Biden Presidency Prediction List

• Trump is obviously not going away
  
  
• Potential options are returning to his old life in now as a fully conservative celebrity rather than quasi-liberal, becoming a kingmaker for the future GOP candidate, or pulling a Grover Cleveland and winning in 2024. Rallies will not stop happening but they'll be more infrequent as Trump gets lazier
  
  
• He'll be shockingly transparent about certain aspects of the presidency that will further in his role in taking the mask off of the internal rot of the American government. This will be largely ignored in the mainstream media for the sake of rebuilding the prestige of the presidency with Joe Biden but it will land significantly on social media
  
  
• Though his image will slowly get reformed (especially if it becomes unlikely he'll run again), he will become persona non grata in the mainstream media to appear otherwise, making only rare appearances on there to speak as an ex-president
  
  
• Fox News will be added to his shit-list
  
  
• He will try create a media-apparatus for himself to compete with Fox either from the ground-up or joining OANN, attempting to bring over Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity to join. Most likely they will try to carry water for him at stay on Fox News for the good pay, though perhaps they may be so sycophantic that they will come to join him
  
  
• Depending on the success of Biden's presidency and the prospects of the GOP vis-a-vis Trump, Fox News will either crush him in the competition (though they might not have to as Trump will just fall flat on his face trying to go after him) or bury the hatchet to prep him for 2024
  
  
• Either way, expect a lot of dirty laundry to be aired out from both camps
  
  
• A few GOP figures will start offering mea culpas (if they haven't already) for going as far as they did with Trump, with more of them getting rehabilitated than would be comfortable (the number I would personally be comfortable with is absolutely zero)
  
  
• Conservatives won't consider Biden to be their legitimate president to such a point that some will try to do Russiagate tactics on him in an effort to get him impeached. Most likely, this won't go as far as there will be an even flimsier case to be made without foreign election interference. They may however try to pad a case to get Biden impeached on account of all the dealings Hunter Biden made but that too will lead nowhere
  
  
• Very slight student debt relief and $15 minimum wage nationally will be followed through on to be something that the administration and its allies in the media class can point to showing that Joe's getting some change done. But it'll come from some negotiation that results in the GOP getting a greater win in some fashion. Perhaps Biden will finally get a chance to cut Social Security and spin it as a good thing
  
  
• Legal immigration will be improved under Biden slightly but deportations will be between Trump and Obama levels. 
  
  
• The Dems will try to make some of the norms that Trump violated into law (ex. you'll have to show your tax returns to run) but they won't go anywhere. Biden himself will violate those same norms and hours will be spent on each side jerking each other off about how hypocritical the other side is being
  
  
• Biden will join the Paris Climate Agreement as promised but efforts in building back the Iran Deal will largely be futile, either from Republicans, the intelligence communities and/or the military-industrial complex trying to blow it up or Iran not having any trust in the US to keep its word
  
  
• Pointless saber-rattling with Russia. There will be a desire to get more tough with them what with all they have wrought with their election interference but there won't be anything to attach that anger to
  
  
• North Korea situation will get worse under Biden because they'll refuse to accept that Trump was heading in a better direction than what they were doing
  
  
• Unlikely thawing of relationships with Cuba as Biden moves to be more assertive on Venezuela, only to result in disaster when they bungle another coup attempt
  
  
• 50/50 chance a member of The Squad goes viral for a filibuster
  
  
• Censorship efforts will get more insidious, as the mainstream media doubles down on its disdain of Trumpism and progressives simultaneously. More billionaires buying up news outlets with 50/50 chance Bezos gets to swoop up the New York Times
  
  
• DC and Puerto Rican statehood will be spoken of more often, but nothing will be done about it
  
  
• QAnon-inspired attacks will spring up all over the country. Biden will condemn such actions and ask for gun control, GOP will be disgusted but offer nothing but thoughts and prayers
  
