During the 2012 presidential election, there was much debate about immigration policy and the rapidly shifting American population. Specifically, the quickly growing Latino population.
According to the Pew Hispanic Research Center, Latinos made up 17 percent of the American population in 2011. By 2030, Latinos are expected to make up a quarter of the American population.
We have to start gaining a better understanding of Latin America. We need to expose our habit of grossly oversimplifying the people who come to the U.S. from the enormous landmass that has been assumed to be nothing more than a stomping ground for the U.S. It is a mistake to consider the whole of Central and South America to be comprised of a single culture, devoid of nuances.
The label of “Latin American” ignores other important facets of a person’s identity: age, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual preference and the length of residence in the United States. As a result, I question the reliability of such an over-arching demographic title.
In a May 9, 2012 post on their blog, the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute called the Latino population of the U.S. the “sleeping giant of American politics.”
But in a Nov. 23, 2012 column for NBC, New York University Director of Latino Studies Cristina Beltran hammered the true point home by saying, “Rather than a monolithic cultural community, Latinos are in fact a series of communities. At times these populations display widespread agreement … but it hardly means that Latinos constitute a singular or united political community with a distinct policy agenda.”
Consider the aftermath of the re-election of President Barack Obama: Political analysts were on fire, making grandiose claims about the Latin American voting bloc.
Just as Latinos do not necessarily constitute a homogenous political community, neither do they constitute a homogenous culture or overall way of life. We, as Americans—or better yet, U.S. citizens—need to give a nod to the subtleties of the cultures within an entire continent, as well as islands like Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
The Council on Foreign Relations points out that not only are Latin American nations like Brazil, Argentina and Peru growing economic powers within the world, they also boast citizens of incredible diversity.
The changing demographics in our country and possible immigration reform give us good reason to re-examine what many of us regard as just a uniform mass of land south of Mexico. We must start paying attention to the tremendous diversity and potential that is overgeneralized by the very title it has been given: “Latin America.”
