Hispanics: Why Do We Have Stereotypes?

At my understanding, the term Hispanic is wrongly used when referring to a race. Being Hispanic is, of course, to belong to an ethnic group, but it is much more than that. It is not about the color of your skin or your hair, but about culture, tradition, and manners. All started with the Spanish and Portuguese colonization of South and Central America. From Europe came the adventurous men, full of ambitions and courage. These attributes blended with the strength and energy of African slaves and the Native Americans, and this mixture led to the born of this new culture that we called Hispanic.

Wrong. And yet, as a Hispanic student, all of this are stereotypes that I have to deal with. At school, I am a minority within a minority. In college, so many students acted based upon how social media portray them. They very well fit into the categories of troublemakers, the loud ones, the uneducated ones, and the ones wearing clothes two sizes too small the typical Hispanic. But

The Audience of this paper are people who are engaged in learning about stereotypes and equal rights. I am trying to convince people that not only black people have stereotypes. That every race has a stereotype. Stereotypes and racism has been a problem for awhile though racism has not always existed. Its fear that has turned into hate and now is “Human nature¨ .

“We all use stereotypes, all the time, without knowing it. We have met the enemy of equality, and the enemy is us,” said Annie Murphy Paul who is a magazine journalist and book author that writes about the biological and social sciences. Stereotypes are a part of everyday life. Every person, young or old, has been labeled with a positive or negative stereotype. They are heard everyday and sometimes label certain groups of people. As Martina Navratilova said, “Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people.” A lot of time stereotypes don’t fit what they are labeling. They can have a bad effect on people’s emotions, the way people interact with each other and their social lives. A common stereotype of many U.S. citizens is that all Mexican immigrants are criminals and have come to the U.S. illegally; therefore, this stereotype has a bad affect on the way Mexicans and other people think and act.

The stereotype on Latinos el Bandido is based not only on ethnic but also behavioral, where they are deemed violent and antisocial, different nationality, as in not belonging to the North America and psychological where they are associated with alcoholic, prostitution and being unstable. With this stereotype, Hollywood is seen as a perfect example of the filmmaking and professionalism, in a way this demeans the Latinos effort in the film.

Imagine someone is lost, standing in a checkout line at a corner drugstore. They need directions to get back on the road. The couple in front of them is having a very engaging conversation, fluently, in Spanish. Most would not even give an effort to talk or ask where to go, but why not? Too often the assumption is made that people who speak Spanish are immigrants, and do not speak English well. Hispanics are, persons of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American descent, other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race. Too often the assumption is made that Spanish-speakers are unamerican, lazy, receive low income, or are uneducated in any way. Hispanics are also demonized in the media as people who are stealing American jobs. That is the belief that some Americans associate with Hispanics.

One day I was sitting on the couch, when all of the sudden i hear a man saying that all mexicans do is sell tacos. This comment is stereotypical because that is not true, most of my mexican family members work in various types of jobs. Actually, none of my mexican family members work in the business of selling tacos. My dad works in construction, my uncle is a lawyer, and my other uncle works in a restaurant. even though many of my friends have friends and family that work in the taco business, that doesn't mean that all mexicans have to work ass taco sellers.

Being Hispanic means two different things to me, and I find myself to be a pendulum swinging back and forth between them every once in a while. On the one hand, being Hispanic means that people will always assume things about me that may or may not be true. I’m part Mexican, so I must like spicy foods, right? My last name is Fuentes, so I must speak Spanish, right? I’m Hispanic, so I must be destined to be a poor minority for the rest of my life, right? To all of these questions, and more, my answer is a firm “no.” Yet, that’s part of what being Hispanic means for me: Constantly dealing with the ignorant people who can’t help but put people into neat little boxes based on skin color or their ethnicity. When I swing to that side of the topic,

stereotype because of ignorance. The lack of education about Latin culture and identity makes it so

Besides boys reacting differently than what I expected, appearances on what boys are supposed to look like affected my views when I was younger. Watching novellas with my mother I used to looking at latino men who were tall and ripped, as I got older I started to notice that not all Mexican males were not buff and over six foot, and not all women wear tight dresses showing off a lot of cleavage. To rephrase it I do not want to say that latinos are not attractive, it's just I feel uncomfortable when people say that latinos are only attractive on tv. I feel that the stereotype of novella actors have imprinted an idea what latinos are supposed to look like, I constantly here that latinos are super sexy and good in bed, as if we are only good

I am a Hispanic college student and naturally, that must mean I must have underwent various challenges and tribulations to get to where I am at. My mom must speak poor English and my dad must work in construction. I am a Latina so that must mean I am feisty and obnoxiously loud. I must be all of that because I am of Latino descent, right? Negative.

Being Hispanic to me is living the best of both worlds. I get to experience two perspectives in this world, being American and Mexican. The variety of flavors I eat daily at school; hamburgers, hotdogs,french fries and corn dogs.While at home and on the holidays I eat Tamales,Birria,Mole and Pozole. My ethnicity is questioned by others because of the color of my skin, asking me ''Are you Arabian?'' and 'Are you Puerto Rican?' are the ones most common asked. My skin complexion is what the worlds sees and judges upon not knowing the actual roots. As it says on Google, Hispanic means a Spanish-speaking person living in the United States.We get to have the privilege to admire ourselves being bilingual.There are a lot of Hispanics and other races in the United States that have been criticized and hated for no reason.My parents came to the United States to have a better education and future for their children. I believe that other families did they same since the United States is considered the 'free land' and the 'land of all dreams' since multiple people risk their lives trying to be apart of America.Americans says we steal their jobs when in reality the jobs look for us because everyone knows Hispanics work hard and get the job done.Many Hispanic use to go to Home Depots or gas stations and wait for a job to show up.

In the Preface of Major Problems in Mexican American History Zaragosa Vargas writes, "Nearly two thirds of Latinos in the United States are of Mexican descent, or Chicanos- a term of self definition that emerged during the 1960's and early 1970s civil rights movement. Chicanos reside mainly in the Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, and the Midwest. Their history begins in the precolonial Spanish era, and they share a rich mestizo cultural heritage of Spanish, Indian, and African origins. The Chicanos' past is underscored by conquest of the present-day American Southwest first by the Spanish and then by the United States following the Mexican American War" (xv). When one thinks of a Chicano one thinks of the Mayans and Aztecs, the conquests,

“That we’re uneducated.”. These two quotes by the author tells us how bad they think about us Hispanics. Also in “TYPICAL STEREOTYPES OF HISPANICS” by Chief Editor tells us how many of the Non-Hispanics in the US think towards us. “Another stereotype for Hispanics is that in Mexico, the country borders in the United States. This is considered as the biggest and top most drug producing country.

According to ABC News, “Some chimpanzees attack chimps that are of the same species, but not a part of their group. And some fish attack their own kind simply because they weren't hatched in the same lake” (Stossel and Kendal). It makes sense that an animal would use its instincts to stereotype in order to survive, but humans have no excuse. Stereotypes have become a major part of society’s culture and communities. Although stereotypes help us to perceive and distinguish different aspects of life, they have quickly turned into judgements, discrimination, and even intoleration. Humans acquire and master stereotypes through conversation,interactions, and most of all through media that surrounds society. Mass media has become an outlet for entertainment or information, but recently information humans get from media can be biased, distorted, inflated, or misguided, otherwise known as fake news. Fake news plays off of people’s opinions,