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  • J

    J. L. BorgesSep 26, 2023 at 6:53 pm

    I admire your attempt to bring some clarity to a particularly murky cultural arena, but I think even you miss the mark. The attempt to forge a singular identity out of varied people groups that originate from the Spanish and Portuguese imperial conquests is, ultimately, asinine. At best, language is a tenuous thread to bind large groups of people as an Argentine speaking voseo hardly sounds like a Gallego let alone a Mexican national whose mother tounge is Mayan. To even try and clump the millions of Portuguese speaking Brazilians into one category associated with any Spanish speakers is even crazier. Brazil is basically as large as the US and has a population nearly as diverse in heritage, from Afro-Carribean descendents in the North East to Polish, Japanese, and German Brazilians in the South–not to mention all of the native, pre-colonials.

    It is perhaps well intention to have a “Hispanic Heritage” month but it is misguided. Hispanic is not a race, nor is Latino. It can’t even be considered a singular culture within one American country (I didn’t even mention the Aymara or Guarani, the Austrio-Mexicans, or the fact that Equitorial Guinea could also be considered “Hispanic” but at the same time African).

    At best Hispanic/Latino are language families with shared history as bloody and tragic as any of the New World.

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