I was sitting in class yesterday watching this educated, hardworking, ambitious and feisty petite Columbian beauty state passionately, "I'm tired of telling people that I'm Latina, I'm not a maid and I don't have many kids" as many in the class burst out laughing. She also had a lot to say about her few years in the good old US of A since her arrival from Columbia.
Let's backtrack to see where this Latina who was born and bred in Columbia, and now lives in America is coming from and how she justifiably got so hot under the collar trying to refute the negative stereotypes plaguing females in her community such as she stated includes them being ambitionless, baby factories working as maids. I guess the many Latina maids and Jennifer Lopez acting in the movie, Maid In Manhattan didn't help matters. Then when she tells them she's in the communications field, they are quick to ask if she works for Telemundo or Univision. She's said, "Why can't they think I work anywhere else?" Maybe they assume because she has a thick accent a major network won't hire her. However, in reality she does. Talk about people being narrow minded know it alls, who can't simply ask her a question and wait for her to answer. No, they can't do that. They have to dig into their box of Latina stereotypes and label her with the ones they deem appropriate and fill in the blanks in their minds and have the audacity to blurt it out.
She doesn't appreciate being put in a box based on her ethnicity, which some Americans are excellent are at doing. Hearing this passionate lady express her anger at some of her people's lack of ambition, which has a lot to do with the stereotype, I have no doubt she will do a lot to help her ethnic community as she said she already motivates Latinas she comes in contact with to be more ambitious and rise above their current circumstances to eradicate the negative stereotypes.
She's even already being accused of being overly ambitious by her fellow younger interns at work, who don't seem to understand what all her fuss about being driven to succeed is about. All I could think of telling her is, "Count your blessings and move on." This the good old US of A and people will always find some group or box to put you in to define you, so they can attempt to understand you. Hey, they ask people from the Caribbean if they came to US on boats and call them boat people, they ask if Africans live on trees and in huts with wild animals roaming freely around, they ask if people from the Middle East came to the US on camels, the list is endless. Although it is unfortunate, that's just what comes with living in a big old melting pot...
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