“WE ARE NOT A MONOLITH”

This giant silhouette of South America is painted in two tones neatly packaged to challenge the often simplistic and sometimes erroneous view many Americans have of Latino and Hispanic Americans. The term ‘Latino’ is too reductive to reflect the incredibly diverse group of American descendants of various Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries. 

What the latest presidential election results have illustrated, as have many before, is that the interests, values and beliefs of Latinos across America are too heterogeneous to be captured by a term such as Hispanic. What is politically valued amongst Cuban-Americans, Venezuelan-Americans or even Mexican Americans in Texas and California doesn’t necessarily overlap or intersect. These groups are ideologically diverse and can mistakenly be perceived as one broad political constituency or identity. This silhouette of an incomplete Latin America perceived as a monolith strips the incredible diversity of cultures of all nuance and makes it easily digestible for contemporary non-Hispanic sensibilities. 

The Couto Brothers are Brazilian/Mexican fine artists based in Los Angeles, CA.