  
• 2022 midterm wipeout for the Dems very likely
  
  
• If Biden does enough of a good job on COVID-19, the Senate may get into Democrats' hands to create a backwards Obama first term (that will still retain the lack of substantial policy changes that get pushed through). However this could be negated if the Republicans trigger a shutdown
  
  
• Biden loses more Latino voters, especially in Florida. This will not assuage him or his team on trying to win them back for 2024 with Kamala
  
  
• California Prop-22 ballot initiatives will pop up around more states here (if they don't already get through in some measure before) and will have a 50% success rate, most likely getting success in places where the Democratic machine is more powerful and therefore able to be more relentless
  
  
• A random celebrity is going to be elected senator. Don't know who, don't know what party they'll be a part of, but it is going to happen. It won't be Kanye though
  
  
• 2023 will see a bubble burst. Republicans will blame the Dems while the Dems will bemoan about how unpredictable it was and how they've been doing such a good job so far of keeping everything on the level, especially considering the mess that Trump left them and bailouts aplenty will go out to the the wealthy and the corporations while the rest get zilch
  
  
• Biden's approval rating will be more volatile than Trump's, starting in the low-to-mid 60s and ending in the mid-to-high 30s, but will maintain itself in the same equilibrium as Trump where there is a constant disapproval that inches towards breaking 50
  
  
• 2024 election will result in a Republican victory
  
  
• Republicans will have a larger field of candidates vying for the position, but the winner will ultimately be determined by how much of Trump's magic they'll be able to get on them
  
  
• Democrats will rally around Kamala with a few candidates trying their best to usurp her, with the most "progressive" one getting the close to doing so but ultimately failing due to the party's structure, simply not being progressive enough and/or claims of hurting the party for even daring to run. 
  
  
• 50/50 chance a third party candidate gains some prominence

The Late Night Sundown With Joe Biden

With Trump defeated, most of us are left with a decent idea of what a Biden administration will look like in the next four year: par-for-the-course, limp-dick, let's-all-get-into-a-room-together-and-hash-it-out-like-civilized-folk-to-bomb-the-Middle-East-bipartisanly, boring-yet-frustrating business as usual. But what will become of the late night comedy landscape now that it will no longer have to draw from the well of hackneyed "orange man bad" material? Are we gonna be able to turn off our brains and finally have some fucking fun? Or will we still have to be nagged in believing the Democrats are just the greatest until humanity ceases to exist from its own follies? Allow me to game out the potential possibilities of what humor will be like under Joe Biden's America. (I'm sure I'll be wrong on some of these but at least I'll have better luck than the last time I did something like this)

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Stephen Colbert (The Late Show With Stephen Colbert)

Oof, can I just be real with you for a second? I hate what Stephen Colbert has become under Trump. When we awaited to see what it would be like to see Stephen the man, not the character, what we found is that the smugness and the ego from the latter absorbed itself into the former. That man has been rotted from the inside out by the orange brainworms that have infested his head, trying to rationalize how this reality-show buffoon could ascend to the highest office in the land. Colbert has been unable to think about Trump far more than anyone else out here and it has sucked out all the talent that one could've hoped to see from him. You look at every interview Colbert has done with someone and he will immediately try to get at least one question in to get a dig at the Donald. Even if his guest is an apolitical Irish flautist, he cannot help himself. It's truly been sad to see. 

Much as that has brought him success these past four years, Biden getting in might be the point where his whole operation comes crashing down. Colbert's maintained his success on the Report because he was able to fit into the archetype of the Bush-era sycophant turned Obama-era reactionary in such a way that could garner him interest from conservatives while also letting liberals in on the joke. He's kept himself afloat because he bet right to go for the hyperpolitical approach over trying to come to the middle. But now, he's gonna be adrift in an environment that is most likely going to tune out politics rather than expect his "hot" takes. 

Maybe he'll try to bring back Stephen Colbert the character, but the magic will have worn off. He certainly can't get back the conservative audience he lost, they already know how much of a lib he is! And for the bit to really work, he would have to become on par or crazier than Alex Jones. If he can't pull it off, it's gonna look lame. If he can, it's gonna be very weird. Best case for him is to try to channel some Phil Ken Sebben energy and become a caricature of himself as a late-night host. Being self-aware and making a few more self-deprecating jokes might be able to get him back to being as good as he used to be. 

