As part of Latino Heritage Month Pepperdine’s Intercultural Affairs Office hosted a discussion with LA Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Hector Tobar on Tuesday night.
Tobar spoke to students and professors Elkins auditorium about the changing state of American culture sharing his own story and unique perspective about some of the perceptions and realities about the word “Latino” in American society.
“I never willingly called myself Hispanic” began Mr. Tobar as he described his youth living in a multicultural Los Angeles neighborhood. “I thought of myself as an Angelino or a Dodgers fan or a Lakers fan.” From the beginning Hector said he called himself an American like millions of first generation Americans whose parents migrated from South and Central America seeking opportunity in the United States.
Throughout his time in Los Angeles Tobar said he found that many people had an inaccurate image of Latinos in the city.
“I think there was a disconnect for me between the city that I saw and the city that was represented in the media he said. Tobar noted the media’s propensity to show Latinos as victims, as a burden to society and the economy.
My mission as a reporter and a writer ever since then was to subvert that stereotype because I knew it not to be true.”