Originally Posted by
Güicho
-Rayner is/was created as Irish American character from the get go, the name screams it and the character through his mom only ever identified as that.
The years later ignored retcon was never even referenced, it didn't become part of his identity, he didn't take or add the name Vazquez to his, he wasn't ever shown to connect or identify with the culture in any way, so what makes him Latino? He's white and his dad seemed maybe slightly brown, so what? Latino is not by race alone, you can be any race, it's more a what you grew up as, or identify as, cultural, ethnic identity, which he never did or had. (Maybe the simplest most obvious way would have been if he'd just taken or added the name Vazquez to his own (Rayner Vazquez) , but why would he, it's not him, it never was, which is the point).
I know Tom King recently championed him as DC's most "prominent Latino character" which is a wonderful intention, but looking at the character's actually history (see above) this notion is somewhat offensive. .
Learning some spanish, doesn't suddenly make you latino. It's a horrible joke, especially if other creators don't follow up on it.
And how do you, without adding scenes people will decry as cliches.
If Tom King or DC are serious about this, the strongest (and easiest) way to show it, is if the character simply adds his father's name to his own, it's 's clear, it's how he wants to identify, and you actually never have to mention it again because the character did it for you. Later writers don't have to (unless they want to) fumble creating "cliche identifier" scenes, I wouldn't want them to have struggle with that. Because with one strong act the character by claiming the name has already done it for them, and shown how he wants to identify.