1	In the News From politics to art, the headlines of Hispanidad. read more...
2	Up Front Columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr., offers a meditation on the touchy subject of “selling out” when it comes to assimilation. read more...
3	Up Front Leading educator Dr. Eduardo Padrón finds, in his students, hope for a more enlightened public discourse. read more...

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Vendido

The most unforgiving label hispanics can put to one another is sellout.

Early in his career, acclaimed playwright and filmmaker Luis Valdez penned what became a classic skit about stereotypes, assimilation and the perceived price of success.
Los Vendidos (The Sellouts) takes place in the shop of a crafty salesman named Honest Sancho. The proprietor trades in “used Mexicans,” and, at the moment, he’s eager to meet the needs of a customer—an assimilated Hispanic woman from the California governor’s office. The woman wants to buy a “token Hispanic” and put him to work in the governor’s administration. Sancho shows the woman various models—farmworker, zoot suiter, etc.—but the item that interests her is a high-priced, clean cut, light-skinned, acculturated, accent-free-English-speaking “Mexican American.” Once the deal is closed, and the woman leaves the store, the rejected models throw off their disguises and start divvying up the take. Sancho, it turns out, is a robot and the whole thing is a scam—one that takes full advantage of popular assumptions about what kinds of Hispanics are, and aren’t, acceptable.
The moral to the story: It’s silly to make too much of societal pressure to assimilate, just as it’s silly for some people to put a higher premium on those who have assimilated than those who haven’t.
The skit cuts close to the bone because many Hispanics harbor unforgiving notions of what it means to “sell out” your own kind. As insults go, this is near the top of the list in terms of bite. It has no power if it’s coming from a non-Hispanic. But entre familia, among Hispanics, it’s meant to sting and draw blood.
I was reminded of that fact earlier this year when, while on the lecture circuit, I was peppered, on two separate occasions, with questions from Hispanics in the audience. The questioners were curious as to how I dealt with criticism that I was “selling out”—because of, for instance, my insistence that Hispanic immigrants assimilate.
I was stunned. Oh, not by the phrase itself. I’ve been accused of selling out before. In fact, I can’t remember my first time.
Maybe it was the first time I expressed support for a Republican politician, or stated my opposition to bilingual education and racial preferences. Or maybe it was on one of the occasions when I wrote that the borders should be secured and illegal immigrants deported. Or maybe it was when I went to work for the first of what would turn out to be three newspapers with conservative reputations.
Once, at another speech I was giving in Southern California, a Hispanic baby boomer got so upset with something I said—probably about Hispanic baby boomers—that she stormed out of the room, but not before yelling “vendido” in my direction.
Having said that, what surprised me about the question is that, in recent years, I’ve taken more hits from the Right than the Left—especially on the immigration issue. Most of the time, I’m accused of being more Mexican than American, or spending too much time defending other Hispanics. Any time I take issue with some half-baked solution to the illegal immigration problem, I’m accused of being a raving liberal who wants an open border and amnesty for illegal immigrants.
For the record, I don’t support either. Of course, my critics will never be convinced of that, not as long as I have a Latin surname.
Now, at the other extreme, some Hispanics want to know how I respond to accusations that I’m selling out because someone is peeved that I don’t agree with them on some issue.
What’s odd is that the questions seem to be asked with genuine concern. It’s as if they’re trying to ask, “How would you come back from such a crushing blow
—labeled a sellout by your own people?”
It’s really not that difficult. I realize that Hispanics delight in tearing into one another. They always have, and they always will. Sometimes, it’s over envidia (envy) or simply the result of an intolerance of opposing viewpoints. It’s going to happen.
But that doesn’t mean you have to take those criticisms to heart, especially when you know they’re not grounded in reality.
As long as you know who you are—and aren’t—you’re better off heeding the advice given me years ago by a successful Hispanic businessman. Quoting the former first lady of Argentina, Eva Perón, the businessman advised: “It doesn’t matter what those morons say.”
So back to that question: “How do you respond when someone accuses you of selling out?”
Answer: The same way, you should respond when someone at the other end of the spectrum accuses you of always defending your own people. Just remember—it doesn’t matter what the morons say.
And, now as always, they come in all colors.

Ruben Navarrette, Jr. is an editorial board member of the San Diego Union-Tribune, a nationally syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group and a regular contributor of commentary to USA TODAY and CNN.com.