Spectral analysis

Friday, 5/23/97 Spectral analysis ETHNICITY: The significance of
color, determined at first glance, deserves a second look

Librada Loera Ybarra, my grandfather’s mom, was a platinum
blonde, my mother says, with blue eyes and fine skin. Felicitas
Carillo had brown ringlet curls, a fine lady who died when my
grandmother was young. Bis-Abuelito Porfirio Ramos was also a
blonde, with eyes like the sea, a pale blue-green. His wife
Mercedes Perez was mixed, how or to what degree we didn’t know, but
she was beautiful. Black ringlet curls, green eyes and pale skin
(or was it dark?). "Maybe Bis-Abuela Mercedes was mixed with
French," my mom suggests. "Look at the dark skin and light eyes of
Grandma’s brothers and sisters". How Abuelita Aurea and her sisters
ended up with auburn hair and gray-green eyes I’ll never know. Most
Latinos, inspired by grammar school "family tree" projects, have
had a similar conversation with their parents. "We are white," my
mother implies. I can list my European ancestors, but ask me about
Jose Cruz Espinoza, about Nicolas Rodriguez and Benito Guzman, and
suddenly the old family photos disappear. "He was short, dark, an
ugly man." Ugly in Latin America means indigenous. If we are
honest, we will admit that we are mixed. We will that we are
mestizos (white and indigenous), admit we are mulattos (white and
black), admit we are zambos (black and indigenous), as well as the
ethnic components which make up these. I despise comments which
imply that racial mixture in Latin America was the result of rapes
and conquest. I do not mean to deny the reality of what occurred,
but I regret that voluntary mestizaje (racial mixing) is often left
out of the equation and rarely acknowledged. In my family, it seems
the mestizo social climbers married European women. I hope that my
racial heritage is the result of loving relationships, despite the
political and social implications of marrying "lighter." It is the
stigma of rape, of conquest and colonization, which forces us to
identify ourselves as conquerors (white) and not the conquered
(indigenous) or enslaved (black). It is these implications of class
and social standing which cause the Latin American exaltation of
Whiteness. This also leads to snobbery among Latinos of various
national origins. My editor wanted "facts," "figures," "census
data." I countered that these were useless because many people, as
well as governments, lie. These figures mean nothing. According to
these, Argentina doesn’t have any blacks. These have been
"lightened," co-opted, assimilated into the general population. In
addition, the indigenous population has been annihilated, leaving
few original peoples in the hinterlands. Census data in Argentina
is also loath to acknowledge recent indigenous immigration from
neighboring countries. Argentines ARE very white, but the majority
of Argentines are of Italian descent, not Spanish. Everybody knows
the Italians never conquered anybody. Argentines also acknowledge
many German ancestors as proof of their Whiteness. Nazis in the
family tree aren’t anything to brag about. Mexico’s central region,
including my home state of Jalisco, shows French influence due to
the brief reign of Emperor Maximillian and Empress Carlotta. The
northern region saw later Spanish immigration as well as Polish,
German Catholics, and Russian and Sephardic Jews. The southern
region (similar to Central American countries) is mostly
indigenous, long forgotten due to its limited economic resources.
Along the Atlantic coast, Mexico is home to colonies of full black,
zambo and mulatto peoples. There are even significant Asian
populations along the Pacific Coast. Mexicans are a microcosm of
the world. Peru follows a similar pattern as a mestizo nation. Its
black population is limited by the scarcity of house slaves in the
region, and Italians comprised a significant European immigrant
group. More notably, Peru has significant Japanese and Chinese
populations. Other nations, Columbia, Venezuela and Brazil, follow
a three-way mixture. These people include white, indigenous, black
and every combination of these. I have heard it said that
Venezuelans refer to their racial mixture as "cafe con leche" or
coffee with milk. Brazil in particular is a very mulatto nation.
Like Argentina, Brazil saw a large influx of Italian immigrants at
the turn of the century. Its large African population is the basis
for its mulatto and African-inspired culture. The Japanese have
also played an important role in the development of Brazil.
Caribbean nations, due to their dependence on slave labor, are
comprised of African and mulatto populations. Cubans are still very
white, but for the most part, they are descended from poor Spanish
immigrants in later generations and are not necessarily conquerors.
