How is your relationship with the Latin community?

By Maibort Petit

How is your relationship with the Latin community?". This is a line from the movie, Maid in Manhattan. The spokesperson, a gringo answer this question," It's excellent, he speaks Latin, I mean Spanish".

I am from Venezuela and often wonder about the attitude taught in the United States. Venezuela is a country in South America. I now live in the United States. I became a citizen a few years ago and my neighbors congratulated me on becomes an 'American'.

What was I before? Was I not an American? I always saw myself as an American but in this country I am considered a Latin or Hispanic?

 As my Colombian friend told me, Americans calling the U.S. “America” is jingoistic, even imperialist—as if the U.S. owns the whole continent.

But the truth is the term being used in the United States is done with any thought. It was first used in the inaugural speech by John Adams, our second president. We were hardly a country back then and definitely not a super power.

It's strange but all Americans live on the same continent but I will always be an Latina. Being Latin is not a race but the area that I was born. Yet, my good friend who was born in Poland and my friend from Canada are not distinguished in name by their country. When they became citizens, they were called American, fully accepted. Go figure!

Being Latin in the USA

By Maibort Petit

In an article from USA Today,  Hispanics and blacks are not getting equal pay for equal work in the high-tech industry. That's the finding of new research that shows Hispanics earn $16,353 a year less on average than their colleagues who are not Hispanic. Blacks made $3,656 than white workers in the same field. In summary Hispanics working in the USA are on a different pay scale than the rest of the country.

They also are passed over when it comes to promotions. When it comes to job interviews and selection of resumes, the Spanish name at the top of the resume hurts an applicants chances.

The AFL-CIO came out with a report that said, Although Latino's wages increased, they continue to earn smaller wages than other ethnic groups." The situation for the elderly is even more dire. The amount of latino elderly living in poverty in the USA is twice the percentage than it is for whites.
The USA has always considered itself an ethical country made from a melting out of diverse people and nations needs to find a way to fix this inequity. Presently one out of five children born in our country is from Hispanic descent. Predictions are that in a few years, that will rise to two out of five children. 

If we want our country to prosper and continue to be the greatest economic super power on the planet, we can not have our Latino Americans treated as second class citizens when it comes to pay.