I’m white in Barcelona but in Los Angeles I’m Hispanic?Posted in Anthropology, Articles, Audio, Europe, Latino Studies, Media Archive, Social Science, United States on 2015-11-16 02:42Z by Steven |
I’m white in Barcelona but in Los Angeles I’m Hispanic?
Public Radio International
2015-10-27
Jaime Gonzalez, BBC World Service Journalist
Los Angeles, California
“You’re not white, where are you from?”
This is how I was greeted a few months ago by a young Black man I interviewed in Los Angeles for a story I was working on.
Having lived in the United States for more than six years, the question did not surprise me, as it was not the first time I had to answer it.
I was born and raised in Barcelona, in northeast Spain, and although I had never given much thought to this matter, I always thought I was white. With dark Mediterranean features, but white.
How else could I define myself if someone asked me about my race?
In 2009, I moved to Miami and soon I became aware of the deep racial divide that still exists in this country.
In America, the definition of what being white means is much more limited than in Spain…
Read the entire article here. Listen to the story here. Download the story here.