Hispanic Museums and Memorial Day - Advertising Age - The Big Tent

Posted on: May 22nd, 2008
Filed Under: [ Latinas ] [ Tomás' Picks ] [ Commentary ] [ Blogante Business ]
Tags: blog, Brazil, Chicano, Cuba, Cuban, museum, non-profit, Peru, Spain, Spanglish
Knowledge is Power!

I was perusing Hispanic Tips’ Blogante News when an article from La Prensa San Diego jumped out at me. The headline read: “Bush Signs Legislation for National Museum of the American Latino.”

My first reaction was a sense of pride and a desire to show all kinds of support. After all, shouldn’t there be a National Museum of the American Latino? Then, I started to hear voices. Not the multiple personality kind of voices, but rather the voices of non-profit board and committee members from several other Latino museum projects that either have opened or have tried to open throughout the U.S. over the past decade or two. “*

and this great paragraph that perfectly summarizes a discussion I had yesterday:

“Back to the voices. At first, they are full of pride and enthusiasm. Soon, however, these board, committee and staff members are angry and frustrated. They divide up into factions; factions that are an unfortunate, but perhaps unavoidable part of the U.S. Latino experience. One voice drowns out the other. “It’s too Mexican.” “It’s not Mexican enough.” “Too chilango.” “Not Mexican-American enough.” “Too Cuban.” “Why no Brazilians? Just because we speak Portuguese?” “Is the Chicano movement represented?” “Don’t use the word Chicano.” “Too much Spanish.” “Too much English.” “Spanglish? You can’t be serious!” “Too brown.” “Too white.” “What about black Hispanics. And Asian?” “Too upscale.” “Too downscale.” “Too foreign born.” “Too U.S. born.” “Spain doesn’t count.” “Spain is the motherland.” “It can’t be called Hispanic.” “It can’t be called Latino.” And on and on and on. Y más y más y más.