Someone thinks that Barack Obama’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, looks like an hermana, one of us and that looking Latina could help with the Latino vote. Cuahtemoc Figueroa, the director of Mr. Obama’s Latino vote effort is quoted in the NYT as saying:

“She speaks fluent Spanish, with a Dominican accent, and looks Latina,”

I couldn’t find a video of Soetoro-Ng speaking Spanish but listen to how she says “Barack”.

Now here is my issue. What the hell does a Latina look like? There is still this stereotype of a Latina looking one way, with one skin tone, one hair type, one facial feature. Never mind that most of our family portraits, especially for Caribbean Latinos, include tias looking as white as Hillary Clinton and Tios looking darker than Barack. By promoting Obama’s sis as looking Latina, is the Latino outreach team misguided and falling in line with stereotypes of Latina women and what we look like?

Via / Mi Blog es Tu Blog, NYT, YouTube