This man is an idiot!
30 July 2010
Brian Sandoval — a Republican candidate for Governor of Nevada who bills himself as the first “hispanic” to run for that office — was asked about the Arizona “show us your papers” by Univisíon’s Adriana Aravelo. His response, which the Spanish-language U.S. network did not broadcast, but confirms as true, was that he wasn’t worried about his children being potentially harassed.
He answered, with a note of pride in his voice, “my children don’t look Hispanic.”
What’s “hispanic?” and “what does a ‘hispanic’ look like?”. And what was Mr. Sandoval thinking? Was he thinking? Does he think?
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The Mex Files 
AAAAAAAAAAARGHHH!
i mean, where do you start with this?
AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGHHHH!!
That statement does sound wrong, and it sounds like he didnt put much thought in to it. I is also very contradictive to “bill” yourself” the first hispanic to run for that office”.
But, what I find worst than that idiotic statement is that networks like Univision, Televisa, and others have nothing but light skinned, blonde hair ,blue eyed actors on their “telenovelas”. Well, so why do these networks use mostly caucasian looking “hispanics “to show the national news, to act in their telenovelas? Shouldn’t they have “hispanic” looking actors in major roles other than, maids,cooks or laborers? I mean, shit man there are more and more meztizo “hispanic” looking actors in American movies and television now, than there were just a few years ago. I feel that these networks are really not representing our Latino community here in the USA or in Mexico as they should. And also I just wanted to make a point that it just seems hipocritical to me if Univision is going to want to grill this Republican candidate for saying something idiotic that may be extrapolated as being a racist remark. Now, I want to make it clear that I support the Left, and I don’t like most right wingers, or their ideas.But, this network, Univision, doesnt even cast enough Mestizo looking actors, or reporters to really identify with most Mexicans or Central Americans. In fact the only way they identify with us is by the language that we speak. So to me, it is racist when they have Mexican telenovelas with white Mexican actors playing roles as land owners or bosses and have Mestizos or Indios as their inferior employess-slaves, when the majority of Mexicans (60%) are brown with dark colored hair.
By the way, here is my reference material on the figure that I threw out there.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mx.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanic
JGGC’s comment has long been a sticking point with me. It isn’t just on Univision or other “Latin” television networks… the “blonding” of the Hispanic image is everywhere, including the Mexican, Central and South American governments’ propaganda… unless of course the powers that be are touting their “benevolence” towards the masses. The other day I made a comment on a posting re. the defeatist attitude of La Raza. It may have sounded too idealistic to incite much response but I firmly believe its true… none of this will change unless we raise the volume of our voice and the assertiveness of our tone – a good place to begin would be with a demand that our image be authentically portrayed.
I agree. Part of the reason why we are misrepresented ,I think, is because most of the Mexican elite are descendants from Spain or other foreign countries that came to Mexico at one point and got rich by either starting a business or married in to an already welthy Mexican family.
Oh and this “defeatist” attitude that you mentioned, I think comes from decades of la Raza’s voice not being heard at election time every six years. That defeatist attitude comes from years of neglect from our own government.I think that a lot of people have giving up on hope of a positive change in Mexico. Thats probably why there are so many of us in the United States huh?
Of course, Univisíon is a U.S. network, but, having learned a lot of my Spanish from watching Televisa telenovelas. I notice that the heroines are more and more likely to be morenas, and at least the good guys are more “standard issue” Mexicans (if there’s a standard issue hunky hero.
There are a couple of blond TV news anchor babes, but that may be an imitation of U.S. news models.
Two things to remember — when Ernesto Alonzo invented the form, he was thinking of a Mexico City equivalent to the serial novels of Honore de Balzac, who wrote about the trials and tribulations of the Parisian upper crust of the 19th century. At the time, much of the Mexico City upper crust were the heirs to the European immigration of the 1930s-40s, who’d arrived with wazoos of cash in hand and were successful. Secondly, it was mostly the children of well-off parents who could afford to take up theater as a career.
And besides, the stories are over-the-top. My fave right now is La Loba — yeah, there’s more red-heads and blondes than real life, but it’s not exactly meant to be sociology. It also has the best villianess on Mexican TV: Doña Prudencia with not just a big gray streak, but mauve highlights. She looks like she took hair-care tips from the Bride of Frankenstein — which is probably the point.
Scary and weird. We have a journalist here in San Diego who is a Latino – and horribly right wing. Anyway, he did come out against 1070 and it was a shocker, so he sort of redeemed himself. And, he has been honest about the conditions here, especially regarding the safety of Mexican journalists in Mexico.
We are hoping for a total conversion.
Wow…I did’nt know the part about Ernesto Alonso….but, when you said that he invented the “form”, do you mean like, the way that every Mexican soap opera is? Cause it seems like the they all follow the same template don’t they? I never whatched any of them in full, but it seems that everytime that I caught a glimpse at any it would be the usual, A rich light complexion family that lives in a ranch, hot babes all around, dudes bang their mistresses….etc…etc. Oh, and also Rich, surely there are a lot of meztizos that have taken acting classes, but dont get a second look from the people that actually hire actors.
Ask a few mexicans why the still use the phrase “indio” or “india” when as a deragatory word.
Even the “inditos” like the “jueras”, it’s one of those WTF cultural quirks of mexico.
Just like the use of the word “negro” and “gorda” .
Yeah, I know what you mean….I heard grown ladies tell their daughters not to get married to “un indio feo”, but lol…She had a brown complexion to her and she painted her hair blonde… Some Mexicans I guess are ashamed of themselves. We have always been brought up in my family to love our culture, and to never be ashamed of who our ancestors are.
I’ve written on Ernesto Alonso before, and a little on the history of the telenovela in my Gods, Gauchupines and Gringos.
You’re right, that there are fine, competent mestizo actors — not to mention indigenous and Afro-Mexican (and Mexicans of Asian descent) and probably are under-represented in telenovelas. I’ve speculated that the unbearable whiteness of being in telenovelas might be related to the history of theater in Mexico, or it might be a conscious decision on Televisa’s part to goose up their already huge foreign sales (Televisa’s telenovelas earn more in foreign sales than the BBC does for all its foreign programming), but it’s not one of those things that I have any control over, or that I’ve seen as a burning issue in Mexico.
There is a move to create more space on the airwaves for indigenous television, which might mean some interesting and different heroes and heroines for telenovelas.
But, then again… I spend more time in front of the computer than is healthy now… have some mercy… I can’t veg out in front of the TV all day, too 🙂
Ah… the unhealthy length of time we spend hanging out on the computer… Better this than watching telenovelas. So hang in there Richard. I have watched only one in my whole 35 years in Mexico – “El Candidato” – whoa-oa-oa! That was prime time TV at its best!
JGCC has mentioned that the defeatist attitude comes from lack of attention at election time. In Yucatan where I live, the masses were heard loud and clear… too bad the only alternative to the arrogant PAN is the autocratic PRI. Alex Lora has it right… He begins each public statement with “¡Buenas Noches Raza!” If we hear it often enough we might begine to believe… All movements that instigate change hinge on a moment. So let’s bring it on…. ¡Buenas Noches Raza!
I can remember my Abuelito Flavio complaining every election about the PRI. He would say “ay vienen los chingazos”….or , here comes trouble. He supported anyone but El PRI after the seventies. He would say things like whats the point in holding elections anyway if theyre going to win everytime.
By the way, even though they have their faults, we still have the PRD as a choice. I hope they can bring a strong candidate to agains Nieto or anyone that the PAN brings.