Euracas

por abrelatas

The spanish and xenophobic people always refer to latin-american people as «Sudacas». This is a typical way to objectify the huge diversity of a big geographical scope. They do the same with the people coming from Senegal, Morocco or Ghana: they call them «africans». So this language creates stereotypes. As Beatríz Preciado says, every single word is a battlefield. There is a fight of imageries.

Today, one friend sent my this twit from a magazine of the famous spanish newspaper ElPais:

He aquí las historias de mujeres peruanas que lideran movimientos sociales en España http://t.co/TAIu67KmJ7 pic.twitter.com/5Jd5PfCU1C

— ELPAÍS PlanetaFuturo (@Planeta_Futuro) abril 23, 2015

Translation: «Here you have the stories of the peruvian women who are leading social movement in Spain». In the picture we can see Aída Quinatoa, who is not peruvian. She is ecuadorian. This is a small mistake, I know. Also because later, they shared their apologizes because of that mistake. But it shows the problem I mentioned before. This lack of professional rigour talks about how embedded is xenophobia in our society.

May be some of you could consider that I’m exaggerating. But really, If you google «Aída Quinatoa», you can read and watch different contents in which it shows that Aída is clearly ecuadorian. It cannot be just consider as a «little mistake». We are living dark days for migrants. The mediterranean sea is a cementery and Europe is a fortress for the newcomers. So we urgently need to rethink the way we are living together. The way we build narratives of the newcomers. And in that sense, every single word is important. Because if not, probably soon we will be consider as «Euracas». And it could be fair.