"Black in Latin America"

While watching "Black in Latin America," I was surprised to see how war heroes are seen today. Many Latin American national heroes today, for example, those who led their nations through independence, have statues of themselves in their country of origin. These heroes are national icons and I thought it was interesting to see that some of the statues were made to look more white. These icons were carved out of white marble and given different facial characteristics to make them seem more European or American. I do not understand why these figures would need to look more white. The people should be proud of the culture and background their icons came from and be proud of what they accomplished.

Many people do try and hide their racial background and heritage however. Even though the majority of people in Latin America come from African decent, no one admits to it. In the "Black in Latin America" video, dolls of African women were shown and they are perceived in a negative way. This makes people think they should not be or admit to being African because there are so many negative stereotypes that go along with being African and having African heritage.