Tag: Jonathan Blitzer

  • One day, Baudier came upon a group of three young girls sitting in an empty inflatable pool, putting on makeup. One of them, who was twelve years old, dabbed her face with a whitening powder to create a paler effect. She didn’t like being called “Afro-Mexican,” she said.

  • A Tale of Racial Passing and the U.S.-Mexico Border The New Yorker 2016-07-20 Jonathan Blitzer The African-American businessman William Ellis, pictured here around the year 1900, frequently passed as Mexican. COURTESY FANNY JOHNSON-GRIFFIN Some people knew him as William Ellis, and others as Guillermo Eliseo. He could be Mexican, Cuban, or even Hawaiian, depending on…