Consuming and the American Dream?

      Latinos INC provided an in depth analysis of mass marketing and its specificity to categorizations of consumers.  Like the class witnessed in the video clips concerning MTV and its research and their devotion to producing exactly what America’s teens will consume, Arlene Davlia exposes how the Latino image is being created to obtain the interest and consumption of the Latin/Spanish population in America. She assesses this, writing: “the patchwork approach to Latinidad that prevails in Hispanic marketing, with each nationality being addressed through those icons or symbols that are seen to ‘belong’ neatly to it.” (184).  As Davlia points out in her subtitle, the media is indeed on the pursuit of “the making of a people.”  She notes the government instigation of the terms marketers use to capture this crowd, stating it the use of “Hispanic” was first “a U.S. generated category applying to any Latin American or Spanish-background person in the United States.” (90).

     Davlia explores how they have not only has the heterogeneity of all this remained, as the marketing creates “a nation within a nation,” but the other pathways of marketing have used methods that draw in the Spanish/Latin populations by integrating the fundamentals of Americanism they can relate to.  We see the valorization of Latino culture, yet we also witness the acculturation first hand in advertisements portraying Latin women who resemble someone of Caucasian descent more than their own.   Davlia cites this writing “thus, while the general market has included black, Hispanic, and Anglo models, the Hispanic has showcased the lightened Hispanic models exclusively…that…‘could pass for Hispanic models.’”  (130). We see posters advertising the traditional concept of a Latino family, but ones that are spun in a such a way that the American dream is lingering—both as a tease to those of the population that can’t achieve it or a way for them to buy more into the marketing of their ethnicity as apart of this new culture they are beginning to call their own.

     In class these topics were made tangible with the advertisements the presenters brought in for us to analyze.  All three of the female models reflect the image discussed above, and beyond that they are intermixed with Latina taglines and American products.  What I thought was especially interesting was the reference to “Tejana” on the Latina cover.  As the class explored, this term parallels another aspect of American history—that of the role of African Americans in the South. With that reference it forces me to wonder what role this connotation plays in the advertisement.  Perhaps is relays an even greater image of success, a Latina with more minority roots is gracing the cover of a popularized magazine—suggesting validation from both her own culture and that of popular Caucasian culture.  Does this make her even more successful, having both majority populations in America’s approval?  Or does it confine Latin accomplishment to that defined by Disney superstars?

      This same idea is seen in the CDC ad.  A nuclear family is portrayed boldly in the center, yet in the bottom right corner a more Caucasian family rests in a heart.  Once again we witness the image of Latino success, yet still confined in a Caucasian template.

      Personally what I found so interesting was the Caucasian interest in the Latino culture.  I feel as though marketers are not only aware of their Hispanic consumers but also the Caucasians that enjoy it, and sometimes identify themselves more with this culture than the red-white-and blue Americanisms.  For example, my older sister is a Spanish major who was originally drawn to Latin culture after a trip to Chile in high school, browses the headlines of Latin magazines and surfs Spanish soaps regularly.  She loves the music, the styles and the identity of a culture that is frequently ostracized by others we live amongst.  What I think maintains her interest, though, is that fact that these advertisements and shows resemble just enough of our own culture that it doesn’t push us away.  It is foreign but not too foreign.  I like to use the simile of buying fruit to my sister’s interest (and others…my roommate, my father, my best friend…my sister is one of MANY I know more consumed with the daily news on channel 77 than ABC).  You go to the grocery store and see that maybe the apples are a little bruised but the star fruit or mango look a little more fresh, so you decide to try something new.  The fruit is still fruit, you know it will be probably be a safe buy, and after the first few bites you may even realize you are more drawn to it than the same green apple you have been buying for years.  It sounds a little corny, but I think that’s one of the reasons a lot of this advertising is so effective, they have created what Davlia refers to as a “nation” within a nation, but in such a way that it makes all those within that Hispanic group feel comfortable but broad enough that everyone slowly begins to dive in, too.

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