Needed: Tour Guides, Not Experts, To Explain Latinos

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

If I were a visitor from another planet (I ask friends and family to hold their sarcasm) and I were trying to understand U. S. Latinos by their online output, I’d probably come away with two conclusions: they’re very social, and they spend a lot of time discussing their identity. Or, seen in a positive light: they don’t seem to have a grasp of who they are, but they find each other easily.

I’m not saying that’s the reality, just that that’s the impression a non-Latino visitor might get, because that’s how we tend to behave. We’re always going on about what it means to be Latino in the U.S., and in the same breath admit that there’s no conclusive answer. And then we go at it again as if it were a new question. All the while talking up a storm, connecting and chatting and sharing and linking and stuff. Why do we do that? (I know…why am I doing it now? asking questions about asking the question.)

I think some of the blame has to fall on the tool, on the internet itself. Not that the intent of the internet developers was to eventually drive U.S. Latinos batty with introspection. No, but the web has given us all an amplified voice and we all know what happens when you hand out megaphones in a room full of Latinos… (This would be the perfect place in the body of a post to insert official statistics about Latino online behavior or Census data, but I’m not partial to overkill, so I won’t; we all know those numbers.)

See, we can talk this way about each other; we can air our own idiosyncrasies among ourselves – which is what we’re doing every day on the Internets.  The problem is that the folks listening-in on our conversation, trying to get a handle on our nuance, haven’t a clue about what we’re saying. When that happens they choose a spokes person, or two, who they trust will speak for the rest of us. And so you end up with the “experts” on all things Latino – politics, lifestyle, market, advertising, etc… – whose faces and by lines we see and read repeatedly. Same faces, same bylines, same ideas, same ole-same ole. And in order to remain relevant those same-ole Latino spokespersons need to adapt to their audience. So they become either tired, trite or gimmicky.

Meanwhile the Latino conversation is vigorous, constant and lively.

So, here’s my dos pesos worth of an idea: we don’t need experts or translators; what’re needed are observers and tour guides. If I were a visitor from another planet I’d need someone who could give me a tour of the vast and varied U.S. Latino culture, and not short-change me with a simple explanation. And I’d like for the guide to be honest and tell me that all he/she could offer is, at best, their own limited observation. How refreshing, no?

I don’t speak for the entire Latino culture, but, hear the sound on the internet? That’s the sound of lively Latino navel gazing – keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times.

[Photo by Campanero Rumbero]