The Latino Community Analysis

As the Latino community increasingly grows in the U.S., a large majority of individuals rejoice at the inevitable upcoming opportunities for political, economic, and social inclusion. This inevitable inclusion is obtainable primarily because the Latino community promotes itself and is promoted by others as a homogenous whole that is powerful in numbers. This homogeneity, although strategic also fails to recognize that through the same strategy it is also erasing and failing to allocate these future opportunities to every single group within the community and thus buttresses the cycle of subordination established by the dominant powers. Based on five informal interviews I conducted –all college students, four of which come from individuals of
Structural powers enforce this homogeneity in order to keep the cycle of subordination in place by dehumanizing such diverse groups into one mass. The Latino community uses this homogeneity as a strategic measure to gain power in numbers because such large numbers cannot be ignored. However, this homogeneity by both parties overlooks the very different experiences within the whole group, which allow certain groups to succeed while others are forced into social invisibility that becomes norm. For example, most of the participants in my interviews are currently living in Southern California where Mexicans and Mexican-Americans make up the largest group in the Latino community. When asked about the Central American community, the interviewees commonly stated they did not know much and often associated Central Americans to Mexican/Mexican-Americans generalizations. One of the interviewees mentioned that “Central Americans are similar to Mexicans” when asked why she feels that way she explained that “…since I don't know much about them I can only connect them to Mexicans because that is what they are closest to.” This lack of perception toward Central Americans and a constant association to Mexican culture exemplifies how social invisibility is created for Central Americans within the Latino community. By creating or accepting a system that only speaks about a
Like I stated before, only a few participants could link globalization to forced migration but most of the participants had a vague answer in which they encompassed all immigrants. For example, one of the interviewees answered with a response that echoed the others: “Any kind of immigration is for the same reason, to avoid social, political, and economic instability and better the life of one’s family.” I found this overarching answer striking because it demonstrates yet again the repercussions of homogeneity and the dangers of accepting that homogeneity. Most of the interviewees assumed that like all other immigrants, Central Americans, were just trying to better their lives because their countries were not able to provide that opportunity. Although, in part they were correct, they did not question why those countries were “unstable.” By focusing on the idea that these countries are just inherently unstable the public fails to recognize the root of the issue, and the root of the instability, which often lies in overlooked U.S. exploitation. In fact, U.S. infiltration is often the catalyst to Central American migration. Leisy Abrego reveals in her book Sacrificing Families, how during El Salvador’s civil war, several families ran from the violence that the U.S. helped create by funding Salvadoran military to