{"id":29700,"date":"2013-03-20T03:31:07","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T03:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=29700"},"modified":"2013-05-27T02:33:27","modified_gmt":"2013-05-27T02:33:27","slug":"young-afro-latinos-straddle-both-cultures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=29700","title":{"rendered":"Young Afro Latinos straddle both cultures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/ourweekly.com\/features\/young-afro-latinos-straddle-both-cultures\" target=\"_blank\">Young Afro Latinos straddle both cultures<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ourweekly.com\" target=\"_blank\">Our Weekly: Our Truth, Our Voice<\/a><br \/>\nLos Angeles, California<br \/>\n2010-09-23<\/p>\n<p><strong>Manny Otiko<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Hispanic heritage month celebrated Sept. 15-Oct. 15<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When 2nd Lt. Emily Perez was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, she became the first female African American officer to die in combat. Perez, an outstanding West Point graduate, was mourned by two communities because, <strong>while she looked like a Black woman, she came from a Black-Latino family.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Like former POW Spec. Shoshana Johnson, Perez\u2019s death indicates how society\u2019s definition of who is Black is changing. Johnson was championed by the Black media, after her captivity was almost drowned out by the spectacle of Jessica Lynch\u2019s staged rescue. (Johnson is of Afro-Panamanian descent and is also identified with the Hispanic ethnic group.)<\/p>\n<p>Latinos are now officially the largest ethnic group in the United States, by passing African Americans, who for a long time have been the largest and most politically-visible minority.<\/p>\n<p><strong>But there are an increasing number of young people who are from both of these significant ethnic groups.<\/strong> Latinos and African Americans often live and work alongside one another in urban areas, and while there are often reports about the friction between the two groups, sometimes the Black-Brown unions work quite smoothly. Many younger Latinos supported President Barack Obama\u2019s campaign, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villarigosa also courted the African American community&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;Growing up [Shay] Olivarria said that she did not fit in with either of the ethnic groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy mom is Black and my dad is Mexican. I have one full Black sister, one full Mexican sister, and then there\u2019s me. Growing up neither side accepted me. To the Blacks I was \u2018exotic\u2019 and \u2018different,\u2019 so the girls thought I was a Barbie and the boys were all after me. To Mexicans, I was \u2018too dark\u2019 to take home and \u2018not really Mexican\u2019 because I didn\u2019t speak Spanish,\u201d Olivarria said. \u201cWhen I was little, I looked like a Pacific Islander &#8230; I ended up spending a lot of time with Asians.\u201d But race is not an issue in her family. \u201cWe all get along really well,\u201d she said&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the article <a href=\"http:\/\/ourweekly.com\/features\/young-afro-latinos-straddle-both-cultures\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Young Afro Latinos straddle both cultures Our Weekly: Our Truth, Our Voice Los Angeles, California 2010-09-23 Manny Otiko Hispanic heritage month celebrated Sept. 15-Oct. 15 When 2nd Lt. Emily Perez was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, she became the first female African American officer to die in combat. Perez, an outstanding West Point [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,33,14646,8,394,20],"tags":[14106,5275,5276,14107],"class_list":["post-29700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-census","category-latino","category-media-archive","category-socialscience","category-usa","tag-emily-perez","tag-manny-otiko","tag-our-weekly","tag-shay-olivarria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}