The diplomat then proceeded to tell me who was and who was NOT Latin American, and pointing to the photo of a needy child which graced every table, he said: “For instance, that child there is not Latin American”. Astonished I asked how can you say that? She is Peruvian! “No, she is Indian. Latin Americans are those of us who stem from Spain and Portugal.” He was not kidding nor making some sort of epistemological statement on the origin of Latin languages. He was unashamedly, sneeringly , racist, making a clear distinction between himself and that poor child. Our conversation deteriorated from then on to reach a point when he said that “those” children got sick because their mothers were too ignorant to know how to care for them....
See also at Counterpunch
Bolivia’s Five Hundred-Year Rebellion
Peter Lackowski
The veins of these Latin Americans are full of Native American blood.
ReplyDeleteThen again, the Spanish and Portuguese have always been under the delusion that they are white.