John Oliver (Last Week Tonight)

While Oliver is the progenitor of the Drumpf-style humor, he's been more defined by the half-topical, half-idiosyncratic political issues he divulges into before finding some new way to set a pile of HBO's money on fire. He's the epitome of infotainment, somewhat informative, not quite so entertaining. His show has been useful in illuminating some issues and he can be daring enough to stir up legitimate controversy, but he's never going to get into the greater systemic critique or put himself outside of his comfort zone for an issue no matter how hard he firmly believes in it. He'll stay as is, which may make him the most controversial figure in a Biden presidency as even a milquetoast criticism of his administration would trigger the rabid snarling of a thousand blue checkmarks, but that would be unlikely considering Oliver's style. Even if he did step out of line a bit, he'd quickly try to win over the audience by parading a bunch of mascots out taking about potato battery subsidies or whatever the fuck. Expect him to bring out a lot more goofy news items. 

Saturday Night Live

Could it be that we get to see some wonderfully absurd sketches becoming viral instead of the mega-cringe that has inundated our social media feeds for what feels like decades? Will we see a return of the SNL movie starring a millennial influencer that becomes a gay guido from smoking a magical vape pen? Will the hosts become increasingly offensive to joyless social justice warriors for speaking the truth to the point that the entire series will end with one of them getting sucker punched by Kate McKinnon dressed up as Hillary Clinton? Or will the torture never end and we will be subject to an interminable fellatio of Biden and the Democrats mixed in with reactionary garbage that no one asked for? Who's to say? I'm just so tired...

Jimmy Kimmel (Jimmy Kimmel Live)

Four words: No more carelord Jimmy. Those tear ducts of his are almost going to be bone-dry. No doubt he'll still be kind of an abrasive dick, that's his brand, but it won't be so much at the service of demanding that the Republicans shows some decency. Instead it'll be to try and hook Joe Rogan on a gotcha when he has the audacity to invite him over for a quasi-friendly chat. It won't be on some political disagreement, no, he'll be trying to stir up some drama. He'll be glad to be able to cut loose a bit more, get to doing some more promotional work for the mouse, but I'm sure that once a real critical issue comes up, he's gonna have to get back to being serious for the sake of civility.

Jimmy Fallon (The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon)

Just as Colbert is likely to nose-dive, Fallon is likely to sky rocket as the new king of late night. All that shit that he's had to endure from folks that told him that he was wrong to ruffle that tangerine fascist's toupee like he was some loveable scamp will have been worth it when those same people are agog in childish delight over him playing life-size Hungry Hungry Hippos with Lil Nas X and John Kasich. If brunch moved to midnight under a Biden administration, his show will be main thing you'll see on the TV screens at the bar. That will be the panem et circenses for the American suburbanite. 

Seth Meyers (Late Night With Seth Meyers)

Definitely not gonna see much change with him, he's the cool glass of water of late night - not the most flavorful but sufficiently refreshing. He'll still do A Closer Look. There may be a joke that might get a few people angry if he gets a little too off-script, but he'll apologize immediately for it. That outrage will only happen once in the next four years. Nothing but smooth sailing.

Bill Maher (Real Time With Bill Maher)

Another person that is not going to see much change. Get ready to see him punch down to the left, saying that they should stop getting so uppity about Medicare 4 All or a Green New Deal when Joe (excuse me, Kamala, we all know she's gonna be running things while Sleepy Joe takes a nap *smug grin*) still has to clean up the mess Donald left him. He'll certainly want to talk tough to the Dems for being capital L losers with the senate still stuck in Republican hands. And once the dial on starting a war with Iran gets cranked up by the deep state, he'll be ready to cheerlead them on in the name of logic, science and atheism. Inshallah? I think not!

