“I am so in love with my people.”Seriously.
My roommate and I were sitting in our dorm room the other day, practicing our near-daily ritual of watching a few hours
of videos on BET when I came to this revelation.
Carlos Santana’s “María María” video was playing, and I thought, “Oh, my God! I love us.”
Now, there's no doubt that all my life I've been proud of who I am, but
when that video came on, its distinctive bass line became the heartbeat in this love I feel for the people we call Latinos.
Why am I so in love with us?
Every culture, every race, every group of people has beauty
and pride and heritage. So why am I so smitten with Latinos? Well, to put it simply — these are my people, my family. We're familia.
And as happens in a big family, there are many ups and downs.
We have pride.
There's no way anyone hasn’t heard of “Tío Carlos” and his 10 Grammy nominations and eight wins. Providing the soundtrack to many lives, Carlos Santana is one of the biggest sources of pride we have
today.
We have drama.
Cousin Jennifer’s run-in with the police (by way of boyfriend Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs) had the whole country buzzing not long ago. But hopefully, Lopez’s brush with badness is only a small speed
bump on her road to superstardom.
We have work ethic.
Whether it's in the classroom, in the fields, at the office or at the factory, there is one stereotype Latinos just do not live up to: laziness. Our brothers
and sisters have been working hard from Day One, whether as field workers throughout this nation’s history or, more recently, with the struggle young Latinos face on many college campuses.
We have frustrations.
Unfortunately, many of us still do not utilize our government offices or our power to vote as we should. Even the Census Bureau took out advertising time on the Spanish-language television network Univisión for Census
2000 in an effort to get us counted. It shouldn't have to be that way.
We have beliefs.
Whether it's thinking somebody gave you ojo, the practice of santería or our reverence to
la Virgen de Guadalupe, we believe. In what? Well, that's where it varies. But most of us have a strong feel for the spiritual. Somebody keeps those curanderas (and Walter Mercado) in business.
We have losses.
Ritchie Valens, Selena, and most recently, rapper Big Pun were all musical talents whose lives ended too early. Closer to home, we've witnessed lives lost to drugs, gang violence and incarceration.
The lives of our sons and daughters are slowed down by our astounding dropout and teen pregnancy rates.
We have fun.
Think of the things our “relatives” have contributed to this world: Latin pop and Latin lovers;
Menudo, the teenage singers, and menudo, the Sunday morning hangover cure. And novelas
and “Sábado Gigante,” and a double dose of Iglesias men, Julio and Enrique. You want a party? One word sums up the music and the food: salsa. You want to blackmail your sister for the rest of her life? Pull out those pictures of her doing the macarena.
As a people, we've made progress. As a family, we've learned to care about each other. Organizations like the National Council of La Raza and the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute continue to grow, and everyone y
su abuela had an opinion on little Elián this year.
This is why I love my huge Latin family. It's those reasons that put the pride in my heart every Hispanic Heritage Month. It's those problems that drive me to
continue my education and get involved in my community. It's those reasons that my long acrylic nails are done in bright pink and purple as a member of the historically Latina Sigma Lambda Gamma (SLG) sorority. It’s
those role models, both in the public eye and in my own personal family, that I chose to imitate or learn from.
It's because of all of that, that I’m in love with my family, my people, myself.
Olivia Muñoz is a
sophomore at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Mich., and a contributor to Mi Gente, a monthly magazine on Latino affairs in Saginaw, Mich,
© 2000, Hispanic Link News Service. Distributed by
Los Angeles Times Syndicate