Race is a sensitive topic for Latin Americans. This article is
difficult to write because I am discussing a topic which is central
to my daily life; it affects the way I react to others and the way
others react to me. Yet it is a silent specter, always acknowledged
but never addressed. In Latin America, race does not exist. Neither
does racism. This is what they tell you. This is the polite lie of
government officials, of friends and relatives. They do not notice
that you are darker/lighter, more indigenous/ European looking.
Bull. I got blasted last quarter by a little freshman girl who saw
"light-skinned" in one of my articles and took personal offense.
Skin color was the not the topic of that discussion. This just
proves that people will always take away from an article whatever
values they place upon it and whatever they bring to it to begin
with. "Didn’t you know about the light-skinned Jalisciences?" she
asked. You’re telling me? Of course I do. We are always told of the
European influence within our nation of origin. I have blonde
cousins as well as darker cousins. I have Arcadia cousins who pass
for white. With the vast array of racial mixture among Latin
Americans, it’s hard to define yourself. Choosing boxes for census
data and other forms poses a problem. You may know that I am a
Mexican woman, a "Latina-Chicana-Hispanic-American," but my birth
certificate says "caucasian." I don’t know why exactly this
happened. My mom says it is because the nurse saw her (dyed) auburn
hair, saw that she could speak English well, and just thought she
could list us as white. My mother is fairly light-skinned, as is
the rest of her family. I know my mom, and despite her slight
accent, I don’t think her English was that good 23 years ago. With
a name like Maria De La Luz Espinoza Guzman, I’m pretty sure the
white nurse could’ve figured out that my mom was a Mexican lady. I
guess she (the nurse) thought she was doing me a favor. Drop the
accent, and "Guzman" sounds German doesn’t it? I never realized how
European my name sounds till a white girl said my name – Mimi
Guzman. That’s far different from the way I write my name every day
– Noemi Guzman. I found out later, when doing research for a class
project, that the U.S. census only includes three races – black,
white/caucasian and Asian. Latinos (Hispanics) are listed in
another section. We are supposed to mark one of the three boxes
that best describes our racial group. Is there a box for "all of
the above"? I’m not exceedingly light and not exceedingly dark
either. I always say I’m as close to the middle as you can get.
Light or dark, it depends on who you are comparing me to. I am
often mistaken for Italian, Philipina, Persian and even Turkish
once. It makes sense that I should be mistaken for peoples who have
also been at the crossroads and are the result of racial mixtures.
Latinos are aware of skin color and physical features from an early
age. We get nicknames like "guero" and "prieta" ("light-skinned
boy" and "dark girl") as children. We notice who is called pretty
and whose hair is the best, are told that light eyes are always
better. We get these messages, about the value of whiteness, about
the distaste for color, and internalize these. We notice that the
lighter children are the favorites. It’s hard to think that you are
pretty with these kinds of racial standards. I remember once my
mother saying that Max Factor, or some other famous Hollywood
makeup artist, said that Latina women were the most beautiful in
the world. Our indigenous bone structure and more delicate European
features were what made us beautiful. Today, Patricia Velasquez
(half Amazon Indian, half Spanish) is recognized as a beautiful
woman. Salma Hayek (mestiza/indigena) is recognized as a beautiful
woman. This is an improvement over the women portrayed in Latino
telenovelas (soap operas) who still worship a white ideal of
beauty. For a long time, I hated my straight black hair, always
wished that it was curly, always wished that it was lighter. For
over 20 years, I never noticed how thick and full and shiny my hair
is. How dark hair can reflect light. How the mulatta girls wished
they had hair like mine. I know that I am a Latina of mixed-racial
heritage, and I refuse to lighten my hair or change my physical
features in order to pursue a standard of beauty which is not mine.
So I keep my family pictures, the ones with the hawk-nosed
relatives, the darker grandfathers, as well as the European ones. I
cling to the picture of Mercedes and her children, where noses and
ringlet hair reveal an African influence – through Morocco and
Spain or untold origins. It is all of these people, which make up
who I am – my round (indigenous) face, my more delicate (European)
facial structure, my small mouth, my full lips, my light skin, my
ability to tan, the strands of red and castano brown, and the
rope-like black hairs that prove that I am mixed. Vasconcelos wrote
a book of essays titled "Raza Cosmica". I sought it out as
inspiration for this article. It didn’t move me. But what I
remembered from the first time I read it was his belief that as
mixed people, Latin Americans are the future of the human race – to
be all peoples, all nations. We are not bastards, not half-breeds,
but whole peoples. I am all peoples. I am Raza Cosmica. Mimi Guzman
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