Twitter Reacts To CNN’s Latino In America With Soledad O’Brien
22 October 2009, 9:05 AM. By Alex Alvarez
Part one of CNN’s two-part special, Latino in America, aired last night, as many of you know. And, as many might have guessed, the response to the Soledad O’Brien-led documentary was mixed.
As there is no better way to gauge an immediate response to a pop culture event (or to delight in the unbridled misogyny that is the trending topic #shescutebut) than by checking out what people are saying via Twitter, we browsed through some reactions hashmarked #LatinoInAmerica (which, much to the chagrin of many on the networking site, did not become a trending topic). Here, we’ll take a look at a few representative Tweets that show some patterns we found among people’s reactions:
- As we noted in an overview of the series, as well as in a follow-up post about this issue, Latino in America missed out on the opportunity to feature American Latinos of different races or to touch upon how diverse this ethnic category happens to be. This left some viewers feeling alienated:
- Others took the airing of the special as an opportunity to voice their own articulate, thoughtful takes on Latino identity:
Actually, they were likely American before it was trendy.
- Some others took their opinion that Latino in America seemed to miss the point as an open invitation to go ahead and miss the point themselves:
- While many on Twitter took issue with the doc’s apparent focus on hardships and obstacles rather than individual Latinos’ achievements, some thought it was important to highlight that, for many, being Latino goes beyond marketable stereotypes and involves real struggle:
- Still others noted that the conversation being had on Twitter was a sign in itself that the documentary itself - rather than its content - was an important step in uniting Latinos and giving us a platform and the motivation to represent ourselves to the non-Latino public:
The fact remains that reaction to this story would inevitably have been split, regardless of who or what was shown or said, because “Latino,” as a label, comprises a group of people so broad and so diverse that it would have been impossible to accurately and effectively represent the Latino experience in America. There is no one experience. There isn’t even really a handful of experiences. But while many argue that the category is ultimately meaningless because it happens to be so broad, the positive responses and the call for community that did result from part one of this documentary cemented for us that being Latino, however one chooses to interpret that, matters. And, as a writer for a site that focuses on the depiction and insights of Latinos, if it matters to one person, it matters to us. We wouldn’t want to take that away from anyone by telling them their identity is void of meaning or consequence. And it is, increasingly, an identity that’s important in a socio-political context ecause Latino pride and the concept of a Latino community in America serves to combat the xenophobic, anti-immigrant, ignorant environment that currently steers many discussions revolving around Latinos in this country.
That said, it’ll remain to be seen whether this response holds out during part two of the special. But maybe, eventually, people will realize that, just as there are many ways to be, say, a woman, or many ways to be an American, there are many ways of being Latino that exist beyond stereotypes and caricatures and marketing ploys.
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I don’t think opinion would have been split if she had focused on successful people from all of the various Latino groups. If she had presented something positive, she could have brought people together. Instead she focused on people with problems and she presented more than a few people making rude comments about Mexicans. But if a Mexican person publicly says that we don’t want to be called Puerto Rican or Dominican (and we never are, thank God) we would be called “racist.”
Sorry, but Soledad knows little or nothing about Latinos and I don’t know what CNN was thinking putting her in charge of this. Basta Lou Dobbs, Basta Soledad O’Brien and Basta CNN.
We completely agree! CNN/Soledad totally focused on the law breaking, wet-back, pregnant teenaged, ghetto Latinos in this country. What about the reputable, responsible, professionals with strong roots and values? Are we not out there???
This summer there were two Latino astronauts on the space shuttle, John Hernandez and John Olivas, but Soledad didn’t show them, and neither did CNN on any of their shows.
But Soledad did show the actor who plays the captain on Battlestar Galactica, and she said that his character was a role model for Latinos.
When I heard that, I thought to myself, is this a joke?!
i didnt watch the show and after these reviews I don’t think I will either… to begin with I have issues with the name “Latinos in America” .. ummm don’t all “latinos” live in america, whether it be South AMERICA or North AMERICA .. on a side note.. what do you consider Mexico to be (north, central , or south AMERICA) only because it was recently brought to my attention that children in Mexico are taught that it is North America, while children in the U.S. are taught that its Central America.. I can’t remember but if anyone does let me know!
North America consists of Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
This is an awesome post and it was very cool of you to take actual tweets to post and show different things. I am one who tweeted a lot those two nights (@julito) since I came away so disappointed at the overall program as a 4-hour program, for a couple of reasons:
1. CNN really advertised this hard as being something that would be ground-breaking. Expectations were way too high.
2. The definition of “success” was associated with entertainers (let’s do a puff PR piece on Latinos in Hollywood) and other personalities. What CNN missed on was to do more real profiles of people talking about their experiences, like they did at the beginning of each segment.
3. Yes, issues were important, but the program offered no balance. It was about how hard life is, when in fact little was placed on the Latino professionals who have life that “hard” life and have made good for it.
I can go on, but because of this, we have established a very successful “Latino Success Stories” blog that has been incredibly successful and positive with close to 100 comments. CNN had a golden opportunity as a media organization to fill a void, but in the end it will be social media.
Very nice post!
Julio
GO BACK TO WHICH EVER JUNGLE YOU LATINOS CAME FROM LOL.. S.A