Why don’t you look or act ‘Latino’?
Imagine having to wear a shirt for the rest of your life that labels you as someone you’re not
Now, imagine always having to check a box and identify yourself with people who are completely different from you. You never say your name or your origin, yet others readily assume who you are and where you are from.
This is what nearly 57 million Latinos in the United States have to live with, and if trends continue, by 2050, 106 million of them will have to live while wearing this shirt wherever they go.
I have never identified as a “Latino” until I came to the United States. Growing up in Venezuela and moving directly to Princeton, I have never in my life used, or even considered using, the term “Latino.” I was technically Latino whenever I filled out a box describing my race for a college application, because that is how the United States functions. We all knew we were technically Latino and brothers and sisters in the same continent, but it was more of a term that had been placed in our heads due to globalization, not because we decided to use it. We were all brothers and sisters in the South American continent, but we were not the same. At the end of the day, I was Venezuelan first, and then I was Latino…
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