latinos in the U.S., I thought it would be useful to briefly describe what we are doing to further this work.

First, a comprehensive assessment of Latino collections, research, exhibits, public programs, and outreach efforts across the Institution was completed in 2012. This provided guidance on how we can build upon and maximize our strengths and holdings, where affirmative effort is needed to improve and enhance our resources, and what strategies are necessary to ensure access.

Secondly, a Latino curatorial initiative is in full swing that will dramatically increase the number of curators imbedded in our museums and research and program centers. Within a museum context, curators drive research, direct collecting efforts, lead exhibition development, and collaborate on correlative educational and public programs and web presence. They are key lynchpins in ensuring sustained Latino presence.

Thirdly, we are working to establish a Latino gallery on the National Mall. Any national Latino museum or cultural center is 12-15 years away from opening so in the meantime, we believe it is critical to establish a physical Latino presence at the Smithsonian. This will allow us to utilize Smithsonian collections and expertise to best share the U.S. Latino story with millions of visitors each year.

The Latino Center is completing a strategic plan that will focus our energies on the three areas noted above, in addition to managing core leadership and professional development programs, completing ongoing exhibition projects and public programs, expanding the creative use of technology and new media, broadening outreach and marketing strategies, intensifying resource development efforts, and strengthening the capacity of our national board of directors — the operational infrastructure necessary to build upon for museum development purposes.

Maintaining current levels of service and establishing a new gallery on the National Mall is a full plate. Unwinding from time to time helps, especially with humor. The other day I thought I’d watchBowl of Beings, a 1991 series of vignettes by the Latino comedy troupe, Culture Clash. In one of the sketches, Chuy (Mexican nickname for Jesús), our erstwhile Chicano activist and rabid San Francisco 49′ers fan, laments to a giant poster of Che Guevara that “the decade of the Hispanic turned out to be a weekend sponsored by Coors!” There is great poignancy in Chuy’s hilarious lamentation. It left me wondering if the Latino community’s time on the national cultural scene had reached the proverbial tipping point. Will a weekend, or even a decade, do? What role will potential physical presence on the National Mall play? Many questions and challenges lay ahead.

When Chuy’s 49′ers step out onto the football field, they play for keeps. In moving the national Latino cultural development agenda forward, so must we.

Eduardo Díaz is the director of the Smithsonian Latino Center and a 30-year veteran of arts administration. The Latino Center works to increase and enhance Latino presence, research and scholarship at the Smithsonian Institution by sponsoring, developing and promoting exhibitions, collections, research and public programs that focus on the Latino experience. Díaz is an advisor to the Smithsonian’s Secretary and Under Secretary for History, Art and Culture as well as to Congress and other government agencies on a range of cultural development issues related to Latino communities in the United States and their impact on diverse countries of origin.

[Photo courtesy Smithsonian Latino Center]

By Huffington Post Latino Voices

The oldest Spanish-language newspaper in the country turns 100 this year.

New York’s El Diario/La Prensa will celebrate its centenary with a series of events over the course of this year aimed at highlighting the paper’s role in the city.

“During these years, we’ve been the voice of New York Latinos, especially during the times when we didn’t have a voice,” the paper’s publisher and CEO Rossana Rosado told Spanish newswire EFE.

Founded as a weekly under the title La Prensa in 1913 in lower Manhattan, the paper merged with El Diario de New York decades later, leaving it with a compound name, according to The New York Daily News. Today, El Diario/La Prensa’s offices are in Brooklyn.

The paper’s audience has evolved with the times, serving a New York Latino population that has seen distinct waves of Puerto Rican, Dominican, South American and Mexican immigrants.

Like most print dailies,…

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

[Photo courtesy El Diario/La Prensa]

By Eduardo Diaz, Director, Smithsonian Latino Center

In 1662, William Sanderoft, the Archbishop of Canterbury, approved the Jamaican coat of arms, depicting an “Arawak” couple: she holding a food basket, he holding a bow. Below the couple, the inscription: INDVS VTEQVE SERVIET VNI, “The two Indians will serve as one,” perfect for implying the collective servitude the British expected of the Natives and, later, African slaves. As we know, the Native populations of Jamaica, derived from the Taíno words yamaye and xaymaca (land abounding with springs), were devastated by the arrival of European colonists.

