A New Approach for the Latino Community - Annotated Bibliography Example

THE "LATINO" COMMUNITY and Section # of A NEW APPROACH FOR THE "LATINO" COMMUNITY Who likes being stereotyped Who wants to loose their identity Their individuality But, as the world moves at a fast pace, cultures merge, people migrate and acculturation takes place, we can ensure that in some corner of the world, there will be injustice to some race, ethnic group or culture. Many social forces play an active role in this, one prominently being the media. The media has become an active voice of not just transmitting thoughts and opinions, rather moulding and affecting them as well. One such group that has been collectively addressed and lost their separate entity are the residents belonging to Latin America, given the joint title of the "Latinos". INTRODUCTION TO "LATINOS" Latinos is a term used for the people who belong to Latin America. This region consists of each countries, each with their unique language, culture and identity. But their immigration to other countries of the world like United States of America and Spain have crushed their individual identity and made them popular as a collective unit, yet considered a minority and treated with biases and prejudice. This discrimination and highlight of a community aspect of Latinos has been mostly brought forward by the Spanish media, whether it be the television, newspapers, radio or the likes. Such media propogation by any country gives further impetus to different countries to form stereotypes and biases for these people. An Argentinian has a totally different culture than the Bolivian who lives in U.S., a Brazilian has different beliefs than a Colombian who works in U.S. and Ecuadorian will have different thought processes than a person from Panama who study together in U.S. Such differences need to be highlighted. Latin America's rich and diverse culture needs to be brought in front of the world but what media does is only show a cross-section of population from Latin America, collectively labels them as Latinos and ignores the diversity available in the region. This is an important topic to address as it wants to achieve a basis for what the media does. What is happening to the residents of Latin America is unfair. It needs to be looked into. Other topics would just have been an addition to the database of various papers who talk about Latinos. But talking about the injustice that they go through and the situation of being referred to as "Latinos" puts them in an advantageous position as a community and at a disadvantage when it comes to their individuality. This ambiguous situation is difficult to weigh and talked about rarely. The Latinos know what they go through but I, being a student, subjected to the study of Latino culture, want to unravel their range of cultures and individuality as written and argued by prominent authors. Many authors have written on the subject of Latino identity in U.S. and propogation by the Spanish Media. Let us analyse each book and what went in the writing of each: LATIN AMERICA AND ITS PEOPLE, VOLUME I This book has been beautifully penned down in unity by Martin C. and Wasserman, M. They have talked about Latin America till the 1830s. The writers have emphasized on the relationship that Latin America had with Spain. It got a kick start when Latin America got most of Spain's colonies, only with the exception of Cuba and Peurto Rico. This was the harvesting of the seeds of enmity in the heart of Spain. They had lost all their colonies to Latin America and therefore, from them onwards till date, they have used their media as a powerful tool against the Latinos. They are clever enough not to declare open wars against them, but are satisfied by what little damage they can create throught their media. The author has focused on all sides of Latin America, be it be social, political, environmental and cultural history. It does not focus on Latin America country by country, rather takes an all-region approach. But nonetheless, it does not ignore the diversity of the people living in different parts of the region. The significance of this writing is that it brings to notice the assortment of people that are present in Latin America. Significance to the non-Latino audience is that they can be enlightened of the fact that Latin America's population should not be collectively referred to as Latinos as they are different from each other. The Latino readers can be proud of their rich diversification and be sure that it has been brought to the database of a classic book. LATIN AMERICA AND ITS PEOPLE, VOLUME II This book is also a collective effort of Cheryl Martin and Mark Wasserman. It is the 2nd volume of the book Latin America and its People and it continues the strenuous effort to unveil the dissimilar characteristics of Latin America residents. It covers the time period of 1830s to present. They have analyzed the foreign relations that Latin America has and seen that Spain has special identification with the region in terms of language, commerce, culture and history. They are bonded by the same components as many colonies of Spain are now part of Latin America. Many leaders of Spain have made successful visits to Latin America and have brought transitions from dictatorship to democracy. The importance of this writing is that it unveils the fluctuating relationship between Latin America and Spain. And the possible reason of their wrong portrayal of inhabitants of Latin America. The audience can