Michael Cacciola
English 101, Section 040
September 17, 2007
SWA 5: CR Chapter 4, question 9
Belen Aranda Alvarado once wrote, “If white women can change their hair color the way they change their lipstick-with complete impunity and no worries over ‘correctly’ representing their community-why couldn’t I?” This is a very interesting and thought provoking statement. Based on the reading, it seems that her point is to bring to light the different common outlook in regards to whites and Latinos. According to her, white females are hardly ever victims of stereotype, especially when the topic of discussion is the white female’s hair color. Whether a certain girl has blond hair, black hair, red hair, or any combination of the three, if she is white then there will never be a label on her. In addition, a label will still not exist should she decide in the future to change the color. On the other hand, the author infers that people think of the stereotypical Latino female to have slightly darker skin, and dark hair color. The color blond has no association with the Latino heritage, she claims. The author also clearly states that she is extremely proud of her heritage, and everything that is represented by the Latino background. Ultimately she is striving to be able to secure her Latino values, not compromise who she is, and be able to dye her hair blond without any change of conception about who she is. She hopes to successfully accomplish all of this, and ultimately be accepted by the people around her as a Latino girl.
Alvarado makes a very good point with her statement. If a white female does anything to alter her appearance in the slightest, she will always be looked at as a white through the eyes of our society. On the other hand, if a Latino female dyes her hair blond, there is indeed a chance that the initial label given to her could very well change. Perhaps nobody knows the true reasoning behind the way people think and why stereotypes are formed in our modern society. Maybe we all need to take a look in the mirror and realize hair color holds no influence over who we are.