Last summer, I attended a presentation by Lesley-Gail Atkinson, an archaeologist from the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, who was in Washington, D.C. for a workshop exploring indigenous legacies of the Caribbean, co-hosted by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and Latino Center. A portion of the presentation, based on her seminal work, The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of Jamaican Taíno, focused on Afro-Indigenous miscegenation — from how Taíno communities protected Maroon* leaders Nanny and Cudjoe, to the indispensability of Taíno ingredients, ají (native hot pepper) among them, in Jamaica’s famous jerk barbeque (from the Taíno, barbacoa.) A fascinating part of Dr. Atkinson’s presentation detailed the stunning failure of a plebiscite to change the Jamaican coat of arms. Proponents advocated the replacement of the Native pair with an African couple, owing to the island’s overwhelming African-descended population, but they underestimated Jamaicans’ own identification with the island’s First Nation.

Also participating in the same work session was Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique, a Haitian scholar, who explained how traditional Vodou practice incorporates Taíno objects and religious cosmology. It is significant that in Haiti (from the Taíno Ayiti, land of high mountains), as in Jamaica, reverence for indigenous past and contributions is vigorously acknowledged and preserved.

In addition to the above-mentioned scholars, we also invited experts from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Belize, the latter acknowledging the cultural, particularly linguistic, connection between the Taínos and contemporary Garífuna peoples. Importantly, cultural workers involved in recovering Caribbean indigenous identity also participated in this workshop, some of whom identify as Afro-Indigenous. Their participation was important for two reasons: 1) in addition to researching their indigeneity, they strive to live it, actively practicing rituals and gathering as community; and 2) researching Afro-Indigenous miscegenation is important in comprehending Caribbean indigenous histories.

Exploring indigenous legacies of the Caribbean is a sensitive endeavor, because of the presumed extinction theories subscribed to in some academic and community quarters. The Smithsonian has custody of over 9,000 objects of Taíno derivation, and in preparing to responsibly share the collection with the public we are doing our homework, aided by a diversity of scholarship and manifestations of lived experience. The Smithsonian’s mission is to increase and diffuse knowledge, and to tell, not spin, stories.

I recently returned from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where a Smithsonian team conducted a consultation with leading Taíno scholars, activists, and collectors. We were amazed by the focused, enthusiastic response to our initiative, and were enriched by their perspectives and ideas. Later, our research leaders conducted consultations in San Juan de la Maguana and Altos de Chavón, where the sense of Taíno community is more present. I’m told the response was more powerful and personal. My sense is that our initiative is touching a deep chord, one that goes to essence of identity and being.

When last in Chicago, I went to a bombazo, a community performance of traditional Puerto Ricanbomba, a percussive music and dance genre born in African slave quarters. One of the young musicians proudly sported a t-shirt that read, “Taíno Strong.” This memory surfaced as I listened to the presentations of our invited Caribbean scholars and activists and took in the feedback in Santo Domingo, reminding me of the miscegenation of peoples and cultures that have shaped the American continent since First Contact. I think it is important to follow the beat, and the storyline, no matter where they lead.

*Maroon: derived from the Spanish Cimarrón (living on the mountaintops), is a name given to fugitive African slaves. The British seized Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655. Rather than be re-enslaved by the British, groups of runaway slaves formed and rebelled, clearing an initial path for independence. Nanny and Cudjoe were two prominent Maroons, considered national heroes.

Eduardo Díaz is the director of the Smithsonian Latino Center and a 30-year veteran of arts administration. The Latino Center works to increase and enhance Latino presence, research and scholarship at the Smithsonian Institution by sponsoring, developing and promoting exhibitions, collections, research and public programs that focus on the Latino experience. Díaz is an advisor to the Smithsonian’s Secretary and Under Secretary for History, Art and Culture as well as to Congress and other government agencies on a range of cultural development issues related to Latino communities in the United States and their impact on diverse countries of origin.

