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Soledad O'Brien's 'Latino in America' graces El Museo del Barrio's re-opening
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El Museo del Barrio has been a cultural institution for the Latino Community in East Harlem from its humble beginnings in a classroom through the heyday of Willie Colón, Hector Lavoe, Peña, decades of Día de los Muertos celebrations, lean years, and partnerships with the New York City Department of Education. Needless to say, there is a fantastic amount of local pride from those that live in the area, "El Barrio" to Spanish speakers, or Spanish Harlem to those who are not. During the period of Caribbean immigrant influx into New York City, the surrounding streets were a destination point for Puerto Rican and Dominican newcomers. Families flourished, the term 'Nuyorican' was born, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies came into existence at Hunter College, and Jimmy Smits splashed onto the set of NYPD Blue. Fast forward to now when Latinos are easily the largest ethnic group interwoven through the fabric of our society, all of them unified through the fairly ubiquitous (though diminishing) use of a single language. It can hardly be seen as merely co-incidental then that Ms. O'Brien's momentous documentary should be released during the same week as the revelation of El Museo's grand re-opening.
The 45 minute fillet of the soon to be aired four hour prize catch was slightly decontextualized given the abbreviated format, though wholly gratifying. Appropriately, these stories are presented en la soledad, no other major news network carries documentaries on Latinos in a full range of journalistic lighting. The documentary's stories include a dedicated segment on the LA region town of Pico Rivera, a location that the residents themselves call 'the Latino Mayberry' where 92% of the residents are of Hispanic descent, citizens, the average income is $60,000, and Spanish is spoken widely. The streets are clean, houses are well kept, and crime is amazingly low. It also spends a good deal of time documenting one Latina lawyer, also named Garcia, and her long running dust up over civil rights with embattled Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona's Pima County. Arpaio is frequently accused of taking the law into his own hands, and being a state sanctioned vigilante. Even more range is explored in the story of popular Chef Lorena Garcia who has her was originally told by television producers that she would have to lose her thick Venezuelan accent, and is now - accent and all - not only still on television, but beating out her competitors, and fielding her own lines of cookware, dishes, and enough assorted items for the home to rival Martha Stewart. Indeed, if anything is clear, it is that the range of Latino stories - nearly 50 Million people strong and worth as much as $1 trillion in business - has finally found a very comfortable home in O'Brien's lens.
The post-presentation discussion, however, showed a different feeling from the audience. People immediately wanted to start telling their own stories and to be heard. Clearly, no one group wants to be left out of the spotlight, but, as O'Brien had to keep reminding the crowd (to paraphrase) we only have four hours, and that's why we [CNN] should do a Latino in America 2. When asked about Lou Dobbs, and his propensity for airing representatives of groups considered inflammatory, she was succinct, commenting to the effect that consumers should follow the news they want to see. One wayward attendee went so far as to call the presentation, despite being informed that it was a shortened, incomplete version, 'flimsy', because what was shown that night was not complete.
This person's comments are particularly specious, as noted above, these stories are not being told - in any light,- anywhere else in the media. Almost universally the stories that involve Latinos in the news fall into two main categories - crime, and immigration. That said, it is high time that the mainstream media begin to wake up to the fact that yes, Latinos actually do watch English language new programming, and they do have valid, timely, cogent opinions to be voiced. However, dissenters, such as the non-sequitur 'flimsy' commentator seem to be for the sole purpose of fragmenting the group dynamic in an ostentatious grab for personal power. These fragmentationalists are the clandestine Manchurian candidates standing in the way of an unimpeded rocket sled rise to power for the Latino community - only if we stand together and demand the sort of recognition for which we have so staunchly fought during the past decades will there be a truly deep impacting societal shift. To quote O'Brien's colleague, Ruben Navarete, "You just can't ignore us".
