We’re diving deep into the inequities between Latin Americans and colonial patriarchy during Hispanic Heritage Month.
In my last post, Hispanic Heritage Month Collabs 2024, I ended the consumer-driven article by asking the following questions:
- What about corporate America appropriating our cultural designs and financially benefiting from it?
- Does this one month of celebration feel like enough recognition to all who identify as Latin/o/a/e/x and Hispanic? For everything our cultures have contributed to in society?
I not only ate my proverbial taco, I demolished the entire plate … that is to say, I went way further than expected.
Before we get to the carne asada (meat) of the topic, we need to take it back. Waaaaay back. So grab your gold hoop earrings and red lipstick and hop into my Impala. We’re about to cruise a full circle here.
Proclaiming Hispanic Heritage Month
In 1968, during the height of the civil rights movement, Congressman George E. Brown, representative for some of the most highly populated Hispanic communities in California, called for recognition, appreciation, and celebration for the “Hispanic” contributing cultures in America.
In agreement, President Lyndon B. Johnson, immediately granted National Hispanic Heritage Week.
For the next 20 years, each President annually proclaimed a week in September to honor Hispanic Americans.
In 1987, President Regan received a similar bill from California Congressman Esteban E. Torres to extend the observance for an entire month to include September 15th — September 21st, honoring the Latin countries that declared their independence between those dates.
Inclusion and Representation
Here we are over 55 years later adjusting to the times with updated terms Latin/Latino/Latina/Latine/Latinx American to include the Latinos who don’t speak Spanish and to include those who don’t identify with the Spanish-heavy gender nouns.
Not only that, within those 55 years, the Latinx community has expanded, welcoming biracial cultures like Asian and Afro-Latinos.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the many shades of brown that Latinx represents … aaaaand if we’re being honest here, we all know there needs to be more inclusion of our gente (people) with more melanin in their skin and stronger ethnic features.
The lack of representation here, especially from corporate America ads, has been an intercultural problem for a long time.
So, let’s call it what it is. The Latinx population with the lighter skin, you know, those of us with the Spanish ancestry, are often chosen to represent the entire culture. When Latins are chosen for ads, we’re the ones plastered all over corporate America.
We are white presenting. We blend in with Americans. Are we more marketable to the rest of America? Garnering more likes, views, and revenue for the colonial patriarchy? Que asco! (Kind of makes me sick to my stomach).
We need to stand against this together, with the rest of our fellow Latinx community.
How grateful should the Latinx community be for the additional exposure?
People all over the United States celebrate with their families and schools, in their jobs and communities, as Latin-owned businesses, and even in corporate America. However, we need to take a closer look at Latin Heritage Month celebrations at, yes, the corporate America level.
As previously mentioned, corporate America has dictated “who” represents the Hispanic/Latin heritage. If we continue to dive in just a little deeper, how and why are they also benefiting from Latin Heritage Month?
Pos, dejame decirte (well, let me tell you). The companies I highlighted in my last article, Target, Disney, Walmart, Kohls, and Amazon, are the same companies profiting from our talents, creations, and culture overall. And, they are all owned by the colonial patriarchs of our society.
Corporate America does this by creating their own versions of Latinx merchandise by, collaborating with Latin artists to create and carry a special item with their designs, and creating special store displays and marketing campaigns to increase awareness and business for Latinx brands.
I don’t know about you, but this is feeling a bit like white saviorism.
Latinx artists and small businesses “get the opportunity” to work with big brands while a certain percentage of their sales, called slotting fees, slotting allowance, or shelving fees, goes to the top brand business for carrying it.
Then they pay even more to be shelved on convenient levels and special displays. When in reality, “Up to 90% of new products fail”. All those fees can be a heavy burden on any small business.
Yet the question, “Is this worth it?”, is a very personal decision for Latinx business owners. How else are we going to grow our businesses if we don’t lean on big brands to help market us? If you owned a Latinx company, what would you do? Is this just the price of doing business?
As we learned in American Economics 101, TANSTAAFL, There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
So, are we selling out if we shake hands with the big brand stores? The convenience and prices of corporate America intentionally make it very hard for Latin consumers to choose between big brand items and Latinx small businesses.