[Photo courtesy National Museum of the American Indian]

By Carolina Moreno, Huffington Post Latino Voices

Baby name brainstormers beware! It seems Isabella is ready to take a bite out of Sofía for the top spot of the 100 most popular Hispanic baby names for girls, according to BabyCenter en Español. As for the boys’ list, Santiago is still sitting pretty at the top as Matías is slowly rising, moving from third to second in 2012.

On Monday, the Spanish-language pregnancy and parenting website released the lists of the trendiest names for boys and girls in 2012, based on the over 60,000 names given by mothers in the United States and 22 Spanish-speaking countries whose baby was born between January and November of last year.

Both Sofía and Santiago have topped the list for six consecutive years but, according to deputy editor at BabyCenter en Español Erika Cerebros, Isabella is not far from being crowned the most popular girl name among Hispanic parents thanks to Isabella “Bella” Marie Swan Cullen, the main protagonist of the vampire-werewolf fantasy movies saga “Twilight”.

For the boys, big changes in the prevalence of some names were credited to the leading men in telenovelas like Telemundo’s “Corazón Valiente” and Univision’s “Abismo de Pasión” and to the growing popularity of Colombian rockero Juanes, whose first and middle names (Juan Esteban), used to create his artistic name, rose 26 and 48 places respectively – with Esteban seeing the biggest jump on the list.

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

Carolina Moreno is an intern on The Huffington Post’s Latino Voices vertical. She is currently a senior at New York University studying Journalism,Latin American Studies, and French language. In the past she has worked with Dateline NBC as well as ABC News NOW. Her interests include Inter-American relations, Latin American politics, and human rights issues on both sides of the canal.

[Photo by paparutzi]

By Carolina Moreno, Hufington Post Latino Voices

Click on picture to read story.

[Photo by jacilluch]

By Carolina Moreno, Huffingtopn Post Latino Voices

It’s a tale as old as time–a biblical narrative that resonates with millions of Catholics across the World and that inspired the Hispanic Christmas tradition Las Posadas, which annually sees entire communities come together to celebrate with song and prayer the birth of Jesus Christ.

From Nazareth, Joseph trudged onward to Bethlehem alongside Mary, his virgin wife expecting “the savior of all people,” baby Jesus. Mounted atop a wearied donkey, Mary journeyed to the “city of David” where the divine child was to be born–once there the couple went from shelter to shelter (posadas) looking for a place to rest and give birth.

From this nativity story a tradition was born, in countries like Mexico and Guatemala, the nine nights–representing the nine months of gestation–before Christmas are…

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

[Photo by Gobierno de Aguascalientes]

By Phillippe Diederich, Voxxi

On the days leading up to December 12, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans will decorate their homes, light candles and begin the pilgrimage to the Basilica de Guadalupe on the outskirts of Mexico City to celebrate and honor the queen of Mexico; Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.

The celebration of La Guadalupana, as she is sometimes called, is one of the most important holidays in Mexico. It is as much a religious holiday as it is a patriotic holiday because La Virgen de Guadalupe is uniquely Mexican and is one of the country’s most important icons. From the moment of her appearance in 1531 to the present, Juan Diego, she has been a unifying force and a symbol of what it means to be Mexican.

The story of La Virgen de Guadalupe

Legend has it the image of the Vigrin Mary appeared to Juan Diego in the hills of Tepeyac while he was on his way to Mexico City. The Virgin told Juan Diego that she wanted a church built in her honor at the top of the hill. Juan Diego told this to the Spanish archbishop, Juan se Zumárraga, who said he needed proof and asked Juan Diego to return to Tepeyac and ask for a miracle from the Virgin.

Juan Diego went back to Tepeyac and told this to the Virgin who helped him harvest flowers from the top of the hill. The flowers were roses of Castille, which did not grow in Mexico, especially during that time of year. Juan Diego carried the flowers back to Mexico City. When he opened his cloak to reveal the flowers at the archbishop’s feet, the image of the Virgin appeared in his cloak. The cloak is now on display at the Basilica.

