Not too long ago, Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Beltran, famed for his role as Commader Chakotay, participated in a Reddit AMA where people asked the actor dozens upon dozens of questions about his film career and his upcoming feature (former Kickstarter project) Resilient 3-D, which will begin filming sometime this month.
Star Trek: Voyager is where we know him best: the tribal tattoo above his left eye pronounces his character's Native American heritage; soft flute music accompanying his entrance into rooms reminds us; and phrases like "A-koo-chee-moya" proclaimed whenever he contacts his animal guide makes damn sure that we never forget that he's a Native person.
The application of melanin-concentrated chemical creams that strips away color, and otherwise whitens, lightens, brightens or bleaches skin is a emerging process that's often marketed to remove blemishes or abnormally high pigmentation such as birthmarks and moles, but historically and continuously, these creams are used for the overall whitening of dark skin tones in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, South America, and even in the United States. The desire to eradicate "unflattering" parts of one's lineage begins with altering one's skin color for many dark-skinned men and women.
1845: the year Latinos first contributed to American history, according to most history books, which excludes Latino presence/influence prior to that date. The truth, however, is that Latinos have had an extensive history in the United States that began three centuries prior to what textbooks indicate.
