Another gem on my favorite television station, KOCE-TV's The OC Channel: the most-recent episode of Dialogue with Doti and Dodge, the longtime public-affairs show hosted by Chapman University President Jim Doti. He sat down for a public interview at the school with the Sanchez sisters, Linda and Loretta, the latter whom is a Chapman grad and sits on the Board of Trustees. I only caught a part of the show, but it's undoubtedly the best part. I'm paraphrasing here, but Loretta was going on about how she's light-skinned, enough to the point where one thinks ¿quN chingada?
I've seen Loretta in person and in various pictures (two of which you can compare and contrast here), and I hate to break it to her, but she's not a light-skinned Mexican. Her skin tone is about as dark as mine, and I'm not a light-skinned Mexican. Neither of us are particularly prieto on the Mexican racial prism, but we're definitely not on the whiter side, either. And I know light-skinned Mexicans: as I've stated a zillion times, I'm from a region in Mexico (the southwestern leg of Zacatecas) where many folks are whiter than gabachos and frequently possess blue eyes, blond hairs and all the other genetic markers of Europeans. Yet skin tone is something Loretta and Linda also obsess over in their recent book, Dream in Color, of which I have a copy but not on me.
Loretta: It's okay that you're not güera. Expressing such pride in your light skin signifies some insecurities on your part. Take pride in your brown skin! And final note: what's with the constant use of “Hispanic”?
