Is being Latino in the United States an advantage or a disadvantage?That was one of the questions at the center of a recent Pew Research Center survey that looked into Latino identity. According to the poll, Latinos are split — 33% of those surveyed felt that being Latino hurts in getting ahead in the U.S., 26% felt it helps and 40% felt it neither helps nor hurts. The study also found that the majority of respondents said their Latino identity is very important to who they are.That pride has been clear to see over the last month as Latinos whose countries made the World Cup donned their national teams’ soccer jerseys. Tears of joy and grief were shed, days were made and ruined due to how one’s country performed throughout the tournament. You couldn’t drive more than a block in Los Angeles without seeing a Mexican flag. Brazil fans took over the two bars closest to my apartment. Ecuadorians were out en masse at the restaurant where I watched the Mexico-Ecuador knockout game. Being Latino always feels good during the World Cup, even if it often ends in heartbreak. But while Latino pride seeped through every pore out on the pitch and filled the hearts of soccer fans everywhere, we were also reminded of the disorienting reality of being Latino in this country by several shootings.On July 7, federal immigration agents shot and killed Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in the predominantly Mexican American neighborhood of Magnolia Park in Houston. Salgado Araujo’s death was at least the eighth fatality that resulted from immigration sweeps since the start of 2025.Unfortunately, the ninth and 10th deaths came quickly after. On Monday, Colombia native Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was shot and killed by ICE agents in Biddeford, Maine. Just like Salgado Araujo, he was shot inside his car.“The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety an officer discharged his weapon,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to NPR. The agency did not provide any evidence in support of this claim. As was the case with Salgado Araujo’s death, the agents involved in the shooting were not wearing body cameras.The 25-year-old food delivery driver was reportedly shot in front of his wife and 3-year-old daughter. On Tuesday, a 28-year-old Mexican national was killed after fleeing an immigration sweep in St. Augustine, Fla. The still-unidentified man was part of a group of people being rounded up by ICE agents in the parking lot of a convenience store. While attempting to escape the raid, the man ran onto a busy highway and was fatally struck by a tractor-trailer. According to a Homeland Security statement, Florida Highway Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations are currently investigating the incident.After a week like this, it feels ridiculous to not think that being Latino is a disadvantage in this country. Simply being or “looking” Latino, or driving through a Latino-heavy neighborhood, can lead to death. To be Latino is to have a target on your back.That sentiment was echoed by my dad in a conversation I had with him earlier this week on the questions the Pew Research Center asked.“I don’t see any advantages to being Latino in this country,” he said. “The only advantage I see is in the case of Mexicans because you’re at least close to Mexico.”My father, Roberto De Loera, came to the U.S. from Mexico in 1985 as a 17-year-old and has lived here ever since. He met my mom in this country, had kids, started a business and has been a citizen for decades. He’s very proud of being American and Mexican.“There are disadvantages because simply due to your appearance [government officials] can now detain you and ask you questions without even knowing your nationality or if you are a citizen, but they see you and they assume you don’t have papers,” he said of what are now called Kavanaugh stops. My dad acknowledged that Latinos who come to the U.S. and those who have been in this country for generations do have some economic and social advantages when compared to the people living in their heritage countries — but that’s where the advantages stop.“I’m thankful to this country for the opportunities I’ve gotten that I maybe would’ve never gotten in Mexico,” my dad said. “But no one’s ever treated me better at a business because I’m Mexican. I don’t get priority at a hospital for being Mexican, I don’t get a better loan from the bank because I’m Mexican.”As a naturalized citizen, my dad pointed out that part of the reason he feels there is no gain from being Latino in his life is because he’ll always be seen as a foreigner — never fully as an American.“I don’t even get the full luxury of the U.S. passport,” he said. “When you’re a naturalized citizen and you take out your passport it very clearly shows your place of birth; they never let you forget you’re naturalized. If I go to Europe, the airport agents will see the outside of my passport and at first perceive me as American, but the second they open it up they’ll see my birthplace and see me as Mexican. So I only get that advantage of being perceived as American internationally for, like, three seconds.” Not everyone I spoke to felt as strongly as my dad did about the disadvantages of being Latino in the U.S. Emily Morales-Cabrera, a Guatemalan American actor living in L.A., noted that her Latinidad had provided her with more career opportunities. “I think that I do benefit in the best way possible, especially when it comes to commercials,” Morales-Cabrera said. “I get to go in for not just the English-speaking commercials, but also the Spanish-speaking commercials.” But her identity — daughter of two Guatemalan immigrants — doesn’t always help, as the entertainment industry has historically boxed out Latinos from roles. “What Hollywood thinks Latinos are supposed to look like is completely different than what we all look like, because all of us come from different backgrounds and all of us are completely different shades, even within our own families,” she said. “Being Latino hurts us in the sense that not enough people reach out to have us in stuff.”As a self-described brown Latina, Morales-Cabrera noted that colorism has also played a role in how she’s perceived.