Melting pot giving rise to post-'Latino' Latino politicians

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2021807,CST-EDT-esther01.article

Melting pot giving rise to post-'Latino' Latino politicians

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA　

February 1, 2010

I have no idea what 2050 will actually be like, but I'm imagining it will be fantastic beyond my wildest dreams!

By then I'll have mastered the piano and will be making tons of cash singing nightly cabaret gigs, not a bit bothered that no one is interested in what I've got to say about the world anymore because there'll be plenty of multi-ethnic people opining on current affairs in whatever passes for digital newspapers by then. Me and my "unique perspective," which is representative of the "emerging" Latino population, will have become as defunct as my gas-powered car.

By then Hispanics will be about a quarter of the population. Add the 15 percent of the population that blacks are projected to be, plus the children of today's estimated 3 million mixed-race couples, and there surely will be so many "minority" journalists, columnists and lawyers, engineers, scientists and sports stars that no one will care what I think anymore because I'll be just another face in the multi-hued crowd.

That happy thought sprang to mind last week when I was asked to go on Chicago Public Radio WBEZ's news program "848" for a discussion of the "Future of Latino Politics."

I chuckle when I hear stuff like that because the real future of Latino anything is a mainstream, U.S.-born, English speaking one that will be about as exotic and ethnic as the Chicago Irish.

Sure, there'll be the obligatory heritage parades, but it'll be a "unique cultural identity" that's given consideration only annually and will be adopted by anyone who happens to be walking by and thirsty for beer. Think: Cinco de Mayo.

While the conversation's starting point was a recitation of Latino politics' greatest hits -- the supposedly defunct Hispanic Democratic Organization, the highly emotional Jesus Garcia/ Rudy Lozano campaigns against clouted incumbents, the rise of the young professional types like ex-Ald. Manny Flores -- I think I brought us back to the reality that the continually churning melting pot is already giving rise to the post-"Latino" Latino politician. Which is to say, a politician who's running as a candidate, not as a Hispanic candidate.

It's too soon to visualize that, I know. The Latino population as we know it today is relatively new to the United States, and its politics are defined by the civil rights, worker's rights and immigration reform concerns that naturally have particular resonance to a community still gaining a foothold in our society.

But much like the Italians and the Irish before them, who became just another thread in the fabric of this country, Hispanic community leaders will someday stop gathering from across the country to discuss a "Latino agenda" of social and political empowerment and instead concern themselves with focusing on more universal themes such as the U.S. economy, health care and education.

People often disdain my constant scanning of the horizon to a time when no one will focus on such matters as whether your mom's mom came from Latin America or Latvia, completely ignoring that our whole American conscious is made up of all the cultures of the people who live here and there's nothing wrong with focusing on the scary-to-some time when Latinos will have completely melted into the melting pot.

Like I told the radio show producer, as assimilation draws immigrants into the "American" culture -- as it always has and always will -- this "Hispanic" narrative that's currently playing out will become old hat. In the not-too-distant future, we'll be talking about the future of Muslim politics or of East Indian politics.

Or, if I look into the faces of my own family's children, we'll be talking about the rise of quarter-Mexican-quarter-Ecuadorian-half-black politics, quarter- Mexican-quarter-Ecuadorian-half-Filipino politics, and quarter-Mexican-quarter-Ecuadorian-half-white politics.

But it'll be called something else by then: just plain old politics.

And me? I won't have much to say about it, I'll be too busy tinkling the ivories, crooning "When You Wish Upon A Star" for you.

 

Comments

I am interested in learning about scientists who have have completed
studies about global warming. Of those that submit to peer review,
what percentage of them show that global warming is both (a) man-made
and (b) expected to have a severe negative impact to mankind?

In the nineteenth century, humanists such as English poet and essayist Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) used the word "culture" to refer to an ideal of individual human refinement, of "the best that has been thought and said in the world." This concept of culture is comparable to the German concept of bildung: "...culture being a pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world

[blackmamba]

Nice sentimental and hopeful point of view. But for the fact that the unique history of the heirs of people who were here first-Native Americans- and those who came here against their will as property aka slaves- black African Americans- does not fit into the immigration mythology of the rest of Americans. Melting into the pot of a country that has historically defined merit, morality,humanity and equality based upon race has proven to be very elusive.

A nation based upon white supremacy and black inferiority has to face the hypocrisy of it's rhetoric and the reality of it's practice. The stereotypes regarding Asians are very different from those burdening blacks. Asians are also immigrants who chose to come to America. And the same is true for non black Hispanics vs.African Americans. Hispanic is a uniquely American Spanish cultural and linguistic classification that has nothing to do with either race or nationality.

Everybody can see your race. Which also has unique American definition aka the one drop rule. Blacks whose ancestors have come to America from the West Indies, the Americas and Africa since the end of slavery offer a unique challenge.

But can Americans overcome the baggage of America's past? A substantial majority of white Americans nationwide-57%- voted for McCain/Palin in November 2008. How much of that vote was based upon race will never be known. The numbers are pretty close to what Kerry and Gore received in 2004 and 2000. But the distribution was very different based upon age, education, income and region. Older poorer whites in the South without any college education were more hostile to Obama/Biden. Perhaps there is some hope in that fact.

A substantal majority of African Americans-95%- voted for Obama/Biden. But African Americans have voted for the Democrat in those numbers since 1964. For the first time that person happened to be Black.

POTUS Obama and his family provide an opportunity for change where being a Black African American will no longer carry the negative burden of American racial history. Being color blind is not the solution. The end of white supremacy is the only answer. Neither race nor color were ever the problem. Prejudice based upon those factors was and is the issue.