Hispanics of Color
17th September 2020
Today I woke up feeling more enthusiastic than I usually do; I moved differently. I had a planter’s punch for breakfast before a Bloody Mary. I have come to learn that I am not white! That is at least what The New York Times is suggesting, regarding the natives of Spain and Portugal as nonwhite.
Although I have no idea what color they are referring to, I know that there are great genetic differences between the northern barbarian consumers of butter and the Mediterranean hedonists who believe in olive oil as an elixir; also between the great drinkers of beer or wine; and, of course, between tobacco smokers and those who prefer hashish. Those habits, throughout generations, must favor a different pigmentation, and the NYT has no idea how to catalog us, which causes me as much laughter as it does a certain vanity.