Open Letter to Latino Media: Stop Ignoring Dark-Skinned Latinos
La Prensa-San Diego, Commentary,
Jovanka Ciares, Dec 12, 2003
My name is Jovanka Ciares. I am a Puerto Rican (born and raised), dark-skinned (black in fact), highly educated, fully bilingual (trilingual, I should say) young professional woman. My name doesn’t necessarily tell you that I am Hispanic nor does my face. Why is that? It’s because those responsible for presenting to the world a heterogeneous image of Latinos living in the United States are doing an awful job at it.
For as long as I can remember, U.S. advertising and marketing embraced an image of white (preferably blonde) blue eye, long legged, and extremely skinny women as the epitome of beauty. While many do not agree with it, I could understand, as the majority of the U.S. population meet at least one or more of these criteria.