Latinos: The Chameleon Minority Group

Post #5

It is rumored that by 2050, the United States’ population will be over 50% Hispanic. From being the largest minority group in the country to the majority group, Latinos will most likely have a bigger influence in they way America runs. Even now, Latinos have become such an important part of the American way – traditions, language, art – much has influenced the American people. When it comes to media, we have shows like The George Lopez Show and Ugly Betty, where Hispanic culture and heritage is showcased to American popular culture.

As this acceptance of Latin American culture has become a staple in Hollywood, critically analyzing it, there is a hidden agenda behind it. Many of the representations that appear on the screen with Latino characters and celebrities portray the stereotypes that Americans want to see. When looking at Latin female celebrities specifically, it is evident that they are sexualized and seen as exotic figures. Looking at a television example, Sofia Vergara’s character in Modern Family as Gloria is always introduced wearing provocative outfits and has an accent when speaking English. Because of her accent, we do not accept her as a white character, reinforcing her Otherness, he exoticness, which is reinforced with the ideology of wanting the Other, based on the way she looks. This example parallels Carmen Miranda’s star image in the 1940s like Shari Roberts mentions in her article, “The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat’: Carmen Miranda, a Spectacle of Ethnicity.” Here, Roberts mentions that, “If Grable [a blonde, white woman] was the norm, Miranda was the allowable cultural Other for wartime Hollywood, playing the dark but comic and, therefore, unthreatening foil to all the gilded wartime female musical stars” (4).

Shifting the scene from contemporary television to contemporary film, many Latina celebrities on the big screen face many stereotypical representations and roles. Analyzing Jennifer Lopez, one of the biggest personas in Hollywood, can become a bit convoluted as her celebrity image is all over the place. This is ironic based on the historic trajectory of Hispanic representation in Hollywood in the past century. From foreigners to banditos to maids to nannies to blue-collar workers, these are the roles that Latinos have had. Roberts mentions that Miranda always had the supporting role, and not until a long career was she given a protagonist character. Jennifer Lopez has overcome many of those set representations that are left for Latinos. Although her breaking role in the biopic Selena is stereotypical – a Latina impersonating another Latina, much can be said about that. Americans tend to assume that all Latinos are the same. There is the general misconception that all Latinos are Mexican – but countries like El Salvador, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Cuba do exist, and people do come from there. Each country has its individual ethnical background, so not all Latinos are the same. It is mentioned in Frances Negron-Muntaner’s article that there was a lot of controversy when Jennifer Lopez was casted as Selena, because Jennifer was of Puerto Rican descent and from New York (the Bronx), and she was representing a Chicana from Texas. A lot of the controversy was coming from the Latino community, who knows the difference in cultures, but the American audience cared less about it, they believed the representation because a Latina was representing another Latina from their perspective.

Just from this post, it is evident that the discourse of Latino celebrities can be very complicated. From the mixture of cultures and ethnicities to the exotic and wanting the Other, Latinos represent a very convoluted group in Hollywood. They become chameleons, in the case of Jennifer Lopez, because her look is very ambiguous can represent various ethnicities and races. For instance, in Out of Sight she plays a non-Hispanic character.

1. Based on the readings and the trajectory that Jennifer Lopez has had in Hollywood, what discourses can you extract from the career of Salma Hayek? Has her career been different or similar to that of Lopez?

2. Do you believe there is difference in ways that Latinos are portrayed on television in comparison to movies?

3. In 2050, when it is expected for the Latino population to surpass the population of whites, do you believe that there will be a major switch in the way the media portrays characters? If so, what do you see happening?