Richard Rodriguez proposed a new meaning for the word “brown” at a lecture at the Illini Union last night. He spoke of the word as describing not a specific skin color or set of physical characteristics, but as describing anyone who was affected by different cultures.

Rodriguez, the author of a book entitled, Brown: The Last Discovery of America, began the lecture by describing how he ran into difficulties when he tried to gather facts for the book about Hispanics in America.

“It seemed like there wasn’t a lot to say about Hispanics in the U.S., except that we have a lot of babies,” he joked. “And when I went to places like Colombia, Chile and Venezuela looking for Latinos, they told me I had to go to Dallas, Texas to find them.”

Rodriguez said this instruction illustrated how there was not one Hispanic race, but rather many races and combinations of them.

“This country is obsessed with race and has a set idea of what certain races should be like -that all Hispanics should have dark hair and dark skin,” he said. “But if you were to watch Mexican television for several hours, you’d be convinced you were watching it in Sweden.”

Rodriguez said that cultural elements – such as languages, songs and prayers – are what unite a group of people.

He said that increasing numbers of people in the United States – regardless of race – could be described as brown, because of changing times and elements of culture.

“The world is changing and the boundaries are becoming less clear,” Rodriguez said. “Sooner or later we’re all going to have children or grandchildren that look like Keanu Reeves.”

Rodriguez questioned other color labels, such as “white” and “black.”

“There is a terrible price to pay when you call yourself ‘white’ in America,” he said. “It gives the impression of being without identity or background. I always tell kids not to call themselves white, because they have a story to tell.”

Crystal Christophe, junior in applied life studies, said the lecture gave her a clearer idea of her own identity.

“I’m Creole, a mixture of backgrounds, and I often don’t know what to consider myself,” Christophe said. “He made some very good points that I’m going to take to heart – mainly, not to try to force myself to choose between races or feel that I have to identify myself as one or the other.”

Fernando Diaz, a senior in business, said he could relate to the points Rodriguez made because he came from a background where people from different cultures and races lived close together.

Diaz also said he enjoyed listening to Rodriguez’s points on how it is almost impossible to be unaffected by other cultures.

“I liked how he talked about a member of the KKK he met who said he liked Mexican food,” Diaz said. “There is always some part of you that is mixing with other cultures, whether you know it or not – that’s the point he was making by saying we were all brown in some way.”

Rodriguez said that by 2020, it is suspected the U.S. census will stop asking people to identify themselves based on race because it will become too complicated. He said this would be the result of more children of mixed races.

Elizabeth Addison, a junior in ALS, said the lecture made her wonder what would happen with cultural identities in the future.

“It was very interesting how he said the U.S. was growing and changing – that everything was ‘browning’,” Addison said. “It made me think about where the country was heading when it comes to those kinds of issues.”

Rodriguez said young people were going to be the most crucial group in spreading the mixing and understanding of different cultures, because they were always being further exposed to them.

“Young people have a lot of things to teach older generations,” he said. “We have taught you black and white; you can teach us brown.”