There’s a trend in the Americas. Latina* women are getting tired of Catholicism. They’re sick of being called “mamacita” in the streets. They don’t want to deal anymore with the chauvinistic pigs otherwise known as Latino men. So they’re throwing away their tank tops and their statues of the Virgin Mary and pulling on the hijab and ‘abaya instead.
Or so the media would have you believe. I’ve seen a stream of articles about Latina women converting to Islam, and they overwhelmingly rely on stereotyped images of Latino cultures as well as Muslims. The topic has been covered by MSNBC, NPR, the Christian Science Monitor, the Houston Chronicle, and more.
Here’s the standard lead:
Latina woman is walking down the street. It’s a hot day, and she’s dressed in a full-length skirt (dress, coat, etc.) and a hijab. She passes some Latino men. They look towards her and don’t scream at her. She sighs thankfully and reflects on the days of the past, of catcalls and shouts of “Hey, mami” as she walked by in her skimpy outfit.
The article then explains that in Latino culture, men are macho jerks and women are sex objects. In Islam, they are covered up and immediately respected. The author retells the woman’s decision to leave Catholicism for Islam, her experience putting on hijab, and the sad reactions of her family. If the journalist tries to dig a little deeper, there may be some theological reasons for choosing Islam, but they’re usually an afterthought. Some articles will note that Latina women like the strict gender roles of Islam because that’s what they’re used to.
Of course, not every article follows this mold precisely, but none stray from it completely. They paint monolithic pictures of both Latinos/Latinas and Muslims. It’s especially unfortunate in a time when both groups are often vilified and misunderstood in the United States.
From reading any one of the articles on this topic, someone without much knowledge about either group could easily assume that it’s impossible to be a Latina woman without rocking the halter top and being objectified by the men in your community, or that it’s impossible to be a Muslim woman without knowing your place — which is, of course, to subordinate yourself to your husband and be respected for covering your body and hair. You’d think sexism and patriarchy are non-issues for other races and religions. Articles on converts of other ethnicities rarely spend this much time on the sexual harassment they received pre-Islam — if at all. I mean, I know machismo is a Spanish word, but come on — patriarchy isn’t limited to Spanish-speakers. Consider this quote:
“The way Latin men portray women, it’s terrible,” Avelar said. “You look at Spanish CDs, and you see women in bikinis on the cover.” (Washington Post)
Yes, Spanish-language media frequently sexualize women. But since when do American media not? I don’t know what part of the U.S. you’re living in if you’re never seen women’s bodies used to sell products. The bikini-clad woman in the wine glass… the bikini-clad women reclining on sports cars… I could go on. But that issue rarely seems to be an issue brought in white convert stories.
But for Latina women, it seems to be the biggest issue. It’s as though Latino cultures have the monopoly on men who make crude comments in public, and Latina feminism doesn’t exist. It’s also as though only Muslims are allowed to dress conservatively. Most articles paint Latinas as perpetually clad in tank tops, shorts, and mini skirts, unless they become Muslim — at which point they always, always wear hijab… unless they choose niqab instead. Come on, the world is not the dichotomy it’s portrayed to be:
On a hot summer day, Stefani Perada left work for the day in West New York, N.J., and stepped outside in her long jilbab, the flowing clothes worn by many Muslim women. Meanwhile, other Latinas in the mostly Hispanic neighborhood were taking advantage of the warm day, walking around in shorts and midriff-exposing halter tops. (MSNBC)
It’s easy to make everything so simple. Latinos disrespect their women; Muslims respect them. Latinas show off everything; Muslim women cover up completely. This simplification seems to be hard to avoid when discussing Latina converts. Another article wrote,
While some Latinas her age try to emulate the tight clothes and wiggling hips of stars like Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera, Ms. Pinet and others are adopting a more conservative lifestyle and converting to Islam. (Christian Science Monitor)
It should be obvious that not all Latina women want to be sex kittens, and the world isn’t so black and white. Let’s not forget that emulating the “tight clothes, wiggling hips” look happens in white America too.
