Ethnic Connections - Enchufes de la misma identidad étnica

[Art]

Recently, Ronzalez asked an interesting question, which deserves it's own thread and a poll. Essentially, Ron asked if any of us have ever used ethnic "enchufes" (or connections) to get a job or to have an advantage over others in the work world.

His assumption is that those Americans with Hispanic names who succeed in their careers need the support of others of the same ethnicity in order to overcome anti-Spanish discrimination.

http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtop ... 0815#20815

(Ronzalez' original message appears below.)

------------------------------

Recientemente, Ronzalez llevó una pregunta interesante, lo que merece su propio hilo y una encuesta. En esencia, Ron preguntó si algunos de nosotros alguna vez han usado enchufes (o conexiones) del misma identidad étnica para conseguir un trabajo o tener un ventaja sobre otros en el mundo de trabajo.

Su hipótesis es que los estadounidenses con apellidos hispanos que tienen éxito en sus carreras necesitan el apoyo de otros de la misma etnia con el fin de superar la discriminación anti-hispana.

http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=20815 # 20815

(El mensaje original de Ronzalez aparece a continuación.)


===================

Art and I have also been discussing this issue privately, and at one point he named off a list of chief-level executives of various powerful companies who have obviously Spanish names, and asked me to explain how they could have possibly risen to that point if my theory about anti-Spanish discrimination were true.

My response to him was this, which he thought I should share with the rest of you:

To answer your question, Art, I believe that the C-level executives you mentioned were able to enter the system because they probably had allied themselves strongly with their own ethnic group in some fashion, which definitely wasn't my case.

I would suspect that they probably grew up in some strongly hispanic area -- such as Miami or New York -- and maintained strong friendships and alliances within hispanic social circles. That increases the odds that someone within your native ethnic group has already penetrated a given industry or organization somehow, and is thereby able to get you in, also.

(Art explained that these people are called "enchufes".)

The National Review has published articles where they talk about this phenomenon of "ethnic nepotism", and not only does it happen a lot, but it may actually be the predominant way that people are actually getting jobs.

And so my answer is that I never played the race card enough, even though I've had it vaguely suggested to me occasionally over the years, by true, dyed-in-the-wool hispanics who always expressed their deep disappointment that I'd never officially really been a member of the hispanic world.

- Ron

[Ron Gonzalez]

You know, I've be reading a lot about discrimination recently and believe me I'm old enough to know a little about the subject. Back in the day of my youth, they came out and told you to your face what they thought of you. It was your name, your looks, anything that they thought was different from them. When it came to jobs, if you were one of them you got the job. If you were one of my people forget it. We got what no one else wanted. When my father first started to work they told him, "We don't want any foreigners in this department." No union, no job. That was the way it was back then. Yes, they took a lot of verbal abuse, but what choice did they have? Take the abuse or quit the job they had? That's no choice as I see it. The union came in sometime in the 50s. Then things were different. We got our people on committees and we had them out numbered in votes.

That was then, and now is now. We have so many tools to use to combat discrimination. Back in the day of my father it was as bad as it can get. Today you may think it's bad, but it's not. I want you to think about something for me. Think of everything you have today to fight discrimination. Think of everything, what ever, that you have; they had none of that. I could tell you some stories about the old timers that would make you think, "How did they hold back the anger?" To this day I ask myself the same question. Could it be they knew something that we don't? It could be a lot worse.

[Art]

That's an elegant and interesting reply, Ron.

Did you ever use an Asturian or Spanish connection to get a job? Do you think your last name (Gonzalez) ever hurt your chances in getting a job?

[Ronzalez]

Thanks, Art. And no, I've never been able to do anything like that. My parents moved away from Tampa as soon as they could, before I was born. They felt trapped in family dynamics that felt were always just going to drag them down. So I grew up in the more Anglo-Saxon parts of Florida and North Carolina.

I was never around my own native ethnicity enough to be able to use it for anything, really.

[Ron Gonzalez]

Did I ever use an Asturian or Spanish connection to get a job? Yes. Do I think that my last name hurt my chances of getting a job? Probably. I don't know that for a fact. They could do more to discriminate in my day, things they can't do now, like tell you the job is filled then hire the next guy that walks in the room. There are more law's now, more tools.

[Ronzalez]

Well, actually, they can do even more discrimination now. When you (e)mail in your resume to human resources, behind closed doors they can look at your last name at the top of the resume, throw it in the trash, and then send you a polite rejection letter.

Neat and tidy.

But then again, I guess they could've been doing this for years now.