In May I went to the Book Expo of America at the Javits Convention center to read from my novel. The Amado Women is a story of the lives of four women, who, like me, happen to be Mexican American. I was excited to attend to sign copies of this novel, which represented so many gritos y lagrimas, shrieks and tears. When I got there, I realized the convention center was as huge as Manhattan: dozens of publishers, hundreds of authors, thousands of books. There were banners three stories high reminding me that I was not David Mitchell, that I was not Lena Dunham. I worried there would be no one at the table where I was slotted to sign.
But there were a dozen women waiting for me, thank God. The very first woman was Dominican. She told me she wanted this book for her mother in Dominica, because there were no stories of middle-class Latinas. She, and others, recognized and reminded me of the purpose of my novel. After signing copies I walked around to Consortium’s SpeakFreasy, where people schmoozed and talked. I met a woman representing the foreign rights for a country I forget, and as I told her about my book she said, “But you don’t look Mexican.”
It surprised me. Not because I hadn’t heard it before, but because I hadn’t heard that line in a couple of years. I certainly had heard it enough to know what to say. And because she represented a possible market, I said it with a smile. “This (meaning me) is what Mexican looks like.” That foreign rights woman, with her declaration, also reminded me of the purpose of this book.
Really, you should never tell someone they don’t look like your conception of what they should be. In her mild defense, the media bears some responsibility in our portrayals. The range is incredibly limited, from the hot, sexy, voracious and insatiable Latina, to humble, oppressed and victimized women who haven’t learned how to say “yes” instead of “si.”
“Si, Mrs. McClane. Si, Mr. McClane.”
I am in no way denigrating humble workers or the integrity of their labor. Nor do I have qualms about young sexy things. The allure of the young and beautiful was precisely why I watched the World Cup.
What I do argue with is the narrowness and predominance of these depictions. None of us are born within that tiny frame, and those of us who live our lives outside of it are invisible in mainstream portrayals. Think I’m exaggerating? Flash to the last movie or TV show or play you watched, or novel you read. Can you find her? If you do, please let me know. Or, more typically, is she absent? That is who I call the Invisible Latina.
Maybe you disagree. Maybe you think “So that’s the movies. You’re a writer.”
Let’s talk then about Chipotle Mexican Grill. Jonathan Safran Foer had this idea that the cups and plates Chipotle uses should have words from authors. Of the ten authors chosen, how many were Mexican American, wait, Latin American, or wait, even encompassing the globe, Hispanic?
Zero. Ninguno. Invisible again.
Here in Southern California, Latinas are doctors, lawyers, teachers, principals, chiropractors. Name a profession, we’re covered. Is this media invisibility because we’re “new” to this country? Er, many of our ancestors were here before statehood.
A friend and I were driving down a street where a building had just been demolished. “What used to be there?” he asked. It was impossible to conjure up. It struck me that that is what my existence is like, and that of my mother, my sister and my daughter. Invisibility in the media makes it impossible for others to conjure up what we could possibly be doing with our lives, what we could possibly look like. And if we are doing something “unexpected” it is because there is something “exceptional” about us. This is not some strange multigenerational coincidence, this whitewashing of who we and others are is the history of our country.
The head of ABC, Paul Lee, recently came out as being very much in favor of diversifying its lineup. “America doesn’t look like that anymore,” he said, meaning it is no longer all-white.
America has never been all white.
Yes, indeed, at times I am an angry woman of color.
Ethnicity is just one facet of who we are, one piece of the complexity of being human. In The Amado Women I wanted to explore the challenging and emotionally fraught lives of one family. I hope to broaden the mental landscape of people who think that all of our stories are of immigration. I write to shred the cloak of invisibility thrust upon us. Or, as the French director Robert Bresson says, “To make visible that without you will never be seen.”
Tags: books, desiree zamorano, invisibility, race and ethnicity, writing
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Stuff like this is exactly why we need more diverse and honest media. I’m in the UK and the race issues are different here, but there’s still this concept of ‘Historical Britain’ being all-white – when there are references to people who aren’t as far back as we have texts.
When you create media you are holding a mirror up to the world. If your mirror reflects only straight white cis abled people, it’s warped.
I hate the whole “Oh, Britain was white until the Windrush docked” narrative, because it’s such nonsense. There have been non-white people here for so long – it’s not some new thing. It’s always interesting reading older material and coming across reminders of that. I was recently reading the autobiography of the British hangman Albert Pierrepoint, and at one point he mentions (while talking about his childhood in the 20s and just before) how some of the goats they raised were sold for meat to Indians living in nearby cities. Non-white people in the UK 100 years ago, gasp!
Also, the Romans were here for years. People always forget that loads of Roman soldiers weren’t white. At Hadrians wall, most of the archers they had there were African (I can’t remember the specific country, they all had different names and borders then).
