Latino List – Pitbull Inteview from Latino List on Vimeo.
Yesterday marked the HBO premiere of “The Latino List,” a documentary featuring interviews with Latino luminaries in the U.S. There were some interesting discussions, including one involving skin color with the Cuban-born rapper Pitbull (Armando Christian Pérez).
Pérez talked about the role his light-skinned Latino coloring played while touring what he described as “the deep, deep South.” From the tape:
“The white, and the blue eyes, played to my advantage, because it allowed me to get in with guards down.”
Pérez is talking, of course, about being accepted in a region with a reputation for poor race relations. But his anecdote also raises the uncomfortable issue of the color lines that exist among Latinos and separate them, both inside and outside the Latin American diaspora. A Vanderbilt University study a few years ago, for example, found that light-skinned Latino immigrants earn more than dark-skinned ones, and that’s among people with legal status.
It’s just the beginning. As part of a 2000 series on race, the New York TImes profiled two Cuban immigrants – a black man and a white man – who were close before coming to the United States, then eventually grew apart as both fell into the color boxes ascribed to them in this country.
At the same time, as varied as their colors are, Latinos in the U.S. must choose a racial category on census forms. After the U.S. Census Bureau made it more explicit last year that “Hispanic or Latino” origin is not a race, more Latinos have been identifying as white on census forms. There have also been more Latinos identifying as Native American.
Readers, can you share input and experiences here? It’s a touchy subject, but I want to hear more.
