Latinos And Latinas Rocking The 2012 Olympics
In case you haven’t noticed, there is a significant disproportion of negative media highlighting Latinos in this country of ours. Can I accuse the media for doing this on purpose? I don’t think so. Can I accuse them for not making a conscious effort to highlight more positive news that give the spot light to Latinos achieving success? Absolutely yes! Our kids are starving for positive role models out there in national media. As a Latina mom, I wake up every day with the fear of getting my boys exposed to yet another Latino fugitive in the news. So I take it as my responsibility to dig for successful Latinos and make a huge deal about them with my kids. Their success become our success for sure.
Given the heat of the 2012 Olympics these days, I embarked on expedition “Atletas” and looked for all the Hispanic champions that can make our little Latinitos proud. I’m happy to report that there are more than I even expected and their stories can become an inspiration to gain all the sports related values. Dedication, consistency, perseverance, ambition, endurance, and patience are only some of the good habits and values our kids can learn by reading the stories of these atletas. Here they are:
To learn more about them, you can go to their respective websites:
I might have missed a few. So if you know of anyone else please let me know!
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Oye! I wear many other hats. Let’s become BFF!
Ana La Revolucionaria can be found on LATISM
Ana La Education Geek can be found on PlazaFamilia
More Blábeando but way shorter on Twitter: AnaRC
Hi Ana! You missed both male gymnasts who represented team USA in the all-around: Danell Leyva and John Orozco — here’s a sweet article about them and their dads: http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2012/0802/Danell-Leyva-and-John-Orozco-Fathers-deserve-medal-in-parenting
And Ryan Lochte’s website :) We’re everywhere! (Well, not me. I’m on the couch.)
To be honest I haven’t paid much attention to the current Olympics because of work, kids, and you know the rest. I had no idea which of our Latino athletes were competing and in what competition. But you bring up a real good point, our children do desperately need positive Latino role models and this Olympics is a great chance for us adults to show our children how many great Latino heroes there are in our country.
I’m a little ashamed of myself for not paying closer attention to our Latino Olympians. Of course I root for all our Olympians but for myself and my children I should have been more caring for our Latino Olympians. I think this is going to be a wonderful lesson for my children and I’m going to be teaching them about these hard working men and women for the next few days.
WOW~ Check out the impressive stats on Joseph Diaz, Jr. I’m sure all other Latino Olympians are all decorated athletes, but this kid’s only 20 years old and he’s already the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Champion, 2010-11 USA Boxing National Champion, and 2011 USA Boxing National Champion. He says his biggest influence were his mom and dad because they were always by his side to support him. I wish I’m doing a good job on my children too. This young man is an amazing role model for all children and not just the Latinos.
Ryan Lochte is a Cuban American? I just found this out through your site and it makes me mad a little that the media would never mention this. You know crimes are committed by people of all colors and ethnicity, but I feel as though the news loves to report on us Latinos more than anyone else. Yet here is a Cuban American who has won 7 Olympic medals in his illustrious career and I haven’t heard a peep about his Cuban background. I don’t know if I’m overreacting, but I can’t help but me angry about this.
The Olympic spirit is what we Latinos are all about. To become an elite Olympian you need to have good work ethic, determination, and most of all a supportive family. We’re the hardest working people in America, we never give up, and god is our witness our family bond is stronger than any other culture I know of on this earth. All our children need is opportunity and with it they can achieve success. This is only the beginning of the Latino success at the Olympics and with time we’ll only do more and have more success.
What an impressive list of individuals and to think that they’re Latinos it makes me proud and happy. We can’t rely on others spread the words for us, not even the media, we have to do more ourselves to let the people know what the Latinos are doing in this Olympics and medal or not how proudly they’re representing our nation.
Even though I’m a huge fan of sports I never liked the idea of my kids idolizing professional sports athletes. Maybe I’m being unfair, but I think there is a clear distinction between athletes who train all their lives for the Olympics and athletes who become more like celebrities once they turn pro. There’s a lot we can learn from the Olympic athletes and I want to steer my children to idolize and model themselves after the fine men and women who represent our nation.
I was too young in the last Olympics to know or even care too much about Latinos excelling among the very best of the world. But now I’m more mature and I understand how important it is to have that someone you can look up to as a child. Fortunately for me I always had my hard working mother who’s always given me the inspiration to dream bigger, overachieve, and become a contributing member of the society, but having a role model outside of your family circle is something that can be very motivational as well. Nice read, great piece, and thanks for sharing it with all of us.
It’s truly fantastic to have this many Latino athletes at the Olympics representing our nation and our people. I knew we had them but I just never knew there were so many. They’re all heroes regardless of the medal count and I’m going to root for them hard throughout the Olympics.
Yup~ those last names put a big smile on my face. Latinos are now becoming the pillars of this nation in the fields of sports, technology, politics, and even in the media we’re slowly gaining more influence. I think it’s only a matter of time before everything important that happens on in our nation has our fingerprint on them. We’re now excelling in the fields that we were considered mediocre at best in the past and this Olympics is a clear demonstration of that. Let’s celebrate our Latino Olympians and let’s continue to work even harder to make bigger dreams come true.
Now that is funny! Thanks for the chuckle. http://poloitalia.spruz.com/pt/outlet-ralph-lauren-riuscire-in-acquirenti-dai-Suoi-imprenditori.8-19-2012/blog.htm