Taking history into context, and legends aside, the story of La Virgen de Guadalupe and what it did for Mexico cannot be denied. The brown skinned Virgin represented meztisaje, the blending of the Spanish and Indian; what is Mexican. Also, it was common for the Spanish conquistadors to build churches over Aztec temples. At the top of Tepeyac Hill there was a temple where peasants worshipped the Aztec goddess, Tonantzin. Interestingly, the story of Juan Diego and the Virgin was recorded in both Spanish and Nahuatl, the language of the Nahua people.

The Virgin Mary solved problems for the Spanish and the Mexicans

La Virgen de Guadalupe solved big problems for both the Spanish and Mexicans. The Spanish wanted the Indians to become Catholics, but the Indians had their own Gods. La Guadalupana, at least in spirit, offered a path for the Indians and meztisos to become Catholics, because they now had their own deity, acceptable to both the Spanish clergy and the Mexican people. All of this was synthesized even further when father Miguel Hidalgo, holding a banner with the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe, called for the Mexican people to revolt and begin the fight for Independence from Spain.

Ever since then, the image of La Virgen de Guadalupe, has been a part of Mexican identity, lore and inspiration. During the Mexican Revolution, the peasants fighting with Zapata, as well as other revolutionaries, carried her image in banners. She can be found all over Mexico.

Today La Reina de Mexico is presented in so many ways and at so many important functions and celebrations she is synonymous with Mexican identity. Her image can be found in key chains, stickers, t-shirts, caps and even on the inside of Stetson hats and tattoos. La Guadalupana does not just identify people as Catholic, but as Mexican. So on December 12, a sacred and important holiday takes place. Tens of thousands of Mexicans will crowd the area around the Basilica de Guadalupe in Tepeyac, many on their knees, with candles and with pictures of her likeness as they engage in a ritual that is both religious, patriotic and uniquely Mexican.

This article was first published in Voxxi.

Phillippe Diederich is a bilingual writer and photographer born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Mexico City and Miami. His photography has appeared in The New York Times, Timemagazine, U.S. News and World Report and other national publications. His non-fiction has been published in the Traveler’s Tales Anthology, Cuba; Cigar Aficionado; The Miami New Times and The Dallas Morning News. He blogs about Latino issues for VOXXI. Diederich is based in Southwest Florida.

[Photo by Esparta]

By Huffington Post Latino Voices

With the holidays just around the corner, most employees are thinking about taking time off work.

But for many Latinos, paid leave won’t be an option. According to a study released Tuesday by the Center for American Progress, Latinos have the least access to paid sick days or parental leave, let alone paid vacation.

Only 38.4 percent of Latinos have paid leave available, compared to 64.7 percent of Asians, 60.4 percent of whites and 57.4 percent of blacks. The study attributes the difference to “historical trends resulting from decades of institutionalized racism and the fact that workers of color are more likely than white workers to be employed in low-wage, low-quality jobs.”

“For too many Latinos, being a good worker and a good family member has become mutually exclusive,” the study states.

In addition to less…

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This article was fiorst published in Huffington Post Latino Voices

[Photo by  wools]

By Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto, Latino Decisions

This Hispanic Heritage Month, I can’t help but feel frustrated. According to a poll released this week by the National Hispanic Media Coalition and Latino Decisions, seven out of every ten non-Latinos believe that Latinos are gang members or criminals.

The bad news is obvious– over seventy percent of non-Latinos believe Blood In Blood Outmovie characters are the norm in our community. However there is a silver lining, these negative views are malleable.

The NHMC-Latino Decisions poll was part of a larger study that looked at how people viewed Latinos as a result of being exposed to negative/positive representations of Latinos. Non-Latino survey respondents were divided up into groups. One group saw a clip from “Training Day” where tatted-up homeboys and homegirls were swilling beer and mad-dogging the white and black dudes. Another group saw a clip from “The West Wing” where Max Santos (Jimmy Smitts) is portrayed as a Latino presidential candidate giving a moving discourse about his bootstrap story.    