Samantha Bee (Full Frontal With Samantha Bee)

Initially I thought that Samantha Bee wouldn't have much of a place under a Biden administration and she'd most likely pack it in and be on her merry way but then it just hit me. Kamala Harris is the first female (and POC) vice president of the United States! She finally has the girlboss that she's been waiting for ever since she said I'm With Her to a smiling picture of Hillary Clinton. Not only can she carve out a suitable niche there, she can also try to angle for the Fox and Friends to Kamala's Trump, doing her best to sing her praises whenever she can, indulge in her being the true leader once Joe forgets where he is in the 10th consecutive press conference he's had, even offer her some suggestions like "abolish ICE (or if that's too much, maybe change the head of the department to a Latina?" or  "do not listen to a word that Bernie Sanders has to say ever". If it goes well for her, she might be able to get a few on-air calls from the VPOTUS herself!

Trevor Noah (The Daily Show With Trevor Noah)

Done for good. He tried to keep the brand going once Stewart gave him the torch but it did not last for too long, there's just nothing that he's offering that you can't get anywhere else. You think he's going to  get tons of press attention for eviscerating Biden or whoever in the next few years? No, of course not! The Daily Show is going to end not with a bang but with the forced corpsing of Trevor Noah seeing Ted Cruz make an ass out of himself for the millionth time. Or it could continue to stay on but go back to the Craig Kilborn formula. Either way, no one's gonna be watching. 

Hasan Minhaj (Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj)

Super donezo. There's three ways this can go: he gets cancelled mid-season from Netflix shitting the bed and sacrificing his show along with a bunch of other shows that didn't get any advertising whatsoever, he turns into a program that exclusively panders to Indians and Muslims just as a matter to maintain a loyal viewership, or, in a very unlikely event, he makes some truly ballsy criticisms about the Biden administration that result in him getting blackballed from the industry in a truly sickening way. 

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I'll give it a year and see where we go from there!

(P. S. - Conan O'Brien and James Corden are not included here because in my view Conan is far more apolitical than Fallon and therefore has not been in the crosshairs in any political sense (thereby meaning that he will stay the same as he was before without much to say on the matter) and Corden is only a late night comedy figure in the most technical definition of the words)

La Raza? Olvidatelo! - What It Means To Be Latino Outside Of The Homeland

I often wonder what it means to be Latino. Having lived in Canada longer than I have in Venezuela, at an age where most of my self-identity has been formed, I continue to believe myself as a Latino rather than Canadianized. I might be more assimilated than I care to admit, but I do not engage with Canadian communities and media sufficiently enough to consider that as part of my cultural language or identity. It might be more accurate to say that I've been Americanized, after all half of me already is by birth. I'm more interested in the politics there, I consume more of the culture, it is a more familiar domain and one that I can be involved in as an American citizen. But to be truly Americanized, I think you have to be in America, otherwise at best you're LARPing like Ian Miles Cheong. Saying I'm Latino then is the most concrete statement I can make about myself. So then, what does it mean to be Latino?

I can say with some certainty that Latino doesn't mean much of anything here in Canada. Culturally speaking, it's just another small part of the grand mosaic. We make up less than 2% of the entire population, so we're politically insignificant. You're not gonna see Jagmeet Singh grooving to a cumbia, Erin O'Toole assuring Albertan Venezuelans he'll cut taxes for them or Justin Trudeau apologizing for dressing up in brownface with a giant sombrero and novelty moustache any time soon. Latinos in Canada are more likely to be middle class or higher, and thus are more likely to just fully assimilate. Why try to frantically find a way to maintain that identity in this vast tundra when you can just sit back, open a Molson's and watch Hockey Night in Canada? It's unnecessary stress.

