LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK!
ALSO, QUICK REMINDER TO LET YOU KNOW THAT BEIGN LATINO DOES NOT CORRELATE TO YOUR SKIN COLOR OR TONE. IF YOU WERE BORN IN A LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRY YOU ARE LATINO, AND SORRY IF IT'S CONTROVERSIAL BUT HAVING ROOTS OF LATIN AMERICAN PPL DOES NOT MEAN YOUR LATINO. BC IT'S MORE THAN JUST YOU HERITAGE. (I'm talking about you Bella Thorne)
I don't think you can consider yourself a Latino if you were born in a first world country because you don't go through the same stuff than makes us latinos.
And let me tell you. What makes latin america such a warm community is not the heritage, but the struggles we face togheter. we're warm people but not because of the blood running through our veins. We party all night because who knows when we'll be able to get togheter again when the money we have in our pockets is scarce.
Our story is tainted with blood and suffering and if you think I'm talking only about the colonization then you're delusional.
We were and we're still used by first world countries to this day and on top of that we're being forced to fit into their boxes. They pretend to say what being a Latino is when most of us don't even use that term. We use words that you would think are racist but for us are terms of endearment because it means more than our skin.
I'm not white but if you saw me you might think I am and that I just spent a lot of time in the sun. I was called negrita by my abuelo who is a cholo my whole life, and that's not wrong. I have a friend that is refered to as "el negro" and it's not seen as an insult. Our songs are filled with this kinds of terms and it's OKAY.
But in the eyes of first world countries apparently it's not, and we can see that in the suspension of Edison Cavani, an uruguayan futbol player who thanked a friend saying "gracias negrito" to his friend when he wished him a happy birthday.
I see how we are forced to be quiet and stand eouropean and north american countries coming into our lands and stealing resources and chunks of our suelo, with tears of frustration because we're no longer free to roam around our own highways or swim into our own lakes.
The example that hits home is how almost all of the south of Argentina is owned by capitalists from EEUU, a country that also have troops stationed in the north on the Acuifero Guarani, the biggest reserve of drinkable water in the world.
I remember being in class and wondering with my 30 classmates why we allow them to invade us once more like the Spanish did so long ago.
And the answer seems so clear now, because that's our only option. We can't rebel against them, otherwise the starvation will be even worse that what it is. The first world uses us as their source of raw material with the excuse of giving us jobs when in reality they are stripping us bare.
We have to stand foreign companies contaminating our lands trying to mine gold on our mountains. Killing and deteriorating the health of the few native communities that survived the colonization.
We endure and normalize the villas and fabela's, were the crime runs high and stigma paints the walls of thousands of one bedroom apartments stack up on top of each other where sometimes more that 4 families convive in, with it's bare bricks and broken windows screaming lack of opportunities. Where kids have to skip class because they don't have shoes while the private neighbourhood that sits only a few blocks away reeks of privilege.
We see that in the ranchito de chapa in the interior of my country, with it's roof barely standing, thanks constantly threatened to be blown away by the smallest breeze. Where no electricity or water reaches, where my cousins have to walk to the rich neighbour who could afford the piping just so they can take a bath with cold water, sitting in the mud and with an empty can of peas as their fancy showerhead.
So I'm sorry if we seem unfair to you, but we refuse to be used as a rarity. Because being latino is not just the cute dresses and tan skin, the dances and food, or your grandparents blood, who probably had to escape the horror we suffer just so you could have a better life than us.
Being latino is being chained to a system that is constantly pushing our face in the dirt and saying our poverty is the result of our own actions instead of the greediness of rich countries.
Educate yourself, have critical thinking and try to be empathic of our pain instead of just using us as your asset, or to just ✨spice✨ your fic up.