Note: As you know, The NiLP Network members' reviews of the CNN series, "Latino in America," were presented here in four parts. To conintue the discussion, we invited Soledad O'Brien to give us her thoughts on the whole experience and she graciously accepted.
---Angelo Falcon
I have only Begun to Tell Our Stories with 'Latino in America'
By Soledad O'Brien (November 6, 2009)
Let me start by saying I think it's an enormous victory that a major network has enhanced its coverage of our community this year, culminating in a 2-part, 4 hour documentary called "Latino in America." I am also very proud to have co-authored with Rose Arce , a book about our community, "Latino in America," published in October by Celebra (Penguin USA). Some of the chief goals of both projects were to initiate conversations about our community, enhance our visibility and start a conversation about relevant issues. All the comments that The NiLP Network drew make me feel as if we have been successful on all those fronts, just by having engaged you.
When I began to plan our project, I saw it as a news documentary about a vast population, people with roots in some 21 countries who had distinct histories and very different experiences. There is no way to do justice to that range of experiences even with a number of pieces and an additional 4 hours of documentaries. What my team decided was that we would call it "Latino in America" because it was not to be a documentary about history or descendency, as the term Hispanic might imply, but about what happens after we've arrived, about an American experience we share and an identity that is born of this country, one that brings together people with roots from all over the Latin world, people who predate the US or came yesterday, people who have some shared values but don't necessarily have similar racial or ethnic roots or even language. It is a story about a group of Americans and their American experience, a US experience at that.
We also decided that, in the spirit of CNN, we were doing a NEWS documentary. That means that we follow real people through their human experiences wherever they may take them, their ups and downs and how they confront the greatest issues our community is facing, whether that be by achieving their dreams or confronting obstacles. If they falter, we watch them falter. When they succeed, we are there to record the moment.
Some of you have spoken about negative and positive images in the documentary and it is clear there is vast disagreement as to what each of those means. A lot of it reflects the socioeconomic status of the person defining the terms, their own life experience and the way they see media. Many educators have hailed us for telling the story of what an enormous sector of our young population is facing in overcrowded and under funded schools that do not address their unique needs as children of families struggling with a host of economic, cultural and immigration issues. Others would rather we had highlighted only success stories and stayed away from casting a spotlight on the struggles of our school children.
The same was true of immigration stories. So many in our community told us we could not do a story about Latinos without showing how our controversial immigration debate is tearing apart families and encouraging some folks to target the most vulnerable among us. Others wanted no immigration experiences in the documentary because they considered them depressing.
At the end of the day, I am a journalist and I made every effort to report the unfolding drama of human beings in our community. I take many of your suggestions to heart and urge those of you who did not yet watch the documentary to watch it and also read the book, and give me even more criticism and suggestions. I like the ideas I've heard and I too walked away from this project wanting to tell so many more stories, to provide more history and context, to increase our visibility in the media on a daily basis. I could have re-worked and re-shot this forever trying to hit the right balance.
What I do know is that I am unapologetic about our need to cast a light on inadequate services and unfair treatment and to tell some of the stories of the most vulnerable among us. For example, I have fought too long over my career to get the media to talk about the terrible Hate Crimes committed against our people, a 40% increase in one year, to not seize an opportunity to tell that story. It is a sad story, it is disturbing that there is so much hate in some quarters, but it is a very real issue and we cannot close our eyes and say we'd rather see a profile of a thriving Latino business. When the Shenandoah killing happened, very few members of our community stepped forward. There was only one person from one Latino organization present the night of the verdict to represent the victim. That tells me that story has not been widely told, because we are not a community that fails to speak up when trouble is afoot.
I feel the same about teen dropout rates, suicide and teen pregnancy. Our community suffers disproportionately from these ills. Our rates are rising. They are higher than they are for other ethnic or racial groups and they are undercutting the lives of our young people. I am surprised how many people have written on the NiLP site and others that they wondered why we'd look at these issues in our community rather than some other community. That tells me that Latinos, even leaders who make policy decisions, live unaware of exactly what the statistics are and I feel even more strongly that even our own community needs to be educated about what's happening to too many of our children. We need to challenge bad schools, shabby health education, even look at our own family dynamics. Not talking about these issues is not going to make them go away, nor is doing PR for those who have escaped them going to change the reality too many face.
The challenge, and it is one I certainly find daunting, is to discuss these issues in context. I did my level best this time. I have learned a lot and I continue to listen, have an open mind and learn more. I am continuing to tour this country many months after this project is over in hopes of getting more ideas, more input, continuing to educate myself about our community and its issues. I pledge to you that I continue my mission to illuminate the many good things about our culture and our life here. There are many stories yet to be told, about our incredible successes, our astronauts and Congresspeople and Ivy League graduates, as well as how our schools are failing our future leaders. I have just begun to tell them. And, for every one of you who wanted more, I say thank you many times over for joining me in the fight to tell our story . . . and "stand by."
Soledad O'Brien is a CNN Anchor and Special Correspondent who reported for CNN's latest documentary, "Latino in America." She also reported for the recent CNN series, "Black in America."
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