June 15, 2004
Memo From Mexico, By
Allan Wall
Is Miss Bolivia Racist?
A Latin American variant of the National Question
erupted recently in—can you believe it?—the Miss
Universe competition in Quito, Ecuador.
In case you didn’t know, the
Miss Universe title was awarded June 1st,
2004, to
Miss Australia. Congrats to our
readers down under!
But the assembled misses were in Quito for a spell
before the final competition. They were preparing for
the pageant and doing interviews. And that’s when the
controversy occurred.
Gabriela Oviedo, this year’s
Miss Bolivia, got herself into some unexpected hot
water, when she responded to a seemingly innocuous
question:
“What is one of the biggest misconceptions about your
country?”
Apparently, Miss Bolivia had not previously been
equipped with a politically-correct response. She just
blurted this out:
"Um... unfortunately, people that don't know Bolivia
very much think that we are all just Indian people from
the west side of the country, it's La Paz all the image
that we reflect, is that poor people and very short
people and Indian people ... I'm from the other side of
the country, the east side and it's not cold, it's very
hot and we are tall and we are white people and we know
English so all that misconception that Bolivia is only
an "Andean" country, it's wrong, Bolivia has a lot to
offer and that's my job as an ambassador of my country
to let people know much diversity we have." [Transcript
Video]
Well, that was enough to ignite a firestorm. Miss
Bolivia’s comments were on the front pages of papers in
Bolivia. She was called a “racist”
and her resignation as Miss Bolivia was even called
for (though never by the pageant itself).
Even Maria Alvarez Plata, Bolivian Vice-Minister of
Culture, weighed in on the question. She called Senorita
Oviedo’s statements “lamentable” and declared that
“No person who represents us has the right to have such
a racist outlook…”
The Vice-Minister of Culture practiced a bit of
psychoanalysis, stating that Miss Bolivia has difficulty
recognizing “the cultural diversity that we have in
our country.”
[Indignación
por declaraciones racistas de Miss Bolivia en Ecuador LA PAZ, May 27 (AFP)]
Wait a second!
It seems to me that Miss Bolivia does recognize
the “cultural diversity” in Bolivia. In fact, she got
into trouble for recognizing and publicly pointing
out—to foreigners! — Bolivia’s diversity.
You know the deal. Diversity is a Great Thing. It should
be celebrated. But if you really talk about it, you’re
branded a racist.
Let’s take an objective look at Bolivia and see what the
fuss is about.
Bolivia’s population is
55% Indian, 30% mestizo and 15% white.
Western Bolivia, the Andean region including La Paz, is
principally inhabited by the indigenous Quechua and
Aymara, descendents of the Inca. They are generally
shorter in stature than those of European ancestry. And
yes, they tend to be poorer as well.
The lowlands of Eastern Bolivia, including Santa Cruz,
from which Senorita Oviedo hails, is generally inhabited
more by mestizos
and whites. And they do tend to be taller. Gabriela
Oviedo herself is six feet tall.
[Vdare.com note: see
The Last Days of Bolivia?
By Mark Falcoff, for a full rundown on Bolivia's
problems.]
In other words, what Miss Bolivia said about her
country’s regions and ethnicities is true.
Why was it offensive?
Was it the way she said it? Or the tone of her voice?
Was it the fact that by beginning with “unfortunately”
she cast her discourse in a negative light?
Was she really putting down the western residents of her
nation who differ from her racially?
Since the interview was in English, Miss Bolivia claimed
she had been misinterpreted. But she didn’t drop out of
the pageant.
Whatever Miss Bolivia’s motives, I would venture to say
that her comments stirred up such a fuss because they
touch a raw nerve in Latin America, a taboo topic, a
reality you’re not supposed to notice—the Great Latin
American Racial Divide.
What racial divide? Latin Americans aren’t like those
racist Anglo-Saxons up north, are they? Aren’t Latin
Americans people who don’t notice skin color? Isn’t
Latin America a happy
melting pot of the races, where race doesn’t matter?
That’s the PC view, propagated by, among others,
Huntington-critic and
Reconquista Booster Carlos Fuentes.
Certainly,
Latin America contains an astonishing mosaic of
racial and ethnic groups, including racial mixtures of
various kinds.
But generally speaking, wherever you go,
white Latin Americans are at the top of the totem
pole!
You need look no further than the Latin American
contestants in the Miss Universe competition.
Venezuela is 67% mestizo. But look at
Miss Venezuela—she’s
blonde!
El Salvador is 90% mestizo. But look at
Miss El Salvador!
Does she resemble the average 19-year old woman from her
country?
Colombia is 58% mestizo and 20% white. But look at
Miss Colombia!
Ecuador, the host of the pageant, is 65% mestizo. Look
at
Miss Ecuador.
Panama is 70% mestizo and 10% white. But look at
Miss Panama.
(And her mother’s maiden name was Clark!)
Paraguay is 95% mestizo. But look at
Miss Paraguay.
The Dominican Republic is 73% mulatto and 16% white, and
look
at Miss Dominican Republic.
Mexico is considered by the CIA World Factbook to be
60% mestizo and 30% Indian. But look at
Miss Mexico.
Nicaragua is 69% mestizo. But look at
Miss Nicaragua.
Peru is 45% Indian, 37% mestizo and 15% white, but look
at
Miss Peru.
Do you see the pattern here? None of these countries
has a white majority. But all their Miss Universe
contestants (with one exception) are white—or at least
from the white end of the mestizo spectrum.
The only exception:
Miss Guatemala, a mulatto with an English surname,
who hails from the country’s small Caribbean coast.
Don’t get me wrong.
Far be it from me to tell Latin American countries who
they should pick for their Miss Universe
representatives.
But please, Latin Americans, don’t tell us how racist we
are—and how color blind you are!
We may be foolish. But we’re not blind.
American citizen Allan Wall lives and works legally in
Mexico, where he holds an FM-2 residency and work
permit, but serves six weeks a year with the Texas Army
National Guard, in a unit composed almost entirely of
Americans of Mexican ancestry. His VDARE.COM articles
are archived
here; his
FRONTPAGEMAG.COM articles are archived
here; his
website is
here. Readers
can contact Allan Wall at
allan39@prodigy.net.mx.
