Well, it was quite an interesting special. At the same time, shame on CNN for keeping that racist monster Dobbs on the air. This is unacceptable. Talk about a modern-day minster of propaganda and hatred. Ship him over to Fox News, let him be w/ his bretheren…you know, the old angry white males, blaming their failures in life on “the other”.

Don’t let your outrage for Dobbs’ behavior put a tunnel in your vision. You are missing out on a show that does not pretend to be all things to all people, but instead shows an honest panoramic view of us Latinos in America.

Soledad Obrien produced a high-quality program showing wonderful things about us. And if you boycott the show you are diminishing the work of a great Latina who deserves to be honored.

Respectfully,

Sandra

Great Show watching it as we speak. It is an interesting show that shows what different latinos are experiencing daily…

Soledad Obrien produced mediocrity. Exactly what percentage of the program said wonderful things about us? I’m confused. The primary program segments took place in courtrooms, jails, detention centers, churches, and racist communities.
Where was the immigrant success story — from Mexico, not Cuba or Venezuela? The Latino college graduate segment? The National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) just held their annual conference in Minneapolis, where was CNN? WE NEED TO SEE THE SUCCESS STORIES over and over and over. The Program should have been a five part series: LatinAs in POWER, Latinos in EDUCATION, Latinos in POLITICS, Latinos in ECONOMICS, Latino LEADERS.

I can’t believe the jury decision on SHENANDOAH murder trial when those teenager beat to death that guy is call murder wheter illegal or legal alien, they should be severely punished.
How about if this were the other way around hispanic boys beating to death a white boy, then it will be death sentence for all.
That’s a shame and joke for the law of this great nation.

I saw some of it last night, and believe me, you didn’t miss anything. It was mostly stories of failure and despair. High school dropouts, immigrants getting beaten to death and a guy from Puerto Rico who failed his police officer’s test not one, but two times.

And what she portrayed as success stories, were really only mediocre. She didn’t show any Mexican-American astronauts (there are three), or Nobel Prize winners, CEOs, etc. She left you with the impression that the most successful Mexican-Americans are Edward James Olmos, George Lopez and Eva Longoria. She said that Latino children should look to Edward James Olmos’s character in Battlestar Galactica as a role model. LOL Why not look to astronaut Jose Hernandez as a role model?

There were two Mexican-American astronauts on the last space shuttle and not ONE word from CNN about it. They will never show us in a positive light. It’s best just to turn the TV OFF.

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/hernandez-jm.html

I agree with Deborah’s comment about Puerto Ricans and others blaming Mexicans for their problems. The truth is that Puerto Ricans have a long history of being discriminated against in America and it has nothing to do with Mexicans. They need to examine their own history.

The only real Americans are the Native Americans. And Spanish was the first language to be spoken in North America after the native languages…why? Because up until the signing of the Hidalgo Treaty in 1848, present day Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, parts of Utah, Nevada and Colorado were part of Mexico. Hence the saying, “we didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.” The treaty ended the Mexican-American war which was a farce to begin with, manipulated by U.S. interests in dominating all of North America.
In yet another abuse of power, the United States, in its quest to “manifest destiny,” obliterated nearly all North American native nations and Mexican citizens and stripped them of their land.
No one in Shenandoah looked Native American to me. In reality not one single person on the program was a true American. If you’re not Native American, and you live in the United States, then you’re one of two things, an immigrant or a descendant of immigrants. PERIOD.

Deborah, The title gets me too which is why I titled my post what I did. Pero una pregunta, are you speaking of the Cubans and Ricans on the show or are you saying that Ricans and Cubans blame Mexicans ?

Liz, I was having this same lesson with a student of mine the other day

I completely agree with Lizpangerl. I thought it was a good show but I started getting a little pissed off when they showed two instances of teen pregancy—what the hell?? I’m so sick and tired of hearing stereotypes about all Latinas getting pregnant. What happened to those that went on to college (like me lol)? My God, looking back the show had a somber view (except the story about the Venezuelan chef)clearly misrepresenting those that have worked very hard to have a better future.

