Choloborg; or, The Disappearing Latino Body - perceptions of Hispanic Americans

Race, gender and capital require a cyborg theory of wholes and parts.

--Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto"

In her epochal essay on the effects of technology on subjectivity, "A Cyborg Manifesto," Donna Haraway coyly positions the cyborg as something of a technologically evolved monster and claims that "Monsters have always defined the limits of community in Western imaginations." [1] If this is true, then one might conclude that race was the monster that has defined those early limits of the cyborg community.

Returning to my epigraph, it is clear that Haraway acknowledges a certain fragmentation when she writes that cyborg theory must be made of "wholes" and "parts." Race is one of those parts that has yet to be fully theorized, specifically with regard to Latino bodies. Nevertheless, she later argues that, informed by situated and embodied knowledges, such fragments contain a critical potential. [2] Given the triumvirate of race, gender, and capital, conventional knowledge tells us that Latinos embody physiological difference and are "situated" both economically and culturally, raising the question: are Latino/a bodies cyborg bodies?

In 1999, the saucy stylings of Picky Martin made it to the Grammy Awards, while Jennifer Lopez continues to enjoy the admiration of television and movie audiences, suggesting that Latino bodies have never been more visible. They are on the pop charts, in magazines, and on television; yet, according to the cultural critic Mike Davis, Latinos have seen the lowest income growth, with the median household income increasing only $276 between 1980 and 1995, compared to $4,845 for whites and $4,576 for blacks. [3] Likewise, under NAFTA, companies like Hyundai, Sony, Sanyo. and Toyota have redefined the notion of a transnational economy. In Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the US City, Davis writes: "Just as rows of ultra-modern assembly plants now line the south side of the border, so have scrap wood and tar paper shantytowns become an increasingly common sight on the US side of the border." [4] Migrant labor played a central role in California's agricultural prosperity, and if hidden and undervalued, Latino/a workers may play the same role in the new global economy. Davis goes on to note that Apple, Sun, Adobe, Netscape, and Oracle have all "been fined or sued for racial discrimination or for failure to meet federal diversity deadlines." [5] in a nutshell, new technologies have yet to transcend old race and class relations.

What technologies do Latinos embody anyway? Clearly, our existence as a laboring underclass is anything but new. Even the glizty glamor of Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez does little more than reshape this mythic physicality. At www.rickymartin.com, one can register to "get into Ricky's Pants"--a promotional contest offering the grand prize winner a pair of Picky's red velvet pants. On another site, www.jennifer-lopez.org. one can download over 1,500 photographs and even order Jennifer Lopez wallpaper. The Web is today's hottest marketing tool, claiming nothing less than the liberatory potential of capital for those who choose to spend it.

Capitalism makes use of the Latino/a body, but what of the particular appearance of this body? Ricky and Jennifer are currently sporting buffed bodies and blonde highlights, and why not? But what of the workers in Tijuana's factories? Do they tend to look a little different, highlights or no? Latinos can range from indio, to mestizo or mixed blood, to blonde with blue eyes. Even before the contemporary development of genetic engineering, the dynamics of colonization, migration, politics, capital, economics, love, and war had already reshaped the Latino/a body. Dr. Harold P. Freeman, in a recent article in the New York Times, was quoted as saying: "If you ask what percentage of your genes is reflected in your external appearance, the basis by which we talk about race, the answer seems to be in the range of .01 percent." [6] In the same article, the author, Natalie Angier, reminds readers that race encompasses both genetics and culture. [7]

As if all this gene mixing wasn't confusing enough, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, "Hispanic" refers to people whose origins are Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Hispanic/Latino. At last count, the Latino population in this country was estimated at 31.7 million, or 11.7 percent of the total population. [8] On the 2000 Census, Latinos were asked to indicate their origin in a question on "Hispanic origin," not in the question on race, because in the federal statistical system ethnic origin is considered to be a separate concept from race. [9] The Census went on to explain that Hispanics might be of any number of racial groups, and as of October 1997, the Office of Management and Budget announced the revised standards for federal data on race and ethnicity. The official categories for race are now: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, White, and "some other race." In addition, two ethnicity ca tegories were established: Hispanic origin and Not of Hispanic origin. [10] Because the Census identified Latinos as Caucasian for most of the twentieth century, these recent changes may allow new statistics to emerge as researchers can now do more than simply track Spanish surnames.