Latino Groups Talk Gender, Telenovelas

“I stopped calling myself a feminist in college,” Glenda M. Aldana ’07 told students gathered last night at a Winthrop House discussion on “machismo y feminismo,” sponsored by campus Latino groups.

The event, co-sponsored by the Latino Men’s Collective and Latinas Unidas, explored ideas of machismo and feminismo and their powerful connotations in Latino society.

Latinas Unidas President Marisol Pineda-Conde ’08 said that she came up with the topic after she heard a Latino male ask, “Why do Harvard girls have to be such feministas?”

Feminista, the Spanish word for feminist, is much more stigmatized than its English counterpart, Aldana said.

“Even if you do agree with the ideas, you just don’t say that,” said Barbara M. Sabat ’08.

The president of the Latino Men’s Collective, Xavier Del Rosario ’09, said that as a Latino male, he is “turned off” by the term feminism.

Male and female attendees alike admitted to stereotyping feminists as “man-haters.”

While feminism faces such stereotypes everywhere, the term is particularly negative in Latin America, which has never experienced a strong feminist movement, said Cristina A. Herndon ’06-’07.

In contrast, machismo, which means masculinity, is a much more universal term and a standard to which many men in Latin America are held.

“You’re sort of naturally raised to be machista, and it’s a matter of whether you choose to be feminista,” said Valerie G. Larsen-Fernandez ’08, the vice president of Latinas Unidas.

Feministas face negative portrayals in the media, while male heroes are almost always machistas, participants said.

In many Spanish soap operas, independent women are vilified, while straying men escape social disgrace, Aldana said.

The event concluded with a discussion about the differing roles of women in Latin America and in the United States.