By Anindita Basu
Mi Gente, or My People, is a site for Latinos who are aged thirteen
or older. Users are supposed to register, but before joining, one
can preview the site and look at up to 25 pages before logging in
or joining. When signing up, users create profiles which include ethnic
background, interests such as sports and arts, sexual orientation
if one wishes, relationship status, gender (male or female), income,
religion and preferred language (English or Spanish-poor Brasilians!
included in ethnicity, but not language). Looking at the profile,
I started wondering a little bit about the site's purpose. Is it to
preserve culture? Is it a dating service? What kind of space does
it create for Latinos online, and who are the users?
One nice feature is that as soon as one goes to the site, one can
see the number of users logged in. I went to the site twice, in the
early afternoon and late afternoon. At early afternoon, there were
only 200 users. The second time there were 2733 users logged in, which
suggested a strong after school crowd. I went into the site preview
and saw news articles, reviews of clubs and forums around hip hop
music and favorite telenovelas. There were also usernames of a few
of the people online listed with links to their profiles and the usernames
of new users listed. At the bottom of the page were links to the user's
own page, an email account, a search for members and account information-the
standard toolbar.
I looked through a few of the news articles, including one on the
Zapatista march to Zocalo earlier this year for a rally prior to meeting
with the new Mexican government. The article was by someone from the
States who had raised money to go to Mexico for the rally and he gave
a personal account of the events leading up to the rally and the rally
itself. Next to the article, there was a space where members posted
their responses and could post more. There were conversations happening
right next to the article, which gave a feeling of added relevance,
immediacy and community.
MiGente provides a good social space for young Latinos. The content
is most appropriate for teens, possibly also people in their early
twenties. The site really supports conversations between members,
whether through news or talking about soap operas. It's very friendly,
informal and welcoming for young Latinos.