stereotyping latin women

Judith came from a Puerto Rican family that lived in Jersey. Throughout her life she was put into situations of others stereotyping her for being a Latin woman. One of those times was for Career Day at her catholic school. The girls were supposed to dress formal with the tailored skirts and silk blouses to look professional. However, she wasn’t dressed appropriately to the occasion and that caused her teachers as well as her classmates to look at her as a “negative models” Another one of her experiences was at first formal dance where the boy she went with kissed her, and when she didn’t go along with it his response was “I thought you Latin girls were suppose to mature early.” The next thing that happened at a hotel she was staying. As she was walking to her room she ran to a man and her daughter. He soon began to sing part of a song, “Don’t cry for me, Argentina”, and after that a famous Spanish song “La Bamba”. To the men and the others around him it was an innocent joke to make others laugh, but for Judith it wasn’t funny at all, she took offense to it. Simply because they were Latinas the man found it perfectly fine to sing Spanish songs, to make it seem funny. Latin women are often portrait as only working in factories or having housemaid jobs because of the lack of skills they have and because of the little English they know. She stated “The big and little screens have presented us with the picture of the funny Hispanic maid.” I come from a Mexican family and throughout my whole life have also experienced some form of stereotyping. I was born in Mexico and came to the United States when I was eight. Some people assume that my family was poor in Mexico and that’s the reason why we came here, and that’s completely wrong. My parents were teachers, we had a decent house and we had a car. The most common one that most Hispanic girls have to deal with is being asked about their quinceanera. Of course it’s a tradition for girls to celebrate