Want to Dress Up Like a Hot Latino/a…Whatever?

A couple of weekends ago I walked through a retail store with my 90 year old dad in tow. We had gone to find something or other and ended up at the generic grocery-and-everything-else-you-need place.Dad was his usual amiable self, quiet, observing.
Down the road after we left the store Dad asked, ¿Cuando es Halloween?

“Un par de semanas,” I said. In a couple of weeks.
“Ahh,” he nodded. “¿Y los disfraces cuestan veinticinco dolares?”
He had noticed that children’s costumes were $25 a piece and was astounded.
“¡Por un ratito que los usan!” For the little while they wear them.

It used to be that most kids put together their Halloween costumes with what there was at hand. I remember friends inventing what they were; these days they’d call it a costume mashup: pirate ballplayer, gypsy witch.

Those kids with those costumes are rare in these days of retail seduction and convenience.

Mostly, the little ones dress up in ready made princess or favorite character costumes for days before Halloween. That, plus the candy sales and all the rest accounts for the $2billion national revenue estimate for the holiday.

The free market can be a scary thing. A problem, though, is that when a costume is made for you by a wholesaler and you purchase it through a retailer, someone else is making the imagination decisions for you.

For instance, if you wanted to dress up as a Latin bombshell or Bandit (humor me, this is headed somewhere), these are your retail options:

Seriously. I found this out of curiosity doing what everyone does out of curiosity, I Goggled it.

You can find the page HERE.

This is the Halloween retail rendition of Latino. I’m not complaining, like I said, I understand the holiday and its spirit. And even if I were to be insulted by these superficial and stereotypical renditions, I’d have to stand in line with Nuns, Star Wars Characters and French Maids to voice my complaint. So I won’t.

I’ll just stand with Dad, shake my head and say ¡Treinta dolares! ¿Para eso?