Who is she? Mexican-Americans have nothing in common with her. But if we complain we get called “racist.”

really? I don’t think we’d be called racist so much as maybe bigoted? Not sure–I think that the reaction to questioning O’Brien’s identity creds would speak more to intercommunity baggage (i.e. colorism, nationalism, anti-black predujice, not being “real” enough biases, etc). I am not saying you are any of those things, karen, just wondering if somebody from O’Brien’s community (i.e. Afro-cuban) would call racism against a Mexican/Chican@ or if there would be existing tensions within our community interactions that would inform how they would respond to you…you know?

Anyway-this section:

-Our civil rights groups should be lobbying for Mexican-Americans reporters to be hired on CNN and other stations.

I disagree with, because invariably–corporate media ALWAYS hires the far right outlier jackass conservative “representative.” (think: Juan Williams and Michelle Malkin). I am not so much concerned about identity representation as the *stories* covered that help to *define* “Mexican” or “Chican@” or even “Latino” to the world. I also want stories that are important to individual communities to be told–so in other words, rather than hoping that CNN’s “representative” will cover the story of violence against trans latinas, I want to just know it will be a story told no matter what, you know?

which is where I totally agree with you–you’re last paragraph–it is TOTALLY time for Mexican Americans to advocate for themselves–but the funny thing is, the issue of identity comes up again–I personally don’t call myself Mexican American–I identify as Chican@. And there has been a long history of conflict between those who identify as Mexican Americans and those who identify as Chican@s. So–if we start advocating for ourselves (which I totally unequivocally support)–I wonder, what is the first step in doing so?

CNN ratings keep dropping. Americans as a whole are tired of his lies and hate. He is becoming so boring

While I was hopeful about the CNN series, all of us need to realize that CNN is looking for an audience and few of its programs are dedicated to “good news”. Like so many other networks, CNN must sell advertising dollars and it is caught up in a need to sensationalize and spark debate. I think Soledad is a very smart woman who knew exactly what was at stake in her choice of features, stories and the prospect that her show would see the light of day.

Nonetheless I watched. I felt for the people–la jente–that do suffer. I felt anger that the same issues I heard when I was 20, I’m hearing now at 50. I also wondered why a family like mine was not featured–immigrants coming legally, raising three kids all with advanced degrees? We are not the only ones!

As many have pointed out here and on the CNN website–the show never really featured the incredible success stories that our community has garnered. We have incredible people with PhDs (like me!) and great lawyers, doctors and civic leaders. But the real tragedy is that it failed to speak to the systemic challenges we face that contribute to the issues she featured. Case in point: language. Yes, many immigrants take a long time to learn English but by the first generation of Latinos–many lose their ability to speak Spanish completely! There is remarkable bias in our country against being multilingual which is not seen in Europe. The reason so many immigrants keep speaking Spanish is that there is a continual influx of new immigrants in our communities to keep speaking Spanish. And, few programs promote learning English while keeping your native lanuage. Who wants to lose their identity? Who wants to stop being Latino? That’s just one of many issues she could have spent time explaining but instead it just came across as one of the “disadvantages” of being Latino. Ay Dios mio!

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There were many things to commend about the CNN “special,” and things to lament as well. Chicana/os were almost unmentioned (not even CNN can de-Chicanoize Edward James Olmos!), but Mexicans, Mexican-Americans were instead shown in various states of abjection (the fear of Mexicanness is quite striking in all television programming, this included). I would conclude from this program that it is: (a) best not to be Mexican in the U.S. (b) if of Mexican descent, gangs and pregnancy are right around the corner, that is, failure awaits (c) there are no Latino/a academics anywhere in the world. Others have commented about the astonishing lack of professionals (save for the actors), but the real missing link here is a failure to consult our many scholarly, academic, and accessible books. The failure to portray or engage relevant, passionate subjects was most striking of all. This was a program designed to attempt to understand immigrant Latino/as, but it was not anchored in the work we have produced to that end. Culture, the arts, well beyond Hollywood, were therefore missing. There was little effort to engage the presence of a middle class, small though it might be. That middle class is a contributing one and addresses frequently collective advancement, as do working class communities, urban or rural. I wish O’Brien’s advisers had “studied” us and found our work. 6000+ libraries have ordered the Oxford encyclopedia on Latinos and Latinas that Suzanne Oboler and I co-edited, so it isn’t difficult to find information and to balance the approaches. I commend the effort, but see that we must have greater expectations for media representation that is timely and relevant, not dated or impoverished.