It’s frustrating that the Islam the women profiled turn to is consistently the same. They put on clothes with Arabic names, attend Qur’anic study groups at the mosque, and marry men they meet there. (By the way, there’s never any mention of Muslim men who sexualize women, because that’s apparently the domain of non-Muslim Latinos.) There’s nothing wrong with doing these things, but you’d think there’s no room for Muslim women to do anything else. These articles never mention Latina Muslim activists, or writers, or anything, really, but the archetypal domestic woman who fulfills both the Latina stereotype pre-conversion and the Muslim stereotype post-conversion.
And that brings up another assumption. There’s the idea that all Latinos are Catholic — or even religious. Although Catholicism is clearly the dominant faith of Latin America, there do exist Latinas who follow Protestantism, indigenous religions, or, in smaller numbers, other religions — including Islam. And to be Muslim and Latino is not always to convert to Islam. I think I may have once seen an article somewhere — nowhere to be found again — about a Latin American woman who grew up in a Muslim family, but that was the exception. Let’s not forget that Islam isn’t new to the Americas; slavery brought it here centuries ago. And neither should we forget that non-religious Latino families also exist.Unfortunately, the majority of coverage of Latina Muslims works from a framework that sees both Latin American cultures and Islam as strange and different. I guess the only way to explain how the two could meet is to fall back to the tired stereotypes and extreme dichotomies.
*The term “Latino” or “Latina” includes the Portuguese-speaking country of Brazil, b
ut I’ve seen almost no coverage of Brazilian Muslims, except for this article, explaining why Brazilians aren’t Muslim.
For more information on Latino/a Muslims, see LADO or HispanicMuslims.com.
Photo credit: MSNBC
gracias, for this post. im a young latina convert(almost a year now). i am in college and all the time people question me on how can i be puerto rican and muslim… its like sometime you cant be both. i still salsa dance and listen to music of my country but in my home, and ppl see me at the puerto rican parade in hijab waving my countries flag and yelling yo soy boricua pa’ que tu lo sepas…… for me it was about the peace i found. and while i hae to give up some things of my culture like knowing my daughter wont have a quince …. im getting a wonderful husband(getting married in may) and a realtionship with god like no other
I respect that Islam has a long history in Spain, and throughout Latin America by extension. To call conversions to Islam a trend, however, sounds a bit premature without more information.Other than articles written 2 or more years ago, can you make reference to other statistics or aritcles within the past 4 months that can point to a current trend? If so, I would really appreciate the information.
The Deep Ravine, I think Melinda was trying to dispel the idea that conversions among Latinas to Islam is a “trend,” by calling out news outlets that do so; I don’t think it was her intent to imply the same thing.Amirah, barikallah for the struggle to keep your identities.
Which article talks about why Brazillians aren’t Muslim? I’d be interested to hear what ridiculous “reasons” they have for that crippling stereotype…Blessed be.
Love the analysis Melinda. Great job. I also read this as a critique of the “trend” assertion of various media. Simplyfying things seems to make it easier for people to assess information but it is so determental to our intelligence and knowledge, not to mention social conscious. Such simple dicotomies need to be pointed out and critiqued. btw…in developmental psychology the stage of development around the teen years shows this type of black and white thinking. It is assumed though that healthy development will lead to an ability to think about the grey once one is past the teen years. But so many people get stuck in the teen way of thinking – black and white.It’s one thing if people really cannot see past the black and white due to medical/developmental issues. But most who don’t see past it choose not to.
Kathy B,Here’s the article:http://www.islamfortoday.com/brazil.htm
Salaam Alaikum,I’ve just read the Brasillian article. It’s actually not about Brasillians not being able to be Muslim, but the failure of the current ‘Muslim establishment’ in Brasil to reach out to and support converts.
Great post. When is the media going to realize that the world is more complex than a/b, y/z? There’s something seriously wrong with the media if they a. can’t either grasp the nuances of society or b. refuse to write an article that reflects those nuances because it’s harder.