Not surprisingly, the respondents that watched the gangbanger clip had more negative views of Latinos along a whole host of dimensions—honesty, neighborliness, patriotism, family orientation. On the flip side, respondents who watched positive portrayals of Latinos had less negative views of them. It’s really quite simple; the more Latino criminals and slouches appear on TV, the more negatively Latinos will be viewed. The more Latino astronauts, teachers, and students appear on TV the more positively Latinos will be viewed.

On the heels of the Latino Decisions poll, the importance of Hispanic Heritage Month hit me like a ton of bricks. Throughout the years, I have looked forward to the first couple of weeks of fall, when my Latin American ancestry is highlighted. I’ve always enjoyed seeing fellow Latinos, people who looked and sounded like me, showcased for their professional and personal successes. And I would be lying if I didn’t admit to also liking the dinners, parties, and festivals that are part of the celebration month.

But until this week I had a very selfish view of Hispanic Heritage Month. I saw Hispanic Heritage month as being about me and my ethnic group. It was a family celebration. Not that non-Latinos weren’t invited, but the celebration was about us. Put differently, it was essentially Latinos preaching to the choir—successful Latinos highlighting their successes.

The findings from the Latino Decisions poll, together with two years of a harsh anti-immigrant media barrage, have jolted me. I no longer have a sanguine view about the weeks that make up Hispanic Heritage Month. This month is not about celebrating, it’s about rolling up our sleeves and getting to work. Hispanic Heritage Month must be used as a springboard to shift popular negative perceptions of Latinos. It must be a vehicle for re-framing who Latinos in this country are. And most importantly, the focus of Hispanic Heritage Month should not be Latinos, but rather all Americans.

Latinos, both in Hollywood and society, have been typecast. We are the gangbangers, the gardeners, and the harlots. Just like in any culture, we have our share of these types, but we also have an incredible array of successful and productive members of society. The responsibility is on us to show this side. While it will be a steep climb to overcome these popular characterizations, it can be done. As the Latino Decisions survey itself demonstrated, while there are negative perceptions, the presentation of a positive characterization does walk back these entrenched stereotypes. And what better place to start getting to work than with this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month?

This article was originally published at NBC LATINO.

Dr. Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto is an NBC Latino contributor, Senior Analyst for Latino Decisions and Fellow at the Center for Politics and Governance at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, at Austin.

[Photo by  cliff1066™]

Earlier this month, cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz became aware of the fact that the Chicago Sun-Times was no longer running his comic strip, La Cucaracha, in its funny pages.

What ensued was a Twitter campaign to get fans to write to the newspaper asking for the comic’s return, the result of which still hasn’t been a return to publication for Alcaraz’s comic. NewsTaco spoke to Alcaraz about the issue, which he told us is simply another incarnation of an unofficial rule in the art world.

“I always suffer from the ‘one minority’ rule. If they have one black comic strip, that’s enough, nobody else can get in. Or, if there’s one Latino strip [that will be featured], it’s either mine or ‘Baldo,’” he told us. Which, he explained is to say that, while it’s great to have more people of color working in the comic world, the publication of their work continues to be limited under the guise of “inclusiveness” or “diversity,” one is enough to meet this idea.

Here are the tweets in question:

It seems “La Cucaracha” has been dropped from the Chicago Sun-Times comics page lineup, and I ask any Chicago, or Illinois people to help

October 3, 2011 9:25 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@laloalcaraz

Lalo Alcaraz

You can write an email to Editor In Chief Donald Hayner or Features Editor Amanda Barrett at suntimes.com”>dhayner@suntimes.com and suntimes.com”>abarrett@suntimes.com

October 3, 2011 9:26 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@laloalcaraz

Lalo Alcaraz

and ask them to please reinstate La Cucaracha in the comics page of the Chicago Sun-Times. I will update on the situation soon

October 3, 2011 9:27 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@laloalcaraz

Lalo Alcaraz

While Alcaraz does not feel that the omission of his work from the comic page is a direct result of his work or politics, the fact that the Sun-Times is cutting down its entire comics offerings — and starting with one of the few Latino artists — is disconcerting. Chicago’s Latino population isn’t minuscule, more than 2 million in Illinois concentrated around the city, and neither is the Alcaraz’s work.