relate to this writing very well. It can enhance their knowledge of the past situations and events that shaped this relationship. The authors belonged to Latin America and have used methodologies like participant observation and interviews to get an inside picture to their varying culture and past of the region. CROSSING CURRENTS This book is a masterpiece by the two brothers Michael Whiteford and Scott Whiteford. They focus on the wave of continuity and change in Latin American culture. They take an anthropological perspective and explore the culture. Designed to expose the diversified and wealthy culture of the region, the book provides an overload of information, which in itself is the proof that Latin American people can be defined in such vast ways so as to fill books. The significance of this writing is that has focused on the Latin American belonging to Panama, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia and all the rest of the 16 countries which form a part of this region. They bring to light that Latin America culture is made up of the extremes of people. When they move to U.S. they are referred to as a single community, by the title of "Latino", This poses as both sides of a coin. They are identified as a community there, with similar interests and belonging to the same region. But when the advantages fade away, their individuality has been lost somewhere. The book tells that Brazilian is proud of their own unique heritage and every migrant from Haiti remembers the distinctive architecture and monument work of Haiti. But the media propogates them as one. "Latinos" according to the Spanish media, supposedly, have the same form of art and architecture throughout the region and their heritage is also the same. This is wrong and unfair to their identity. Though being referred to as a Latin America community in United States of America, they are being given the priveleges of being part of a group away from home. But they have fond memories of their own country and its unique characteristics. They are shocked to see the mixed culture portrayal by Spanish media, which often comes out as a new culture altogether. THE MARKETING AND MAKING OF A PEOPLE This is a very important, entertaining and original book by the writer Davila Arlene. She has even written essays in the anthology Latino - A Popular Culture. In this book, she brings to notice that though the influence of Latin American culture on United States is growing, its presence in mainstream America has still not being felt. She questions the homogeneity of the Latin American immigrants as telecasted by the Spanish media. The "Latinos" are indeed different. Every subnational is a breed in itself. The Latinos often debate on their social standing and personal identity but the Spanish media well knows how to suppress it. The stereotype they have created is hard to erase. The images of Latin Americans is being manufactured, sold and bought all over America and abroad. These pictures target the Latino population who live in the United States. The migrant Latino population has literally become a market. She has been able to reach shocking conclusions through her extensive field work. She has conducted live interviews, observed the happenings in person and recorded focus groups to hear what the common man says. She has noticed that Latino culture (for example, the prominence of salsa) is gaining prominence in America. But the Latinidad essence is missing. Davila's writing will make the audience think if there is a happy settlement between being able to survive in U.S.A. as a community and then not being identified as a sole person with a unique country. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PREJUDICE This last book, penned down by Todd Nelson, is a very comprehensive, thoroughly researched piece of work on what goes behind prejudice. What the Latinos go through on a daily basis is not intense or extreme prejudice but it can be called a stereotyping of sorts. As soon as a migrant introduces themselves as belonging to Ecuador or Honduras, the stereotype of a Latino immediately emerges. The psychology behing this stereotyping is fully explained in this book. What goes in the mind of a person who stereotypes another is given in detail. When the residents of the United States of America have been bombared by the Spanish media regarding the unanimity of values, beliefs and cultures of all Latinos, then the mind and thinking of the U.S. residents has been conditioned to think that way. They have stopped giving individual importance to each country in the region of Latin America. The culture shown by Spanish media is so deeply integrated in the minds of Americans that they think nothing else as soon as they meet a Latino. Latinos are facing serious difficulties in removing this stereotype that has been so deeply enrooted in the American population. They have to live and work there, and still face the daily stereotyping of Americans, caused by the misuse of media to make them think this way. References 1. Martin, Cheryl (2007). Latin America and its People, Volume II. 2. Martin, C., & Wasserman, M. (2007). Latin America and its People, Volume I. 3. Whiteford, M., & Whiteford, S. (1997). Crossing Currents. 4. Arlene, D. (2001). Latinos, Inc. : The Marketing and Making of a People. 5. Nelson, T. (2005). The Psychology of Prejudice. 6. (1997). Spanish and Portugese Media. Retrieved October 28, 2007, from Spanish Radio Station Web site: http://www.geocities.com/spanishradio/ Read More