Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante is so proud of being Latino that he had a mariachi band compose his campaign theme song, "Adelante, Bustamante." Yet, when he presides over official meetings, he emotionally leads the Pledge of Allegiance. Is he Latino, or is he American?
Antonio R. Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), speaker of the Assembly, is proud of his experience as a Latino student activist. Yet, he is not interested in developing an exclusively Latino political agenda. Is he Latino, or is he American?
Can one be both a Latino and an American? When a Latino says he is American, does that imply "selling out" his Latino-ness? When a Latina says she is Latina, does that imply a Quebec-style situation of divided loyalties, betrayal and separatism?
These concerns are real, often lying just below the surface. For example, an Anglo participant in a series of focus groups on perceptions of Latinos, conducted last year for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, asked, "If we went to war . . . with Cuba . . . whose side are you on?" The puzzle, for some Anglos, boils down to: How can Latinos love America and still love things Latino?
Most U.S.-born Latinos have been asked this same question. For the vast majority, it is a nonquestion. In their minds, there is no doubt: They are Americans. In a recent statewide survey of Latinos, 83% of U.S.-born Latinos, when asked to identify themselves, selected "American" from a list of nearly 60 adjectives. But that same percentage also chose "Latino" as a descriptor.
What gives?
One way to resolve the apparent conflict is to think of being Latino much as one thinks of being Texan. When they choose to do so, Texans can be quite different from other Americans: cowboy boots, Stetson hats and a nearly impenetrable drawl speaking a nearly incomprehensible vocabulary. Compared with, say, Boston Yankees, Texans can seem confident to the point of brashness. Yet, one would never think of asking Texans to choose between being Texan and being American. Indeed, it's hard to find a more patriotic group than Texans. To be Texan, then, is simply a distinctive way of being American. The pity of the matter, as Texans are quick to point out, is that not all Americans are Texans.
To understand how Villaraigosa can be Latino and American simultaneously, one need merely apply the Texan analogy: Being Latino is not being un-American; it is like being Texan, which is a distinctive way of being American.