(I like to imagine these poor men coming to scotland, and realising that this freezing rain is SUMMER)
omg yes the all white Britain thing. When people ask me where I’m from, ‘No, where are you from from?’ ‘No, like, where are you from ORIGINALLY?’ my latest answer is Kent. ‘Yes, all my people are from Kent. Since like before the early modern period. That’s right.’
Yes to everything, this was wonderful
Thank you so much for this. This is so true: “Invisibility in the media makes it impossible for others to conjure up what we could possibly be doing with our lives, what we could possibly look like. And if we are doing something ‘unexpected’ it is because there is something ‘exceptional’ about us.”
The sense of possibility doesn’t come solely from looking up to exceptions who have “made it,” it comes from not even questioning that something is impossible for people of a certain race to begin with.
Can I put forth Brooklyn Nine-Nine as a wonderful counter-example? One sitcom does not a problem fix, but I recommend it if you have not already seen it.
Love that show. Lately I’ve felt somewhat queasy about the whole genre of cop shows, but B99 is truly funny and caring, and I like to think of it as a story about how things ought to be.
Unrelatedly – in the Bresson quote at the end of the article, should it be “what” instead of “that”?
Orange is the New Black was the only reason my recent media consumption was not completely free of Latinas. Embarrassing.
But what about “Devious Maids”? Latinas galore! <<< sarcasm>>> Granted I’m judging the show without having seen it but it seems like the stereotypes speak for themselves.
yes, this interview with stephanie beatriz was both gutwrenching and heartwarming:
“I was a woman possessed, because this show was the thing I wanted more than anything in the world. And then I saw that Melissa Fumero had been cast as Amy Santiago on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and I felt my guts roll up into my throat and try to escape out of my mouth. Omgomgomgomg that’s it then. There’s no way in hell a major network is gonna cast two Latina actresses in such a tight ensemble show I AM SCREWED.“
YESSSSS I was just going to post that link. Obviously, one show in a world full of shows is just the tiniest drop in the bucket, but that interview captures something that many viewers might not consider: how impossibly narrow and unrealistic TV’s gestures toward “diversity” are, how pathetically small and whitewashed a fictional world we get to see, and how that unrealistically narrow representation narrows our worldview as well.
yes, i think b99 usually does a pretty good job with their diverse cast AND their well-crafted characters. the main character may be a white dude, but they’re still taking steps. two latinas in one cast is already (somewhat depressingly) amazing, but two latinas in one cast where the characters are relatively well-rounded, different from each other but not exact opposites, and not stereotypes? that’s really cool. captain holt’s character is an absolute gem. it would be really great if they took the same route with asian characters.
also, re: stephanie beatriz…how great is it that she is so bubbly and friendly and unlike her character?? it gives me whiplash every time.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is so good. I love all of them.
I think it’s important to remember that part of what makes Latinas like myself and the author “invisible” in the United States (and the reason we constantly get told we don’t “look” Latino) is often white or light-skinned privilege. We’re not Anglos, but in our countries of familial origin we would still be blancas and we are treated differently than our morena sisters, people who do “look” Latino, Afro-Latinos, etc. That said, I’m certainly excited to go and learn more about this novel.
Good point, Diana, but I’m a brown girl! 🙂
I’m buying your book now. I grew up in Alaska and now live on the US-Mexico border, neither of which places are very white. I am confused all the time about what America looks like in media since I’ve never been to that version of this country. And I have to say, that’s the version I like. The one where people are different from each other and interesting and bring different things to the table. Which is also why I love this website where I get a variety of voices. And that is the end of my lecture for today.
this was so well-articulated, and beautiful besides.
Désirée! This is a great essay. I am Mexican and Anglo American. I freckle, I have “non-brown” eyes, and speak Spanish about as well as a person who took French for four years in high school should (I joke that I’m fluent in menu-Spanish). I never really felt like I belonged in one group or another – either Mexicana or Anglo. I’m both. People want a box to place you in, a label to file you under. I’m glad it doesn’t come up in conversations often, but when it does I am treated like a translator for “the other side.” “How do you make Spanish rice?” “Is that why you have dark hair on your arms?”
It can be interesting to be an Undercover Mexican, though. Some people really let their racism loose when they think you’re just like them.
Undercover Latin people unite!
My dad is a Hispano (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanos) and my mom is from Germany. I have coloring and features similar to Rachel Weisz. It’s amazing the things people will say around me. It’s also amazing to me the shocked and betrayed expressions people will give me if I decide to bust out Spanish in front of them.
In this country, I am only liminally Hispanic/Latina, but everywhere else I go, I get tagged as some sort of Latin American. In Germany I’ve gotten Brazilian, Mexican, Argentine and Chilean, (and occasionally Italian) but never US-American, unless someone hears me speaking English. Go figure.
Marissa! Too brown to go undercover but LOVE the term! Looks like you have the beginnings of your own essay here. 🙂
Ok, everyone, three guesses as to who’s blushing right now and also going to write this essay. First two don’t count.
