Año 3 • No. 133 • marzo 15 de 2004 Xalapa • Veracruz • México
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The Misunderstood Mystique
of the Latin Woman
Jay Bildstein
Where I come from, New York City, as well as other places around the United States of America, the term “Latina” is almost always preceded by the adjective “hot.” This is most often the case when men congregate to exchange banter as they frequently do; in bars, gyms or at the water cooler in the office. “Check out that “hot Latina” is a frequent phrase uttered by men in the USA, when referring to an attractive woman of Latin heritage.

Latinas are often labeled as hot, sensual and sexually available. Where this stereotype began I have no idea, other than the human need to ascribe characteristics, born of wishful thinking, to the exotic, but I can say that based on my casual ethnographic studies of the group in question it is a misnomer.

Latin women, more precisely the Spanish speaking women of the Americas, on the whole and Mexican women in specific demonstrate conservative patterns of sexual behavior and comportment when compared to their sisters of American parentage. The notion that Mexican women are vamps and vixens skilled in the art of vexing men through their sensual comportment and sexual prowess is pap. Although generalizing is risky business, I will take the worthwhile risk to characterize the majority of Mexican womankind as rooted in strong family values, hard work in both business and at home, a diligent approach to appearance and a timidity towards sex and free love. To me the word hot doesn’t seem to apply.


I do not suggest for one moment that Latin women do not indulge in or enjoy sex, however, the images projected by the likes of J Lo, Christina Aguilera, Paulina Rubio, Shakira or Thalia are far more discordant in their representation of Latinas than are the antics of Britney Spears and Madonna as standard bearers of the Gringas.


Seemingly, and I admit that this is changing with the younger generation, recreational sex, sex devoid of meaningful emotional attachment, is not on balance, the province of Mexican women. Women in American society; by virtue of accessibility to birth control, abortion on demand, diminished adherence to orthodox religious doctrine and changing power norms are far more likely to have no strings attached sex than a Mexican woman.


I offer no judgment on what is or should be the sexual comportment of either Mexican or American women. That is for them to decide. However, I feel it does Latinas a distinct disservice when they are first thought of as “hot” rather than as intelligent, caring, capable human beings. I preach not a feminist ethic of reactionary excess, rather a humanistic reality that the repetition of labels often leads us to think of a person or group as a given thing incapable of exceeding the boundaries of their given epithet.


Therefore, I suggest the replacement of the term “hot” Latina with the more truthful “hard working, good hearted” Latina. This my friends is not out of some wimpy desire to appear politically correct. Slavishly obeyed political correctness diminishes our ability to be intellectually honest. What I care about is accuracy. The vast majority of Mexican women are hard working people of compassion and caring. That is the message that needs to out in the USA. When we relegate people to the status of sex objects we diminish the value of their brains and souls heaping them on the pyre of sexual ardor. Physical passion is good. Physical passion superceding all other human traits leads us to a state of devolution.


As far as hot, I commend that term to meteorologists describing weather systems.
Comments, questions …send them to excelencia_humana@hotmail.com