A HUMAN BEING IS NOT ILLEGAL!

I still remember the first time I realized I was Mexican. I was about 13 years old and I was at a local clothing boutique with my mom. We were walking around the store looking at clothes, when she decided to pick some things out for me. She picked up a shirt, if you could call it that, which was actually more along the lines of a halter top/belly shirt that revealed half of your stomach and was striped. The halter part didn't even tie like a normal halter top, but instead the strings had been replaced by a thin silver circular necklace that you closed at the back to keep the top from falling off of you. My mom just kept looking at me talking about how cute I would look in this, and that I needed to get it, as I tried to explain to her that if I wore that to school I would most likely get suspended for breaking the dress code.

Fast forward to many years later in which I was watching an episode of Tyra's talk show and she had people from different races on who were answering questions that the audience had about their specific cultures. One woman in the audience asked the Latina representative on stage this question: "Why do Latina's wear such tight clothing?" To which the woman responded jokingly "Do we?" As she looked down at her very tight fitting dress.

Which makes me think that people who aren't part of the Latino community, but have either been around Latino culture or traveled to a variety of countries in Latin America might have noticed or wondered the same question. While I definitely don't want to stereotype the entire community, keep in mind that every Latino country is different and some are much more conservative than others, I do feel I can speak on behalf of my own Mexican/European upbringing. In Mexican culture it is very important as a woman to be sexy. As you start to go through puberty and start to get womanly curves, it's important to show them off and to really celebrate the fact that you are becoming this powerful, amazing woman. I guess I have a little bit of a different situation, because I grew up with both the latino and the non-latino (meaning white) influence. The way you are encouraged to dress as a Mexican woman is definitely the polar opposite of what my White European background was telling me. Dressing in tight clothing amongst that culture just like in our White American culture seems to designate you with the label of "slut". As well as this idea that it's somehow degrading to you as a woman if you wear clothing that really shows off your body.

I think this is a direct clash of cultures, because the reason women in Latino society are encouraged or choose to dress a certain way is actually to celebrate ourselves and our bodies as women. However, I found that dressing that way here actually led more men to think it was okay to sexually harass me, whereas in latino society this is not the case. Obviously, there is harassment and violence against women everywhere, it's just that there is more respect towards women and women are much more valued and celebrated in Latino society than they are in say White American society. I saw that very much growing up as a little girl who was between both worlds. It made me always want to choose my Mexican side more, because I felt that It gave me a lot more opportunity to embrace my sexuality and to be proud of it, than my European heritage was giving me.

It makes it hard to decide where you should fall, because you want to embrace your background, but you're living in a society that isn't really conducive to that. It almost makes you feel like you are an outsider in your home. I imagine this is what my Mexican relatives must've felt. They never really came to this country, it kind of came to them. They were cattle ranchers who owned a bunch of land that used to be Mexico, but after the Mexican-American war along with the Treaty of Guadalupe, my Mexican relatives found themselves and their land suddenly a part of American society. They didn't have any say in this, and while the US let them stay there, at least temporarily, I think it became so hostile that they eventually ended up leaving. The area that they used to live in which was Mexico, is now known as Tuscon, Arizona.

Arizona has some of the most repressive immigration laws in the country, so much so that this state along with a few others have made it so hostile to the Latino community that it's basically become illegal to even look Latino. I think if you look back at the history of my family it's clear that this started a very long time ago. All of the Mexican children who were now American, because their family's land was taken away, were then forced to go to American schools where they were beaten if they spoke spanish, all in an attempt to make them "white". This same thing happened to the Native American children of this country. It's something that isn't talked about in our history books, and I genuinely believe that a lot of people seem to think that all this land that was part of Mexico, was always part of America, and was always owned by the white community.

I'm not sure how I jumped from being a sexy latina to having my family's land stolen, but for some reason it seems that it all needed to fit into the same blog. I think the overall lesson is that people need to be educated about Latino history in this country and Latino culture in general. I think this will lead to more respect and understanding amongst Latinos and non-latinos. The Latino community tends to be very welcoming and accepting towards everyone, and think of how awesome this country would be if all women were celebrated and valued, and wore club type clothing all the time! I think there's definitely a lot of positives that will come out of integrating these two cultures, so let's keep hatred, and racial discrimination out!