Hispanics are evolving and changing…my thoughts

Having read Maria Lucia Parra’s article on HispanicAd (https://hispanicad.com/news/moving-beyond-acculturation-how-marketers-are-embracing-cultural-fluidity-in-hispanic-audiences/) it strikes me that more people in our industry are trying to “tapar el sol con el dedo”. This to my non Spanish speaking friends is simple – you can’t block the sun with your finger. I for a long time have been an advocate of looking at Hispanics through a prism and not a lens.

As an avid photographer, we know a lens can zero in on something, and as the picture above suggests, being at the beach. However because of the narrow focus, that is intentional with the picture, you don’t see the families sitting on the beach, the many colored umbrellas (next pictures maybe?) or the kids paddling nearby. That is right, I focused on a subject. That is what LatinX tends to do – focus, but then the tunnel vision is what causes its failure.

No one uses the term LatinX in real life. Only people in marketing and advertising. They focus rather than see the completeness of the situation. Now looking though a prism, you get a few physical science terms like refraction (the bending of light and its effects) as well as dispersion (the separation of light into the different colors).

There are more complex physics to this all (Snell’s law, and so forth) but for our example, and what the article I mentioned above deal with is the reality of dispersion. If we look at Total Market (oh no, not that unholy word) it is about looking through the prism and seeing the dispersion, yes the rainbow of lights.

If you just tunnel vision (or focus) on one color of light, then you are missing the beauty of the rainbow. This sits above the breakout by race, color, ethnicity or gender. The colors of the rainbow can be these ingredients of everyday life. And for us marketers, when we think of the US Market, putting it through a prism, shows how each color (literally) has a wavelength and how it is part of the whole.

In that same thinking, acculturation has changed and fluidity is something that is second nature to us Latinos, and not easy to understand for those that do not hold culture close to the heart. Having kids in America, has meant that I get to see second generation Latinos rise in a way we never expected as they can be as apple pie or as reggaeton as needed.

We are bi-cultural, we thrive by taking the best of both worlds, before it was something that was ignored or even dismissed, but we have more choice, more spice, more taste. We are richer for the multicultural lives we lead in every major urban setting from getting great popusas to a ceviche, to an asado or a burger, we enjoy it all.

And it is all within the context of cultural affinity. Here is where we belive there is a huge difference, some people “put a little chorizo into it” and make it Hispanic, but its not so. Earlier I wrote about the final of Copa America, Colombians and Argentines in Miami. The cultural differences are abysmal, as they are from different ends of the South American continent. One has Caribbean beaches in Cartagena, while the other thas the Straights of Magellan, and of course where Shackleton lost the Endeavor in his quest to reach the South Pole.

But there are things that unite us – the Spanish language, the family culture, the love of futbol, and marketers tend to use those tent poles in a “one size fits all” approach. I always remind folks “latinos are not all Mexicans” and with great respect for my Mexican brothers, but growing up in Brazil, my though of avocado is the rich creamy icecream, and not guacamole that I learnt to love as I visited Mexico as a youth.

Yes there are many things that make us the same, but the nuance of what makes us different is what leads us to understand that being local, but really local, to know the great mofongo, or the tacos al carbon, this is where we need to talk to people in a very real way.

My mentors would all use variations on these themes – Marco Vega and his thinking on brands, Gene Bryan with his view on who we are as Hispanics, Antonio (Tony) Ruiz for his deep understanding of culture Andrés Ordóñez who challenged me on media so many times Sergio Mankita, MBAthat questioned me, and too many others – so I get to stand on the shoulders of greats and look at the landscape and see us still fighting the good fight.

So this week as Hispanic Heritage starts, I say “Dale” as I am in Miami, or “Andale” for my Mexican friends that just had the “grito”, and “pa’lante” as most andeans cheer, or as one of my favorite comedians George Harris (one of Venezuelas best exports) will say “dejate de huevonadas” and we continue to move forward to push for more Latin voices that are true and genuine.

And I leave you with a little humor – in Spanish from Sofia Niño de Rivera https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8RhYgan/