SerLatino.com

There are number of marketing and advertising books that suggest that societies can be understood and analyzed by its advertising and its media, but when it comes to the US Hispanic market though, I particularly don’t agree with Madison Ave. and I would like to encourage you to put this thought on hold for a second.

Their relationship is undeniable, but whether you believe that media reflects society or society reflects media, we must be very careful when applying these credos to the US Hispanic market. First of all, how can US Hispanic media reflect the correct image of such a diverse audience with only a handful of properties? And secondly, how can we mirror such clutter? We definitely cannot rely on the media to portray an accurate representation of who we are and how we feel.

From a US Hispanic media perspective, we are constantly bombarded with little chunks of information, tiny bits of culture and a lot of stereotypes contained in messages that try to be as inclusive and diverse as possible. And this inclusiveness dilutes the so sought cultural relevancy, not to blame poor research, creative laziness and the perpetual quest for efficiency. There are simply not enough genuine references on the media for us to create a collective identity. We must also take into account that we consume a considerable amount of non-Hispanic media, so we are exposed to an even greater collection of references.

If we dig deeper for the answer for what it means to be a US Latino, we will inevitably start talking about heritage, which I believe is the single, most powerful identity builder, not media. I would consider crisis, catastrophes, victories, pride and wellness as “identity accelerators” or “enhancers”, but all these are eventually built-in to heritage. Heritage encompasses our history, traditions, culture, narrative, rituals, cuisine, music, art, etc.

But trying to build and understand our collective identity through our heritage poses another set of challenges. Heritage teaches us why we are different from others, and mixing so many different, and even contradictory, points of view create a perfect storm. That’s why we will consider ourselves Mexicans, Colombians, Venezuelans, etc. first, and then US Hispanics second. This is especially true with recent immigrants; in many cases our nationalism is elevated at levels that are hardly seen in our home countries (little flags in the car anyone?).

Even for those who are U.S. born, heritage in the form of Word of Mouth from family and friends is the prevailing factor that shapes our identity as Latinos. Perhaps this is why so many marketers tap into the “family” as the number one insight among Hispanics (vs. “what family means” but that’s a different story, read this fun article in the nytimes.com about Grupo Gallegos’ POV on the “Abueltia Advertising”).

Understanding our heritage is key and it could take us years to just organize this amount of knowledge, yet it wouldn’t be sufficient. Regardless of how we feel and what our heritage dictates, the truth is that when arriving to the U.S., we silently start transforming into “US Hispanics”. And this happens naturally because we don’t have such a vast array of resources, references and cues as if we were in our country of origin; and like it or not, culture and traditions will keep evolving in our home countries as we hold tight to our largest piece of luggage: a Polaroid picture of the place we left.

Personally, this didn’t hit me until I realized that it was normal for me to hear, and sometimes start talking, in an overly articulated Spanglish (“El parking de la Walmart en la Flager.”) and when I wasn’t fully understanding the jokes from my friends in Mexico and mine were sounding dated (like when one of your uncles still wants to dance the “Macarena” in a wedding, in 2008). I also started having a few fundamental differences on certain issues that many would normally take for granted in Mexico (from simple matters like why it makes sense to me now to lease a car vs. owning it, to some more sensitive issues like why cesarean section is almost the norm for childbirths in Mexico); the notion that I am morphing and becoming different from the ones I love injects all sort of mixed feelings, paradoxes and real contradictions. And the funny thing is that I’m feeling more Mexican than ever!

So even after fully understanding the complexities of the media landscape, our heritage and everything that happens during our acculturation process, there’s plenty of other elements that come into play when we construct our personal version of what it means to be Latino, and that includes what others around you think it means. So the answer is not simple, short or homogeneous, and acknowledgement of all our micro and meta-realities is a must. And that’s exactly what you will find at serlatino.com, a collection of individual stories that collectively will tell a bigger story of what it means to be Latino. Finding the answer is pretty much a journey not a destination!

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