Salaam ‘Alaikum//But that issue rarely seems to be an issue brought in white convert stories.//Oh, I think that this is the part of the “white girl converts” stories that our “born Muslim” brothers (and some sisters) love the most. It’s there, believe me.I have mentioned these very things in the past, with the additional perspective of being one of the two founders of the Latino American Da’wah Organization. At the time LADO was founded, there was exactly one news article in English on Latino Muslims (at least, it was the only one anyone could find and the one everyone sent each other over and over again and reprinted in newsletters and so on). This is the reason I do not focus or link to mainstream media stories about Latina Muslims. The women in these stories are *real* — they’re my friends, neighbors, co-workers. But the way they are portrayed in these stories are as dolls. Two dimensional dolls with no deep spiritual insights to offer to the readership of that particular publication. In these articles, often (but not always) written by White people, it is okay for Latina women to convert, because Latinos are perceived as being part of an alien, sometimes tasty and spicy patriarchal subculture that is ultimately not part of “us.” (You know, not like the, you know, patriarchal culture of mainstream America…)In add’n, Latino men, like Arab men (who, let us remember, represent all Muslim men in the media) are perceived as being controlling, extremely sexual, misogynist, and poorly behaved… and there’s the taboo of White women being attracted to them. From this mindset, for a Latina woman to go from Latino men to “Arab” (Muslim) men is no biggie. Remember, it’s “what she knows,” and all “those” people are alike anyway. Thus, the reassurance to (White) readers that Latina Muslimas aren’t really doing anything but trading in their sexxxy halter top for a jilbab. Everything else remains the same. Still strange, still exotic.(See, when Euro-American women convert and the media bothers to write about it, it usually comes from a few different angles, notably the “She married an Ay-rab” one, with a whole bunch of undertones that can be explored some other time).It’s also worth nothing that not every Latino Muslim comes from an immigrant background, something that is often ignored both by the mainstream press covering this “story” as well as the Muslim community. A lot of the sisters I know are third, fourth generation American-born. As for it being a “trend,” I dislike this train of thought b/c people coming to the diyn of Allah is not a trend, it’s hidayah and I think that is the mindset we need to look at this from. It may be a “trend” to them b/c one reporter noticed it, and all the other reporters flocked to that story and picked it up and looked around and said, “By George. There are Latinos who aren’t Catholic with tattoos of La Virgen on their arms!” I mean, really, that’s what this boils down to — the idea that a discovery of an unknown people has been made, and must be displayed for all to ooh and ah over. And because we just discovered it today, then it must be a trend, because it did not exist before we paid attention to it. Latinos from Denver to Buenos Aires have been practicing and accepting Islam for decades without the spotlight of CSM on them.Statistics bandied about in the Latino Muslim community put the current numbers at 70,000 up from about 8,000 ten years ago. I have no idea what the root of this statistic is, or how accurate it is. Juan Galvan, who took over LADO from myself and Samantha Sanchez, may have more insight. Within the community, it is believed that this increase is due to the wider availability of material in Spanish, as well as the emergence of the internet as a major reference, learning tool, & network for people. However, one has to look at it in the context of the widely believed overall trend of increasing conversions due to the same factors (a much more visible Muslim community, the emergence of Muslim press, more focus on local Muslim communities by local media, the age of the internet).I will also point out, in defense of the “mainstream Muslim community,” that there has been an increased awareness of da’wah to Latino communities. It may not be broad, or as cared for as the da’wah to White people, but it’s there. Working in NYC and Boston, I have experienced first hand community leaders looking to LADO and others for insight on how to reach out to the local Latino communities (for da’wah and joint community efforts, such as neighborhood clean ups).//(By the way, there’s never any mention of Muslim men who sexualize women, because that’s apparently the domain of non-Muslim Latinos.)//Seriously… these stories may be the one place in “About the Mozlems” writing where this concept is *not* dominant and repeatedly mentioned.
Excellent analysis. Umm Zaid’s comment above was also right on. I’m a Mexican convert with a very diverse background (Jewish and Asian) and I never touched a halter top in my life. Those articles you speak of always left me thinking “QUE QUE???!” I personally have never met that archetypal ghost. The portrayal of Latino women is so stupidly oversimplified, so mediocre.