Our hands are being forced into a decision between integrity and profit.
“Faustian bargain: a pact whereby a person trades something of supreme moral or spiritual importance, such as personal values or the soul, for some worldly or material benefit, such as knowledge, power, or riches.”
Britannica
Faustian bargain a.k.a. deal with the devil.
Don’t let this confuse you though. Just because the integrity and loyalty of our culture is tested, we still shouldn’t hate on our community for making a decision we wouldn’t make.
Think about it this way, if you aren’t the one agreeing to take what many see as an opportunity, there is always someone who will, and that person may very well be the someone you end up going to, to advance your career.
Someone has to make that hard decision. It’s not our place to judge. We still need to support our fellow Latinx community because we are up against an antiquated societal juggernaut of a system.
Designating a space for cultural appreciation
I gotta get a read of the room here … how are we feeling about being celebrated for one month???
Similar to Black History Month, many people in BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities, kind of feel like it’s a slap in the face. “Yeeesss, greaaate, thank youuuu. One whole month to celebrate my heritage, woooo … Truly honored”.
Yet, if we look at how other cultures are celebrated throughout the year, it’s either one day (i.e. St. Patrick’s Day, Juneteenth), one week (i.e. National Diversity Week), or one month (i.e. Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month) of celebration.
Still, these dedicated periods for celebration have been criticized for minimizing cultural impacts in American society to a day, week, or month.
Behind these criticisms are not ungrateful citizens. What you’re hearing is a cry for equal recognition all year. Recognition in a manner that doesn’t exploit our heritage.
Who then, decides if we are being exploited? That can be very difficult to discern. To begin with, lived experiences, ideals and values, and the level of intellectual competence we have, all play a major factor in our level of awareness to notice how we treat Americans with different heritages.
Thankfully, this is where Dr. Mitch Hammer comes in with his testing methods and training in Intellectual Competence.
Intellectual Competence
Dr. Hammer, founder of the Intercultural Development Inventory (an assessment tool that measures how individuals experience cultural differences) is on a mission to
“… facilitate personal growth and insight, as well as collective change, in ways that improve people’s intercultural capacity and their efforts at bridging cultural differences.“
One of the key concepts in this paradigm is “minimization”.
“Minimization highlights the tendency to focus on commonalities across cultures that can mask important cultural differences in values, perceptions and behaviors.”
The Impact of Minimization by Amy Narishkin, PhD
I’m going to drop this little gem of a model right here for you called, Developmental Stages of Intercultural Competence, to help explain the steps in which a society can equally and successfully incorporate other cultural influences into its working ecosystem.
“Intercultural competence is the capability to accurately understand and adapt behavior to cultural difference and commonality.” Hammer says. Competence is measured in five developmental stages:
Denial (misses differences),
Polarization (judges differences),
Minimization (de-emphasize differences),
Acceptance (deeply comprehends differences), or
Adaptation (bridges across differences).”
Dr. Hammer finds that our society is operating at a 65% rate at the “Minimization” stage. Meaning, that 65% value similarities with different cultures over appreciating the power of their differences, hindering the ability to understand ideals that are contradictory to their core beliefs.
And that, in and of itself, is half the battle.
Ultimately different cultures desire to be equally recognized for their contributions to society instead of admonished for their differences.
“If the leaders of our society put fostering interpersonal relationships as a priority, maybe then we could scratch the surface of appreciating diversity without the need for special days to celebrate differences.“
How do you celebrate Latin Heritage Month?
So, what do you do when the decision lies on you? As a consumer, do you buy only from Latin-owned brands during Latin Heritage Month? Do you purchase from Latinx-owned brands when you have the ability? Do you even have time to bother yourself and your life with this?
While I purchase Latin-owned products when I can, my decision is very much based on convenience and cost. Ideally, I’d love to have my favorite go-to items be from Latin-owned businesses. I look forward to the day when I can finally choose the subscribe option while I’m checking out, instead of a one-time purchase.
Just imagine a world where differences were seen as the norm and intelligently utilized to build a stronger society. A society where the majority of Americans can celebrate their heritage and yours on any day without inadvertently feeling superior to others.