Latino Face

I chose a bit from Bobcat Goldthwaite’s stand up comedy act from his album “I don’t mean To Insult But You Look Like Bobcat Goldthwaite.” The album was released in 2003 and recorded in San Jose. Throughout his very sparatic and improved act he hits on several racial issues but never delves into them except for one instance in which he talks about an article he read where a latino man was eaten by a polar bear.

I chose this piece because of the odd position he puts himself in that is similar to blackface, or in this case “Latinoface”. The story he tells is of a Latino man who climbed into a polar bear exhibit at the San Diego Zoo. He only knew that the man had a Latino name and then based the rest of his act off of this assumption. From the video on blackface and the reading we did about the topic one can tell that the persona he was putting on was simply made up of similar assumptions about Latinos.

He goes on to simulate the Latino style of insults by mixing in Spanish with English and a pride in Mexico. In Takaki chapter 12 the pride and love of the Mexican homeland is talked about as a strong part of the Chicano identity. This is taken advantage of in stereotypes about Mexicans, along with others but the focused idea in Bobcat’s piece is a hostility issue.

What struck me as odd with this is that the crowd laughs at this despite the fact that they are in the middle of San Jose and he has addressed it. Much like the black face of the past the idea that “that’s just how things are” is a dangerous one because obviously that isn’t how things are but that it perpetuates the afore mentioned idea. This is sad because it is a small proof that we haven’t learned from our past and that other racist/discriminate tendencies remain.