by Jesse Washington
\nAP National Writer
\nHe is being hailed with pride and wonder as the \u201cfirst Latino pope,\u201d a native Spanish speaker born and raised in the South American nation of Argentina. But for some Latinos in the United States, there\u2019s a catch: Pope Francis\u2019 parents were born in Italy.
\nSuch recent European heritage is reviving debate in the United States about what makes someone a Latino. Those questioning whether their idea of Latino identity applies to Pope Francis acknowledge that he is Latin American, and that he is a special inspiration to Spanish-speaking Catholics around the world. Yet that, in their eyes, does not mean the pope is \u201cLatino.\u201d
\nThese views seem to be in the minority. But they have become a distinct part of the conversation in the United States as the Latino world contemplates this unique man and moment.
\n\u2014\u201dAre Italians Latino? No,\u201d says Eric Cort\u00e9s, who has been debating the issue with his friends.
\n\u2014\u201dThe most European alternative and the closest thing to an Italian,\u201d is how Baylor University professor Philip Jenkins described Pope Francis in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
\n\u2014\u201dDoes a Latino have to have indigenous blood?\u201d asked the LA Weekly newspaper of Los Angeles beneath the headline \u201cIs The New Pope Latino?\u201d
\n\u2014\u201dLatinos come in all colours and shades and features,\u201d Ivette B\u00e1ez said in an emotional debate on the \u201cBeing Latino\u201d Facebook page.
\nThe swirling discussion indicates just how much the man formerly known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, whatever his ethnicity, means to Catholic Latinos.
\n\u201cThe Latino community tends to pride itself on the accomplishments of our own,\u201d says B\u00e1ez, a Puerto Rican who lives in New Jersey. \u201cAnd a lot of people are hoping that a Latino pope would bring more of a focus on the problems in Latin America.\u201d
\n\u201cAfter the president of the United States, he\u2019s probably the most influential person in the world,\u201d she says.
\nThe conversation about Pope Francis\u2019 ethnicity is rooted in history and geography. Latin America is a complex region of deep racial and class narratives. The elites tend to be whites of European ancestry; the poor are often dark-skinned descendants of indigenous or African people.
\nLatinos also can be of any race; many identify themselves as both Latino and white, or Latino and black. So debates were bound to happen with the elevation of a fair-skinned son of Italians born in South America\u2019s most European city, a place that has always identified more with Rome and Madrid than Caracas or Mexico City.
\nCortes, a 29-year-old son of Colombian immigrants who lives in Philadelphia, says some friends his age are confused about why the pope is being identified as Latino. \u201cOthers are assuming it\u2019s a ploy to get Latino Catholics more involved,\u201d he says.
\nAccording to Cort\u00e9s\u2019 definition of Latino, which includes Spanish, African and Indian descent, it\u2019s \u201cstretching\u201d to include Pope Francis. \u201cHis parents are Italian … Just because he is born in Argentina does not make him Latino at all,\u201d Cortes says.
\nThe logic is exactly the opposite, however, for millions of others. If you are born in Latin America, and share its language, history and culture, they say, you are Latino \u2014 period. They point to the fact that Pope Francis loves tango, drinks the traditional South American beverage mate and follows the San Lorenzo de Almagro f\u00fatbol team.
\n\u201cLook: if the guy was raised there, lived there, did the culture there, who has the right to take that away?\u201d says Andrew Ysiano, a Mexican-US citizen and publisher of LatinoTimes.org in Stockton, California. \u201cHow do you take something away that he was raised by?\u201d
\n\u201cI consider him Latino,\u201d he says. \u201cWith a name like Jorge, he has to have the culture, right? I know there has to be some kind of roots there for him.\u201d
\nBenny Mart\u00ednez, a Mexican-US civil rights activist who lives in Goliad, Texas, says he feels \u201csomewhat proud\u201d that an Argentine is now pope. \u201cSure he\u2019s Latino. Why not?\u201d says Martinez, who can trace his family\u2019s roots to Texas from the 1700s. \u201cAnyone who speaks Spanish and is from Latin America is Latino, I guess.\u201d
\n\u201cBut do other Hispanos consider him Latino?\u201d Mart\u00ednez says. \u201cThat I don\u2019t know.\u201d
\nMeasuring someone\u2019s \u201cLatino-ness\u201d \u2014 how much they identify with Latino rather than mainstream US culture \u2014 is not unusual in the United States. It\u2019s the rough equivalent of people born in the US evaluating each other\u2019s patriotism, a way to gauge their loyalty and perspective on life.
