So with all the, frankly, embarrassing stunts being pulled by various Latin American and Spanish Olympic teams lately — plus our interest in this post — we found ourselves reading a news story that linked to some pretty cool portraits of various people from a mix of different backgrounds. Lo and behold, the pictures were by photographer, one half of Fresa Salvaje and all-around kickass person (She complimented our tattoos. That pretty much earns her a permanent place in our heart.) Dulce Pinzon. Dulce also shot the “Super Heroes” series you’re all going to get Cindy for her birthday.

It’s always been kind of curious to us how the mixture of different races, ethnicities and religions that make up Latinos is something that so many people, Latino and otherwise, just don’t seem to fully grasp. We guess this is because it’s easier to represent or despise a group that is bound by something visible or easily identifiable, like skin color or language. Dehumanizing a costume, after all, isn’t technically dehumanization.

The way we see it, if we’re going to be lumped into a group, we would like if people both within and outside that group to become more knowledgeable as to what our cozy little lumped-up group is all about. Because for all the bloodshed and hatred that’s resulting in our becoming so extremely varied a people, it resulted in people who can, ideally, reach out to one another and point to some common experience and forged identity. And we need this. The hatred and ignorance aimed at Latinos today is heartbreaking. It’s infuriating. It’s sickening. The least — the very least — we can ask is that we not do it to one another.

Or at a time when people still use the excuse of “this is just how we are - it’s not racist, it’s cultural” is that still too much to ask?

Multiracial [Dulce Pinzon]