The whole point of a Latino moving to Canada is to alleviate stress caused by the chaos back home. When my parents decided to move me and my sister to Vancouver, it was because they saw the writing on the wall in Caracas that the political situation was going to get more fucked up each day, so they wanted to spare themselves the trouble of maneuvering an ever-growing clusterfuck as they raised us. It might suck that the timing of the move has left me with a tenuous connection to the homeland, but I can at least have the privilege to ponder about what I can do to strengthen it. However, with my relationship to Venezuela converted to a privilege rather than subconsciously imprinted within me as the need to breathe, it has made the conception of being a Venezuelan less innate to me. I've read up on the news, met with ex-pats, attended Latino events at my university, even participated in a pro-Guaido gathering downtown in a misguided attempt to connect with people there (Why the hell were we rallying around this goofy motherfucker, it's so fucking stupid!). It has all frustrated me. I don't feel more Venezuelan by any of those actions. I could try harder, read more books and news on my homeland, speak with my relatives about their experiences, but I will always be tenuously connected to Venezuela. No amount of trying to be more Venezuelan will make me more Venezuelan. I shouldn't stop trying to learn more about my homeland, it's worth doing so for my own enrichment, but there's no need to have it create more angst than what I already feel. 

In that respect, being Latino can become a shorthand for me to say "I'm Venezuelan but not Venezuelan" in a way that isn't succumbing to complete assimilation. But is that what it means to be a Latino? To say that you come from Latin America but are not Latin American in a truer sense? That's something that can apply to some Latinos, especially among those that are second-generation and beyond, but that wouldn't apply to those that have a clearer understanding of their own identity, those that are more Latin American in a truer sense but decide not to live in Latin America any longer. It can be convenient for me to apply a definition to the term that best suits me but it will not apply to everyone as a whole.

Back in 2016, I wrote a blog entry, The Quagmire Of The Latino Electorate, pointing out some of the complexities in the demographic as it relates to American politics. Looking back on it, I don't feel like I did truly get to how layered the issue is, and I approached it from a far more naïve perspective. I pointed out not all Latinos are Mexican, but I failed to point out that not all Mexicans in the US are the same. Some are migrants running from the cartels, others have lived comfortably in a suburb for decades. There is just as much disagreement amongst Mexicans in America as there is with Latinos in America. I operated under an assumption that Republicans are far more of a turn-off to Latinos save for the anti-communist Cubans and Venezuelans, but that's not taking into consideration how assimilation instills a sense of extreme patriotism that draws in Latinos to the GOP, along with there being far more reactionary sentiment within Latino communities of various nationalities. Worst of all, I said it would be nice if Ana Navarro ran in 2020. What kind of shit lib take was that? But at the very least I can say that I had some understanding, basic it was, of how bad it was for Democrats to be operating on Latinos as if they were a monolithic demographic. 

My desire from the end of that blog post was a hope to see better conversations about Latinos, one that could speak to their political concerns in less simplistic terms. But that has not come to pass. Hillary got a solid chunk of the Latino vote but Trump won so it became MS-13 this and migrant caravan that. Democrats would cry about the kids in cages but dare mention abolishing ICE or Obama's complicity in the crisis and his deportation record and you'd be labelled a Russian bot. Liberals do not want to confront how badly they've treated Latinos, that's being divisive and ungrateful. They think that wanting to use them as a cheap source for menial labor rather than executing them on sight is leagues more compassionate. Democrats don't earn the vote of Latinos, they are owed the vote of Latinos. 

It only got worse once it came to the primaries. With Bernie gaining in popularity, the concern became less about the human rights violations committed at the border and more about how irresponsible it is to propose socialist policies and trigger ex-pats' collective trauma. Cuba could no longer be praised for anything anymore, relationships had to be kept frozen with them. Nevermind that the literacy program Fidel Castro implemented was objectively good, and that Obama said as much, Sanders saying that meant that he wanted to execute Chris Matthews in Central Park. He could say that he doesn't support Castro's authoritarian regime but that wouldn't change anything, he was a comrade with a capital C for commie scum. And that's not even getting into how Medicare For All was made out to be as a program to import a horrific Chavista healthcare system to America. It became nothing more than a revival of Cold War fearmongering. 