\nAnd it can hurt.
\nVanessa Madrazo, who took part in the Facebook discussion on whether the pope is Latino, was raised in an affluent Michigan suburb by a father born in Argentina and a mother from Brazil. She spoke English in her home, and there were few other Latinos in her area.
\nAn old boyfriend once made fun of her for not knowing what pl\u00e1tanos are; she had never seen the fried plantain chips in Michigan. When she moved to Miami, another Latina told her she \u201ctalked like a white girl.\u201d
\nSo when Madrazo saw people on Facebook insisting the pope is not Latino, it struck a nerve. \u201cI am Latina,\u201d Madrazo says. \u201cWhere do you draw the line?\u201d
\nSome draw it between the definitions of \u201cLatino\u201d and \u201cLatin American.\u201d
\nThe term \u201cLatin American\u201d was created by the French in the 1860s when it was involved in the invasion of Mexico, said Stephen Pitti, a history professor at Yale University and director of the \u201cLatino\/a History Project.\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s an imperial term,\u201d Pitti says.
\nFrance was challenging the dominance of Spain and Portugal in the Americas, he says, so it wanted to redefine the region as connected to all Latin-based languages. The name stuck as new nations gained independence and sought more regional cooperation in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
\nPitti, and many other US scholars, say there is a difference between \u201cLatino\u201d and \u201cLatin American.\u201d
\nLatino is commonly, but not exclusively, used to describe people of Latin American descent in the United States, Pitti said. In Latin America itself, people tend to identify themselves by their native country, such as Argentine, Panamanian or Mexican.
\nAnother factor in the debate is the term \u201cHispanic.\u201d It descends from Spain and was popularized decades ago by government agencies, Pitti said. But many dislike it because they connect it to the conquest of the Americas, or to recent US arrivals who speak only Spanish. Many prefer Latino because they feel it describes a more accurate mix of indigenous, African and European ancestry, instead of strictly European.
\nThat connection to Europe is why Sharon Toomer of New York City does not think the pope is Latino.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t identify with the Spanish. I don\u2019t identify with Hispanic. It\u2019s all rooted in a European culture that I don\u2019t identify with in any way,\u201d says Toomer, who considers herself Afro-Latina because her father is African-US and her mother Dominican.
\n\u201cAll the context, the colonization and conquest, is important,\u201d says Toomer, the publisher and editor of BlackandBrownNews.com.
\nB\u00e1ez, the Puerto Rican, does consider the pope Latino. She sees traces of \u201cinternal racism\u201d in some Latinos\u2019 scepticism over Pope Francis\u2019 ethnicity.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a stereotype of Argentines believing to be of pure European descent and identifying themselves less with other Latinos,\u201d she says. \u201cThen some people think if you\u2019re of European descent, then you\u2019re less of this or more of that.\u201d
\nAs malleable as it may be, Pope Francis\u2019 identity was clearly a factor in his selection by the Catholic Church, which now has more believers in Latin America and Africa compared with its ancestral home of Europe. Asked at a news conference why an Italian pope was not selected, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, the archbishop of Paris, said that Pope Francis \u201cis not part of the Italian system, but also at the same time, because of his culture and background, he was Italo-compatible.\u201d
\nHe also feels compatible to Latin Americans like Patricia Toney, a Hispanic studies instructor at the College of William and Mary. Pope Francis has shown an unquestioned dedication to the many poor people of Latin America, she says, which is why his selection was so important.
\n\u201cIt is a big deal,\u201d says Toney, who was born in Peru and raised there, in Bolivia and in Colombia. \u201cAll Latinos, Latinas, Hispanics, Latin Americans or whichever other label you may want to use, relate to him, and he relates to us. Our reality is different from US Catholics.\u201d
\nWhen it comes to ethnicity, geography can be destiny. If Pope Francis\u2019 parents had immigrated to New York City instead of Buenos Aires, he would be seen as a white Italian-US. But until he makes a definitive statement, his identity will remain subject to debate.
\n\u201cI would love to hear the pope say, \u2018I am Latino,\u2019\u201d B\u00e1ez says. \u201cBut that\u2019s something for him to really answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fuente: Buenos Aires Herald, Sunday, March 31, 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Se trata de un art\u00edculo publicado en el Buenos Aires Herald escrito por Jesse Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultura-y-sociedad","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\n