“The very little Latino representation that we do see onscreen is always very fair-skinned Latinas that are borderline white-passing,” she said. “I would love to see Afro Latinas and more brown Latinas onscreen, and it feels almost as though there’s not really a place for us sometimes because we don’t fit that stereotypical Latino look.”Despite the impediments that come with being Latina, the 30-year-old actor called Latinidad a “superpower” because it allows for people with different experiences to instantly relate to each other. She added that being Latino has been less of a disadvantage for her since moving to L.A. from the Midwest.“You have so many Latinos in L.A. who will rally behind you if you need them,” Morales-Cabrera said. “Being here it [mostly] feels safe to be Latino, it feels good.” Sarah Maclovia Rizvi, a writer and community advocate, was the most firm in owning that her Latinidad was an advantage.“Overall, it’s an advantage because I love my culture and I had a very close tie to my grandmother who immigrated here from Mexico, so keeping that tie makes me feel like she’s still here,” Rizvi said. “That connection to the culture has led me to like-minded people who now I get to create safe spaces with, who I get to imagine a new world with, and I think that’s really cool.”She added that her Latinidad has actually amplified her sense of Americanness.“It makes me feel more American because I get to see that I have a privilege to see the framework of empire… [and] have a privilege to think outside of that framework that the people who came to this country crossing arbitrary borders didn’t.”But she wasn’t blind to the challenges that Latinos continue to face in this country.“We’re trying to soldier on in the face of fascism, we’re doing this in the face of late-stage capitalism,” Rizvi said. “We are being persecuted. People are losing loved ones in the blink of an eye and there’s no due process. The immigration courts are being dismantled. It’s all happening, so technically it’s a disadvantage. There is a higher likelihood of something bad happening to me.” For as much as I want to lean into the more nuanced and optimistic mentalities of Morales-Cabrera and Rizvi, I really am my father’s son. I am proud to be Latino. I think it’s cool to own that identity and celebrate it. Maybe it’s because I report on myriad morbid topics regarding Latinos, but it’s hard for me to see how that identity is as an advantage in this country right now.What I have learned in this job is that Latinos continue to achieve some really impressive, brave and artistic feats in spite of having the cards stacked against us. Argentina’s precarious relationship with other Latino countriesAs noted above, pride and shared experiences play a crucial role in how Latinos perceive themselves. Different spins on the same ingredients found throughout the Americas, quinceañeras, musical genres and a certain joie de vivre unite Latinos from Mexico to Colombia to Chile. But decades of U.S. military intervention, dictatorships and swaths of missing people are also all-too-familiar circumstances that Latinos can relate to. Yet every four years this concept of Latino camaraderie gets put to the test during the World Cup as the Argentina men’s national team draws ire from across Latin America. While steeped in some legitimate and many illegitimate claims, the initial antagonism for Argentina seems to stem from its team’s play. The Albiceleste has a tremendous amount of talent — most notably Lionel Messi, one of the greatest to ever play the beautiful game. The team also has a penchant for impressive late-game tactical adjustments, which have often led to dramatics. But the side also plays with a certain sense of ruthlessness and dirtiness that understandably rubs people the wrong way. They win, and that success sparks strong emotions.Sticking strictly to the football team, there have been some incidents that have raised eyebrows and caused hatred toward Argentina. In 2024, Argentine national team players were recorded singing a racist song about France following their Copa América final victory. “They play for France, but their parents are from Angola,” the chant goes. “Their mother is from Cameroon, while their father is from Nigeria. But their passport says French.”That’s worthy of disdain, I’d say. Noticing the rise in online animus toward Argentines during this World Cup cycle, several of my L.A. Times colleagues dug into the roots of where all the ill feelings are coming from.In speaking with Latinos living in Mexico, they found that one of the major complaints about Argentines is the perception that they think they’re better than the rest of Latin America.“The Mexicans came from the Indians, the Brazilians came from the jungle, but we Argentines came from the ships … from Europe,” former Argentine President Alberto Fernández said in 2021.At several World Cup matches this year, Argentina fans were captured on video hurling racist slurs at an African American streamer. It’s undoubtedly a bad and tasteless look, but judging a country on its most stupid representatives seems a bit unfair. I know I’d feel thoroughly misrepresented if people assumed I shared the same belief system as the current U.S. president. One Argentine living in Mexico City said she wholly rejected the actions of those fans and that they do not represent how she feels. She also said she’s been shocked by the wave of xenophobia directed at her countrymen during this year’s tournament.People have sent her nasty messages online, and strangers have stopped her on the street to tell her they hope Argentina loses. And she said several Argentine friends were physically attacked at a festival in Mexico City organized by FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.And I’ll be clear: Argentina has a racist and morally reprehensible history. The way the country has treated and tried to delete its Black population is disgusting. Argentina is unfortunately not unique in this aspect. Just look at the way the U.S. has treated Black communities and other minority groups. My Mexico-born dad frequently reminds me that Mexico is at least just as racist, colorist and classist as the U.S.I dislike the Argentina World Cup squad as much as anyone. It actively upsets me that they might win it all again this year. I will literally cheer on any team that they go against. I’m that much of a hater.But let’s not hate on Argentines just because they’re from a country with some deep-seated issues. Just hate on the ones that have given people legitimate reasons to hate them — there are plenty! Stories we read this week that we think you should readUnless otherwise noted, stories below were published by the Los Angeles Times.Politics and immigrationArts and entertainmentSouthern California
