NAHJ examines its own unity
By Gabriela Yasileni Rios
Unity 99 Convention Online Staff

Unity among the different Hispanic groups is an issue that often concerns Latinos during NAHJ conferences, and Unity 99 was not the exception. A panel yesterday explored how Latino journalists may be able to move closer to a unified Latino future.

According to one of the panelists, Mexicans are the second largest legal immigrant group in this country after the Germans, and the census bureau projects that Latinos will be the largest minority by the year 2000, with a purchasing power of over $300 billion. Yet, the issues of regionalism, ethnicity and skin tone differences offset the potential power Latinos have in this country.

One of the issues discussed during this session was nationalism, which boxes people into a point that they cannot see beyond. Although there is an ongoing effort to unite Cubans, Mexicans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and other Hispanic groups, each group still keeps its own traditions, the panelists noted.

"People keep their culture strong and the little things about them that make them special; you could never make a Cuban into a Mexican," said Veronica Chambers General Editor at Newsweek.

Although Latinos usually don't share commonalities in their culture, they do share their language. "Our language bond us together, others don't make distinctions among us, for them we are all Latinos," said Juan Gonzalez columnist at New York Daily News.

The audience had divided opinions about the panelists' views, some argued that language does not unite Hispanics because there is a major gap between the Latinos born in this country and those born outside of the country. This sparked other debates about the terms Latino and Hispanic, concluding that neither term is exact but both are usable and acceptable.

"Labels tend to divide us, we have to be careful about the labels that we pose on ourselves and how do we see ourselves in the Latino community. There are many ethnicities and nationalities among and there's still racism within our people and until we talk about we can get away of it. Unless we start all think Latino we will not be a united front" said one audience participant.