Board Thread:False Info and Speculative Discussion/@comment-25184427-20140722165407/@comment-14168656-20140728203539

LSWatcher wrote: Since tv shows are exclusively made for domestic exhibition, when they export is just a bonus, I always think its funny when Americans talk about "Latinos" as if it were a race. More, Latino means Hispanic. More, Latino means Mexican. Happily, I accept the fact that when they talk about Latino, they aren't talking about Latino as whole but Mexicans. They can't say "Mexican" due to obvious reasons. So they stick to Latino.

Also, Latino must be brown. If you are not multiracial you are denied of your Iberian inheritage. Even when Argentina, South Brazil (I live here :] ) and Uruguay have more than 85% non multiracial people each. And you must speak Spanish, even if your country doesn't speak Spanish and you can speak English, you must say something in Spanish, frequently.

And, don't forget the fiestas. And Skull motifs.

Please, note that I am not bashing you, dear Americans, just pointing how different your view about us is of the reality. Don't take me wrong. It just... sound caricaturesque, you know, as if the showmakers are trying to say "hey, I am progressive, I have Mexicans! And as proof, they even act as caricatures." that, at least for outsiders, seems to make them even more eerie and distant of your societ.

Also, I've been a few times in U.S. (Namely: Vegas, NY, Georgia, California...) and found some people of Mexican ancestry. Aside from some descendants that couldn't speak Spanish anyway, they weren't nothing like in American TV. And they didn't tried to speak Spanish, even after I said I was Latino (being Latino with European ancestry only but still Latino), a good thing since I definitively can't speak Spanish. The accent was funny, though. "Very low" as "Bery loo", which sounds similar to the Portuguese word for Beryl.

Anyway, shall we speak about gays again?

I'm from Puerto Rico and I get it all the time. It's not just Brazilian's that get marginalized by the perception of Latinos here in the states. BUT the charactichure depends on what part of the US that you're in. In the Midwest, West Coast and Southwest it's a Mexican characticure, but if you were in South Florida there is a decent Brazilian population, and if you were to et stereotyped it would be a Cuban archetype, not (Mexican at all). When I first came to the US I lived in New York. The East Coast actually has a lot of Puerto Ricans and I never even met a Mexican until I moved to the Chicago area.

BTW Eu posso falar um pouco Português (obviously very poorly :-) but it's a beutiful language).