For the past eight (or so) years Alcaraz tells us his work has appeared in the Sun-Times, this is after The Chicago Tribune held his strip embargoed and unpublished for a year. So, he told us he loves going to Chicago and having young people come up to him and compliment him on his work. And while he’s not sure if he’ll have this pleasure in the future — he’s told the decision not to run his strip is not an official one — he’s set to continue to do what he does best.

“Onward and upward,” he said.

[Courtesy Photo]

I’m as Hispanic as the Latino next door – so whether I’m one or the other is a matter of definition. That said, it’s hard to  pinpoint one meaning that everyone can agree on. Whenever I’m asked if I’m Latino, Chicano, Hispanic, Mexican-American or whatever I say yes. And then I’ll hold the silence that follows.

When I’m in a more practical mood I’ll ask for definitions of each, and depending on the definition I’ll choose the one that fits me the best. Mostly though, I choose to not get involved in a discussion that never ends. It ranks, for me, equal to the discussion of the differences between men and women – like watching my Beagle chase his tail (some women might argue that if he were a she he’d know better than to chase his own tail).

The point is that you are what you define yourself to be, and when it comes to Latino versus Hispanic cada cabeza es un mundo. At News Taco the easy consensus was Latino.

First, for practical reasons: We have to chose one or the other, it makes no sense to make random use of both.

We will, when the situation applies, use the term Hispanic when it’s part of a quote. If someone we’re quoting says Hispanic, we’re not going to change it to Latino.

Second, because we’re kinda’ nonconformists.  I was a young reporter in the early 1980′s when the government and the marketers started calling us Hispanic – one to group us into a pile of their definition and the other to fabricate a market that could be sold and sold to. No one ever asked, and I can see how impractical that would have been. A decision was made somewhere and I woke up one day to find I was Hispanic.

Since then there’s been a slew of push-back arguments against the term: Hispanic implies being from Spain, and we’re not; I don’t like being defined by a term that has the word “panic” in it; it’s an imposed definition; what does it mean anyway?

Latino seems to fit better, and it has nothing to do with a dead language – I’ll repeat that, it has nothing to do with a dead language. It does have to do with a region of the world that geography convention calls Latin America. And here’s the nuance: Latin America begins at the border between the United States and Mexico, but the Latin American culture starts in the southwestern US.

I once heard someone say that Mexico was not Latin America, and I almost choked on my Cheetos. It was the watershed moment when I decided that I would no longer get involved in that question. And here I am, writing about it.

So I prefer the term Latino, because it fits my idea of who I am, a member of the vast, varied, huge, rich, growing and wondrous Latin American culture.  But I’m also American; part of the wonderful American fabric as well, equally at home in both. The government and the marketers would have me say I’m Hispanic because it’s easier for them if I do that. So if asked , are you Hispanic,  I say “sure.” It’s not a matter of contention for me as I know it is for many people. I just can’t get excited over it. Hispanic doesn’t fit well with me, Latino does, and that’s that.

When we came together to form News Taco I found kindred spirits who felt the same, so it was a non-issue. We use the term Latino because we feel that it defines us better than other terms. We could say Mexican, or variations thereof: of Mexican descent, Mexican-American, etc…, but that would exclude people from many other nationalities and ancestries. We could say American, but that  would only increase the confusion – we’re not talking about all Americans, only a swath of the American family that can trace it’s roots to Latin America. So we choose Latino, although I like to think it chose me.

A non-Latino once asked why I felt so special because I was Hispanic. I said it wasn’t my idea. Whoever created this world thought me up as an American male, of Mexican ancestry, living in South Texas. If you have a problem with that, you need to take it up with the one who conjured me. And by the way, I’m Latino.

Follow Victor Landa on Twitter: @vlanda