The Fabulous Life Of a Mixed Breed Barbie: One look in the mirror & I'm tickled pink; I don't give a hoot about what you think.

As you may or may not have noticed, I'm a 'mutt' which means I'm of a beautifully complicated heritage :) In the mix that I consist of, the largest doses are by far of Hispanic, so naturally I tend to identify with that more than anything else. Hispanics, or Latinos in the media are often portrayed as olive or tan skinned people with black silky hair, but in reality, that doesn't even begin to cover what Latino really is. Latino is something so deep and diverse that can't possibly be defined by a skin color or type of hair. Latino is a combination of everything gorgeous, hideous, wrong, and right in the world. But is the media really to blame when some people of Latino desecnt have the same state of mind, that if you don't look a certain way then you're not a "real" Latino? Because of the heavy variety within the groupe of people, Latinos often face a pressure to identify a certain way. Black Hispanic, White Hispanic, Native Hispanic. The very aura of "Hispanic" is one defined by unity, blending, and combinations. There is no need to divide us one way or another. There's no need for this separation or classification among us. If you ARE Latino, BE Latino. I recently ran into an article about how darker skinned Hispanics are ashamed to identify as Black Latinos or Afro-Latinos because they are ashamed of their African heritage or 'who they really are'. My personal opinion is that they don't want to be identified as "Black Latinos" because no such thing truely exists. A skin tone doesn't make one person less Hispanic than another person, and to say that it does undermines the real art of the Hispanic people.