OMG, yes. My dad is Cuban and my mom is descended from Midwest US Germans. I do have brown eyes, but that’s about it. People are like, “Really, Cuban??” And I’m like, “Yeah, so’s Cameron Diaz, DEAL WITH IT.”
My sister once had a college acquaintance who refused to believe she was of Cuban descent until he saw her ass in a pair of tight jeans. Tell me that’s not racism and misogyny at work!
I never even considered changing my Spanish surname on getting married, because that and the things my abuela taught me to cook are the most visible connections with that part of my heritage. My husband’s family is Euro-mutt through and through, and if I had that name, I’d just be any other white girl.
YES to the surname thing! 1000x yes.
Just an addendum that I’m not putting down Anglo names – only that I love my name as it represents my personal dichotomy.
who refused to believe she was of Cuban descent until he saw her ass in a pair of tight jeans.
ewwww that person is so packed full of racist, sexist beliefs he doesn’t have room for anything else
I have also had weird comments about my figure and my hispanicity. They have almost universally been from white American men, and it is so, so gross.
I also refuse to use my husband’s surname, because it transforms me from a Spaniard/Latina into Black Irish.
Yes to all of this! My dad is second-generation Mexican-American, my mom is Norwegian/”European mutt”. My brother has the skin tone, my sister has skin tone and hair, and I look “vaguely ethnic” (as I like to call it) and easily pass as white, especially in the winter. When I went to college on the east coast I got more than a few people who asked if I was Jewish, which floored me, but like I said, “vaguely ethnic” with dark features in New York… I understand. As a bonus, I grew up in white middle-class Midwestern suburbia, don’t speak Spanish, and for most of my life have felt very disconnected from that side of my heritage. I almost feel like an Undercover Latina to myself.
“America doesn’t look like that anymore”
Ah yes, that mythical time when everyone in ‘Murica was white, the women did as they were told, and everybody owned ten guns.
This book sounds great, and you sound kick-ass. It always shocks me when people are so ballsy in their cluelessness that they’ll say something like “You don’t look [X]” right to a person’s face.
Yes, yes, yes. Thank you for sharing this. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for the book!
Really, thank you all for the encouraging words and comments. And I AM always looking for counter examples, so I will have to check out Brooklyn 99– “The Strain” also has a Latina doctor, which works for me, but I think is a result of Guillermo Del Toro being the writer/producer. 🙂
“This (meaning me) is what Mexican looks like.”
Thank you for this. It’s a phrase I will (unfortunately) have to deploy in the future. I’m looking forward to reading your book.
Very thoughtful and passionate essay, Desiree. You stimulated a lot of conversation, which I think is the best way to move issues forward.
Re changing last names: I’m Caucasian and for 20 years I went by my Chinese husband’s name. That got me a lot of double takes. What really bothered me, though, was people asking me if my kids were mine when I took them out.
People say the darndest things. SMDH
Just an addendum that I'm not putting down Anglo names – only that I love my name as it represents my personal dichotomy.
People say the darndest things. SMDH
Also, the Romans were here for years. People always forget that loads of Roman soldiers weren't white. At Hadrians wall, most of the archers they had there were African (I can't remember the specific country, they all had different names and borders then).
(I like to imagine these poor men coming to scotland, and realising that this freezing rain is SUMMER)
But what about "Devious Maids"? Latinas galore! <<< sarcasm>>> Granted I'm judging the show without having seen it but it seems like the stereotypes speak for themselves.
Very timely. I have a daughter with Autism and she recently told me how meaningful it was for her to discover the popular television show The Big Bang Theory since, on the show, one of the characters seems to have ASD. It really highlighted for me the importance for people of seeing themselves in popular culture. Popular culture legitimizes identity in this culture. We all need to be visible.
“Popular culture legitimizes identity” Wow. Precisely.
Yes to all of this! My dad is second-generation Mexican-American, my mom is Norwegian/"European mutt". My brother has the skin tone, my sister has skin tone and hair, and I look "vaguely ethnic" (as I like to call it) and easily pass as white, especially in the winter. When I went to college on the east coast I got more than a few people who asked if I was Jewish, which floored me, but like I said, "vaguely ethnic" with dark features in New York… I understand. As a bonus, I grew up in white middle-class Midwestern suburbia, don't speak Spanish, and for most of my life have felt very disconnected from that side of my heritage. I almost feel like an Undercover Latina to myself.
Thank you for this. I always worry that, in some way, I’m contributing to the phenomenon of the Invisible Latina, because I essentially “pass” as white. While my mother is first-generation Mexican-American, my dad was a Euro-mutt from southern US, and I inherited his coloring. I frequently get the “but you don’t look Mexican” comments, and I’m never sure if my explanation is enough to “convince” the person making the comment.
You don’t need to convince them of anything, gentle reminder 🙂
You don't need to convince them of anything, gentle reminder 🙂