Relentless as the smear campaign was, Bernie ended up with the greater percentage of the vote among Latinos, thanks to having better policies with regards to minimum wage, workers rights, health care, immigration reform, police reform, marijuana legalization, climate change, foreign policy, and so on. The incredible ground game headed by Chuck Rocha and not treating Latinos with utter contempt might've also helped too. But he didn't win Florida. And those are the only Latinos worth listening to. 

Biden won Florida and most of the primaries afterwards, with significantly less Latinos by his side. He's been significantly worse on all of the issues stated above, immigration especially, cosigning on stricter border protection measures that have enabled ICE to do some truly awful things. When challenged on his record by voters, he disrespects them, insults them; the most infamous example of such was telling an immigration activist to go vote for Trump. Now that he was the nominee, one might assume that Biden ought to consider trying to improve with Latinos as they are crucial in the Democratic coalition. But that would require listening to Bernie, and he's a dirty socialist, so instead they've no longer become crucial to his path to victory. Latinos were no longer worth playing with for Biden, his eyes diverted to the better toy of winning back suburbanites. 

What that meant for Latinos as a demographic was a narrowing of the scope. No longer did the Dems need to cover up their horrific record on immigration (especially when all they can do is virtue signal with a comparison to Trump). Now all the pandering was specifically for the Florida crowd, fighting's Trump's comparison of Biden to the socialism of Castro and Maduro to Biden responding to Trump by comparing him to the authoritarian character of Maduro and Chávez. This whole election was devoid of policy much like the last but it became much more insidious and aggravating to witness thanks to a global pandemic exacerbating the misery at an exponential rate. Immature displays, platitudes and culture war attacks that offered no substantive alternatives, no true relief. But you know, it's your duty to vote in this most important of all elections.  

Is it no wonder then that Biden and the Democrats have hemorrhaged significantly with Latinos? They refused to accept that their monolithic view of them was incorrect and opted instead to create a new one. But the one that they decided to form was never going to go for them. Take away that these Latinos are virulently anti-communist and bought the "Biden is socialism" bait without a second thought. These Latinos are more reactionary, more machoistic. Why the hell would they want to go with the pussy maricónes that are the Democrats? A bunch of whiny cucks that will cancel you if you call the darkest friend you know mi negrito out of endearment? The sort of gringo de mierda that insists on calling you Latinx? Fuck that! Trump Train all the way, baby! I want to make as many off-color jokes as I want while I watch Elliott Abrams fly a drone to bomb the shit out of Miraflores! My mother told me that Latinos love themselves a beret, a caudillo, a strongman. You can say Trump is the other side of the authoritarian coin with Chávez but that's more appealing to them than the Dems think. 

But Democrats don't learn, they double down. Rather than accept their mistakes with Latino outreach, liberals decided to play a cynical game of identity politics, saying how great it is that black people supported them en masse while the Latinos didn't pull their weight. Why not have the minorities fight amongst themselves rather than destroy our institution for failing them once more? So now we can talk about the differences between a white Cuban and a brown Puerto Rican? It's now we can discuss a little bit about the effects of assimilation? It's now that we can get to discuss about the complexities of Latinos as a demographic as we see the Republican shift happening right before our eyes? Oh wonderful, I'm so glad we can get into it! But guess what? It doesn't fucking matter anymore. The wheels are already in motion. Since the Democrats don't care to expand the electorate with policies that appeal to more Latinos (especially those in the working class of which there are a lot of), Latinos are going to tune out more, and so the Democrats are left to fight for a smaller pool of Latinos that will mostly despise them. All these conversations will amount to deflection, excuse-making for their inability to make fundamental changes, and a way to further divide their multicultural coalition to render them into oblivion. No need to reflect on how you turned an election that could've been a landslide into being down to the fucking wire, you can just prop up some intellectual to say "Should've seen this coming black folks, just look at the Italians! You can't trust them Hispanics!". Good fucking job, you freaks. I hope you have fun being Mitch McConnell's bitch for another 6 years.

