Latina/o Cultural Expressions

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In the reading, cultural expressions that are common among Latina/o people becomes more of a stereotype in the eyes of the US government and other US agencies. Rather than identifying as Cuban or Peruvian, the US promotes a sense of homogeneity or unity among Latina/o culture. Although there are many similarities between Latinas/os, each nationality's individuality based on history, society and culture are what makes them unique and different from each other. I can understand how that the US did this due to a large amount of Latina/o people coming into the country. However, I reconcile with the view that Latina/o people who want their identities to be expressed and individualized from the common term "Latina/o." As a Filipino-American, I was always associated with other Asian people such as Chinese and even Korean. Being that I was not from these places and more importantly I was born in America, the stereotypes and the group that I was closely associated with confused and aggravated me. Thus, I can understand how it may feel when an individual of Peruvian decent is confused with being Mexican. The readings proceed to talk about historical events that would shape the culture and society of Latino/a people. Events such as the Spanish Civil War and the immigration of Cubans and Puerto Ricans to the US. Such events shaped the culture that people of those ethnicities lived by and the societies they lived in.

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 6, 2019 at 10:14 AM

    Hi Frankie,

    Good first post, keep making those connections to larger issues at play. I liked that you included your own experience as a Filipino-American. You'll see a lot more similarities between Filipinx and Latinx experience since they have similar Spanish-colonial histories. See Anthony Christian Ocampo's The Latinos of Asia https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=23819

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