Hispanic author talks about contemporary cultural identity

Though Hispanics have grown to become the nation's largest minority, author Richard Rodriguez, the son of Mexican immigrants, questioned the notion of Hispanics replacing African Americans. In a lecture Thursday afternoon, titled "New Ways of Thinking about Diversity," at the Indiana Memorial Union's Whittenberger Auditorium, Rodriguez said because of African Americans' history as leaders of the civil rights movement, he didn't understand that idea.\n"I don't replace them. I take them as a model of what it means to be an American," Rodriguez said.\nHe also noted Hispanic is not actually a race, but a culture.\n"We do not belong to any race," Rodriguez said. "We come in all colors -- white, black, Mexican, indigenous, Asian."\nRodriguez said America is absorbed with the idea of blood and race.\n"I went to Latin America looking for Hispanics," Rodriguez said. "Everywhere I wen,t they said, 'Señor, there are no Hispanics here. You have to go to Dallas, Texas, to meet one.'"\nRodriguez said when he grew up in the 1960s, America only recognized whites and blacks, but that began to change in 1972 when Richard Nixon recognized Hispanics and Asians. He said he had freedom by not belonging to a race but paid the price of being irrelevant. \nRodriguez frequently used the term "brown" to refer to Hispanics, but he also used the term to refer to individuals of multiple races because matter tends to turn brown when mixed. He discussed the daughter of a Muslim and a Jew. Rodriguez said she was the epitome of being brown.\n"She wrote in a letter: 'Most people think I'm a very frugal terrorist,'" Rodriguez said.\nRodriguez noted blacks have been denied the color brown, as anyone with one drop of African blood is still considered black. He cited a reporter asking Colin Powell what it was like to be the first black Secretary of State and Halle Berry referring to herself as black at the Academy Awards while her blonde mother sat in the audience.\nRodriguez also said whites in America suffer from a lack of culture and identity. He spoke of a Danish woman who said when she came to America, she became white and became nothing. \nA long-time opponent of bilingual education and affirmative action, Rodriguez said he thought America should deemphasize student diversity in schools.\n"The idea of emphasizing their differences with one another seems counterproductive," Rodriguez said. \nSenior Brian Bird said he gained a better understanding of Rodriguez's positions, particularly his opposition of bilingual education.\n"Now, I see more of where he's coming from," Bird said.\nProfessor Luis Davila, director of Chicano Studies at IU, said his department was happy and proud to have Rodriguez as a speaker.\n"We're lucky to have him these two days," Davila said.\nRodriguez, who was the runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize in 1993, recently published "Brown: The Last Discovery of America." He will also meet with the public today from 10 a.m. to noon in the Indiana Memorial Union's Oak Room. \n-- Contact staff writer Steven Chung at stchung@indiana.edu.