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Esta página no está disponible en español. Hartford CourantSales Pitch On Stereotypes Is A FailureBy Helen Ubinas
December 9, 2002 They were supposed to be good stereotypes, apparently - harmless ways of characterizing Latinos. A few highlights: * Overt emotions are part of our culture. * We accept delayed gratification. * Spiritual things are more important than material things. And unlike Anglos, the list went on, Latinos are group-oriented with larger families who are very sensitive to fashion and have very decorative homes. That, of course, would make Anglos shallow individualists who couldn't care less about their appearance and live in unadorned shacks - but Latinos are the target market here, so Anglo sensibilities be damned. This all came about at the Connecticut Latino Leadership Summit Wednesday, where an otherwise bright young man was talking to a group of Hispanic leaders about Hartford's economic development, and how to properly market to Hispanics. Except around the time the financial planner, who was quoting from a handout about "Broad Cultural Differences Between Hispanics and The American Middle Class," said Hispanics were warm people prone to public displays of affection, the room got uncharacteristically cold for such a Latino bunch. Fernando Rosa, deputy director of the Hartford Economic Development Co. called the list B.S. Ana Sanchez Adorno, of Aetna, said she couldn't recognize herself or any other Latina she knew from it. "Maybe 50 years ago," she said. "But we're all so different, we're individuals, that I doubt that list was ever really true." And isn't that the problem with trying to lump a whole group together, no matter how good the intentions? Saying Latinos like to hug may be nicer than some of the other stereotypes out there, but it still robs a person - or in this case, a whole community - of their individuality. Sometime around the time people in attendance began visibly shaking their heads in disagreement, the man started showing signs of regret: "Some of these are generalizations," he conceded. Some? Generalizations? Try all of them are stereotypes - outdated and uncreative stereotypes. Let's consider a few more: * At least one daily meal involves elaborate food preparation. (Unless that counts calling ahead for take-out, I'd have to disagree.) * Doctors and any established source of authority are respected and trusted, and never questioned. (Consider my mother, Maria Sanchez, who thinks just about every doctor she's met is a quack.) * We're relaxed about time. (Is that supposed to be the more PC way of saying Island Time?) In addition to that list, the man handed out another titled, "Value Orientation Differences Between Hispanics and The American Middle Class." Under sex roles in social relationships for Hispanics, it listed "male dominance and machismo." Anglos? "Sex equality." Again, someone needs to visit more Latino households, where the women not only wear the pants, but buy them. In the man's defense, he said he didn't mean any disrespect by using the list in his presentation. His only goal was to highlight the positives about Latinos, he said. He's speaking of our warmth again, I think. And he wasn't, after all, the author of either of the lists. That honor belongs to Isabel Valdes, who included them in her book "Marketing to American Latinos: A Guide to the In-Culture Approach." And who, thankfully, was just as horrified as some of the participants of the workshop at how they were presented. "Oh my God!" she repeated. "You wonder, as an author, if people who read your books are getting it, she said. "And then you hear something like this." Turns out the list is based on data from the Mexican working class, and even in that sense, she said, isn't meant to be used as gospel or out of context. She acknowledged the lists were oversimplifications mostly meant to start conversations with companies that are trying to market to Latinos. She was thrilled to hear that people were reading her book. But, "Knowledge without wisdom is garbage," she said. "Basura." Still, Valdes was concerned about the young man who so earnestly, if ineffectively, quoted from her work. "They cooked him huh?" she asked. No. Farther down on the list, it clearly states that we "show respect."
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