It hurts me because I feel there could have been some use to these conversations at some point. If there had been a book, a movie, a comedy special even that talked about the nuances with Latino identity that could be sufficiently engaging to mainstream audiences, maybe there could have been at least a recognition of the problem, an understanding of its existence, an opening to explore it further. Instead what we're left with are animated movies about Día De Los Muertos as the furthermost introspection into our identity. But that is operating on a similar naïvete I had four years ago. It assumes that pop culture has an influence on politics rather than vice versa and also assumes that there wouldn't be tons of bad-faith arguments by liberals made to pollute the discourse and defang it of any potential to make a positive impact. 

What better example of liberals polluting the discourse than Latinx, a term that corrodes my soul worse than sulfuric acid could ever hope to do so on my flesh. It's pitched as this bold neologism that destroys the patriarchal supremacy of the Spanish language. It's able to make transgender and non-binary Latinos feel included don't you know? However I see more gringos use Latinx than I do Latinos. Latinx does not make sense to most Latinos, it sounds clunky as hell. What does Latinx really do to contribute to any discussion about Latinos and their political interests? What does Latinx do about getting better healthcare, or raising the minimum wage, or abolishing ICE, or ending the war in Afghanistan? What does it do to help a Latina that can't get a rape baby aborted in a red state? What does it do for a transgender Latino that gets gunned down by a white nationalist? It's woke busybody bullshit to force down one's throat, the embodiment of the Democrats's fecklessness and contempt towards Latinos. You will be called Latinx and you will fucking like it, you goddamn worms. We're doing intersectionality and we doing it right!

It's puzzling how ubiquitous Latinos are in American culture and yet how simultaneously invisible they are. More people speak Spanish in the US than French in Canada and yet you'll never see America adopt it as their second language. Well known Latino celebrities are abundant and play up their exotic element but they're recognized as either being assimilated sufficiently or part of a certain stereotype. So much of the culture is appropriated to the point that Taco Tuesday becomes a phrase as American as apple pie. Such a large impact and yet the conversation surrounding our identity remains shallow. Just think about how Cesar Chavez is one of the most prolific Latino activists in the US yet most Americans aren't quite that familiar with him and are caught off guard when he comes up on their calendar. Not that I can claim to be any better, I'm not exactly an expert on him either. I had to Google that Cesar Chavez Day is March 31st, and that not even half of the states recognize it. I suppose it's harder to appropriate him as a figure under the structure of neoliberalism so it's better to ignore him. 

Latino feels like it can work as a term because there is a sense that there is a commonality within Latin Americans when they get subsumed into the US and abroad. Certain perceptions emerge of who you are, cultural signifiers are formed and engaged with amongst each other, and of course we all share a language. Further than that, we also exist in a cultural limbo, where you neither truly become integrated as a collective nor are unable to fully assimilate. While there's a truth in the notion that Latinos are the new Italians in America, it can never fully become the case. The border's too close to make that term disappear. More Latin Americans and Central Americans are going to come to the US whether they like it or not, so the category will have to stay to separate them from those that have assimilated. Likewise, Latinos will exist as a cultural signifier rather than an ethnic identity. There will be third-generation Latinos that don't know shit about the land that their ancestors came from, they'll have never stepped a foot south of the border in Mexico, and they couldn't speak Spanish if they tried, but they'll still call themselves that because it will feel more right than saying they're Caucasian, or American. But there will also be Latinos that will be ultra-nationalistic to both their homeland and America. It remains incongruent. So then what the fuck does it mean to be a Latino?

For me, the term Latino is one of perpetual purgatory outside of the homeland, brought about by capitalist forces that realize that that if they cannot rule over the Global South then they can divide and conquer them so that they can never take over and become a part of upending their imperialist hegemony alongside the working class. Even if demographics are such that Caucasians become outnumbered in America, Latinos are left disorganized and disenfranchised as a diaspora that will forever be in conflict with itself as to what it means to live up to that term in a truer sense collectively and with social and class divides that cannot be bridged so easily. But I suppose in a simpler sense, it just means you come from Latin America.