Misconceptions/Stereotypes

[woodsman'sgame]

Ok, I have been wanting to say something about this for some time. Today is my day to gripe so let me get it off my chest.
Hispanics/Latinos are not a particular race. They are not all dark haired, dark skinned. They don't all speak with accents, and they don't all eat tacos.

Many, many are causcasian of European descent. They can be blond and blue-eyed (though admittedly not very common).
My sister is blond; she has been all her life.
I have green eyes, of the 8 people in my family only 2 have brown eyes, the rest are green. My ancestors came from Spain, a European country. I am as caucasian as any European claims to be.

Hispanics can also be black, Indian, Asian or any mixture of these "races" (another very confused term full of misconceptions, but we won't get into that one here). What makes them Hispanics/Latinos is the language that they share, Spanish.

Why am I saying all this? Because I have just finished reading another story (I have read so many that have this fault!) where the Latino characters are somewhat stereotyped, but on top of that this story stated that a female Latino in this story "must have had some occidental blood" because she was blond!
ARGHHH!

Oh, by the way, I don't mean to rag on any particular author. There have been many stories that have been guilty of stereotyping. This particular author wrote an excellent story, and this was the only thing that bothered me. And at least he/she recognized that a Hispanic could be blond.

OK, getting off my soapbox and back on my knees.