{"id":13315,"date":"2023-08-08T14:49:20","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T14:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13315"},"modified":"2023-08-08T14:49:20","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T14:49:20","slug":"americas-dirt-y-secret-latinos-are-disappearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13315","title":{"rendered":"America’s ‘dirt-y’ secret: Latinos are disappearing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Ruben Navarrette Jr. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

You do this job long enough, and \neventually you see it all. Like this: A bunch of Latino writers are \nupset they\u2019re not being treated like \u201cDirt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, I speak about what the Latino literati has been referring to cryptically \u2014 and often angrily \u2014 as \u201cthe book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n book is \u201cAmerican Dirt,\u201d and it\u2019s a novel, which is to say that the \nadmittedly riveting story it tells \u2014 about a Mexican woman and her son \nwho leave their comfortable life in Acapulco and head for the \nU.S.-Mexico border as they flee drug cartels \u2014 never happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How fitting, then, that this make-believe story would be written by a make-believe Mexican.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New\n York City-based Jeanine Cummins was born in Spain, but only because her\n Navy father was stationed there. She has lived her entire life in the \nUnited States, where she has identified as \u201cwhite\u201d and studied English \nin college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cummins does have a\n Puerto Rican grandmother. But she doesn\u2019t appear to have spent much \ntime over the years identifying as Puerto Rican. Instead, she seems to \nhave connected with her Irish heritage, writing two novels about Irish \nhistory. She also wrote a memoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was her fourth book \u2014 which she says took her seven years to research and write \u2014 that turned her into one of the most envied, and despised, authors in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\n day, you\u2019re appearing on national television next to Oprah Winfrey, who\n is gushing praise for your book. The next, you\u2019re being blasted as an \nopportunistic culture appropriator, and your publicity tour is being \ncanceled amid concerns about your safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\n day, you\u2019re writing prose that traffics in racial stereotypes and shows\n a revealing obsession with whether your characters have brown skin or \nblue eyes. The next, you\u2019re the supposed victim of an unfair censorship \nand intimidation campaign from the \u201ccancel\u201d culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\n day, you\u2019re trying to get mileage from the fact your husband was an \nundocumented immigrant (oops, from Ireland), the next you\u2019re admitting \nthat maybe it would have been better if this story had been told by an \nactual Latino\/a.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who else could\n be more deserving of a $1 million book deal from a publishing industry \nrun by arrogant white liberals, not to mention a movie deal from \nHollywood which is also run by \u2014 wait for it \u2014 arrogant white liberals?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\n the way, Cummins also appears to be an arrogant white liberal who makes\n no apologies for cashing in on this culture grab. Instead, she crassly \nhosted a book party where the centerpieces were mockups of walls and \nbarbed wire and gets a manicure with the same theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s just the latest chapter in the vanishing of America\u2019s Latino community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n 57 million Latinos who represent America\u2019s largest minority are cursed \nwith invisibility. We\u2019re everywhere, and we\u2019re nowhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I blame the worlds of media and entertainment\u2014 which are, need I point out, run by more arrogant white liberals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\n Sunday morning political shows, African American commentators are \nroutinely asked by white hosts about the condition of Latinos in \nAmerica. The press corps anointed a Spanish-speaking Irishman from El \nPaso to be the official Latino candidate of the 2020 election; in March,\n when Robert Francis \u201cBeto\u201d O\u2019Rourke launched his doomed presidential \nbid, a reporter for The Associated Press mistakenly wrote that O\u2019Rourke \naddressed supporters \u201cin his native Spanish.\u201d The AP later corrected the\n error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollywood\n thought nothing of casting Ben Affleck to play a Latino CIA agent in \nthe film \u201cArgo.\u201d Justin Bieber sings love songs in Spanish. Chef Rick \nBayless specializes in Mexican cuisine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m\n a Mexican American who audaciously wrote a memoir in my 20s about being\n a Harvard \u201cChicano.\u201d Then the government told me I was \u201cHispanic.\u201d And \nthen activists informed me that I was \u201cLatino.\u201d Today, the media tells \nme I\u2019m \u201cLatinx.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that \nfearmongering over immigration can get you elected president, and \nwriting fairy tales about immigrants can make you rich, America has \nstolen the soul of a tribe that is expected to make up a quarter of the \npopulation by 2040.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why cope with change, when you can erase it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\n Latinos are also to blame. We put up with this garbage. In fact, we \nbless it as if we\u2019re flattered that white people want to sing our songs,\n cook our dishes, or even run for president in our name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On second thought, our soul wasn\u2019t stolen. We gave it away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruben Navarrette is a syndicated columnist with The Washington Post Writers Group. <\/em>Follow Ruben <\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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