Thread: One month a year? That's weak

One month a year? That's weak
nydailynews.com
Dolores Prida
Wednesday, September 14th 2011, 9:43 AM

If it's mid-September it must be Hispanic Heritage Month ... again.

Most everyone always welcomes a fiesta, but for many Latinos this month-long, catch-all celebration that starts tomorrow is beginning to smell of stale beer and wilted nachos. And when this separate and unequal yearly recognition of our existence spills over to other areas of our civic life, we have to admit that the leftover guacamole has turned terminally brown and it's time to leave.

Hispanic Heritage Month like Black History and other minority months, is a double-edged sword. On one edge, because most of the time Latinos feel voiceless and invisible and disrespected, we tend to accept any crumbs thrown our way, even if such crumbs are glittering affairs at the White House or four weeks of Latino-themed programming in PBS.

On the other edge, it conveys the dangerous notion that the history and legacy of a particular group of people happens in a vacuum, disconnected from everything else. The presence and impact of any ethnic group is an integral part of America's history. In a nation of immigrants, it should be recognized and respected every month of the year.

Worst of all, by embracing this compartmentalization we help provide an easy way out for monolithic institutions that wield excessive power in this society. The media top this list.

In case you missed them, here are two instances of media apartheid: Two weeks ago, at the Republican presidential debate hosted by MSNBC and Politico, we were treated to the strange spectacle of the moderators, Brian Williams and John Harris, trotting out Telemundo's José Diaz-Balart to ask candidates questions about immigration.

He did this standing up rather awkwardly in front of the eight candidates who, to no one's surprise, spouted the usual clichés about "securing the border" (although Michele Bachmann explained it all for us when she said that while visiting the Cuban American Bay of Pigs Museum in Little Havana, she learned that "not all Latinos are in favor of illegal immigration." ¡Ay Dios mio!)

The visual impact of DÃ*az-Balart not being offered a seat at the table was not lost on many viewers, Latinos and non-Latinos alike. Writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, Erika Fry echoed a complain I've discussed often in this column: "Though it might not have been what MSNBC and Politico were going for, the effect of Diaz-Balart's cameo was to suggest immigration as a Latino-only issue, and to help define Latinos as a single-minded voting bloc caring only about that one issue."

Comedian Jon Stewart was his usual sarcastic self, complaining that, given Diaz-Balart's perfect English diction, "If we're going to do this right, can we at least have a guy with an accent?"

Influential digital publications such as the Huffington Post are creating separate and definitely unequal spaces for Latino bloggers, some of whose works could use some thorough editing or not be included at all.

By not being part of the whole, these separate spaces are visited only by those already interested in what we have to say.

Maybe it's time to say "We don't do months" and fight for a seat at the table year-round. But some are too cobardes to even mention it. After all, September is also, no kidding, Chicken Month!

Pass the guacamole.

doloresprida@aol.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2011/ ... z1Xx3bMT9X

If it's mid-September it must be Hispanic Heritage Month ... again.

Why do these people need an entire month to celebrate their heritage when most of them are not bashful about celebrating it everyday? Another month for our government to tell these people how wonderful they are, as if they needed any more encouragement.

Its ashame a whole month.Most neritages get one day.I LIKE CHICKEN