Big question: What does the right think of your people?

It depends on which right wing.

I'm Brazilian. Although I'm of mixed European and African ancestry, I phenotypically pass as what Brazilians consider white (which is a bit more elastic than whiteness in the US). Perhaps I could pass in the US as well if they don't know where I'm from and I avoid the sun for a few months.

I also work at a very well respected industry. One of the very bad ones.

So, here in Brazil if I just trim my hair and beard and put on a suit and walk through the financial core of the city I can easily pass for one of them. That's not how I usually present though. I'm usually wearing a shaggy hair, and shorts with visible tattoos. And I'm pretty annoyingly political all the time. So they usually treat me as a "one of those dumb, drug addict leftists who don't bathe" (even though I actually never took drugs and bathe at least twice a day because this place is hot as fuck).

If I step a foot in the US I'm immediately branded as "Hispanic" or "Latino" with all the connotations that will imply, with a pinch of Brazilian stereotypes on top:

So, they'll probably think I'm:

• lazy (yeah, I am kind of lazy... can't deny that one. But who isn't?),
• a womanizer who just hits on all women all the time (I'm super shy and respectful when talking to women, only had two long term relationships my whole life),
• ultra machoman, misogynistic and homophobic (I'm bisexual, dude...)
• a super incredibly amazing lover (well, I'm not going to comment that, curious people would have to find by themselves)
• amazing soccer player (lol... no...)
• amazing dancer (lol, double no)
• a jungle dwelling savage (I live in a 25 million people metropolis),
• uneducated and dumb (I have a PhD, I speak two languages more than you, and I know where China is on a map, you racist)
• violent and prone to raging and fist fighting (I never got into a physical fight in my life, I'm kind of a nerd, you know?)
• a suffering little guy who knew abject poverty and needs help (although we aren't rich and there were some periods of relative scarcity when I was a kid, I'm mostly ok, don't worry),

Also, "oh wow, Brazil, Pelé, Samba!!" is not a nice thing to say to a Brazilian when you first meet them. First of all, you sound condescending and stupid. I speak English. You don't need to shout random words at me. Second... This ain't the 70s, folks. Learn some updated stereotypes. Pelé retired before I was born.

Also don't do a little faux-samba dance. Please. You don't know how to, and the music playing here is not samba (it's salsa, maybe rumba — totally different rhythm, completely different country, not even the same language).

And speaking of that... Latin America is a huge place, you know? Full of different cultures. The global north seems to treat Brazilians, Mexicans, Colombians, Bolivians, Chileans, Argentinians, etc, as pretty much the same thing and that is infuriating for us.

And like... It's already super insensitive and offensive to deny individuality to the different countries of Spanish-speaking Latin America and treating them as a blob of indistinct "Hispanic" culture. But... Do you realize how clueless it is to bundle Brazil together in that blob? It's so fucking dumb!!!

Like, yeah we have some of things in common culturally, sure. And I fucking love my Latin American brothers and feel a shared sense of belonging to a bigger thing. I'd easily pick the side of another Latin American most of the time... Like... there's a sense of camaraderie difficult to explain.

But!!!! Dude... we don't even speak the same language. Brazil is a really odd puppy in the Latin American litter. Colombia has a lot more shared culture with far away Mexico than with neighboring Brazil. They share music on the radio, they share TV shows by Televisa, they share literature in Spanish, etc. And imagine this: if Colombia and Mexico, with all that cultural dialogue are so different and distinct, imagine how much more distinct they are from Brazil, who participates a lot less in this shared Spanish-speaking Latin American identity.

(Although we all share the most important cultural product of all times, which is El Chavo del Ocho, and no imperialist will ever take that away from us)

That's so fucking annoying dude. It looks like the world look at us with fucking inverted binoculars, you know? Like... 3000 different music genres? It's all Latin music. Just play some stock salsa from the 50s, give some maracas to a scantily clad oversexualized tanned girl to shake while she dances and that's it, a whole fucking continent summarized. FUCK YOU.