“I just felt like people wanted to fit you neatly into one category,” says graduate student Isabel Vazquez-Rowe.
When representation in the media isn’t done correctly, and more specifically in reference to the Latinx community, it can lead to shows that feature these kinds of stories to commercially underperform.
Shows that have a predominantly Latinx cast like “Gordita Chronicles” and “Gentefied” are getting canceled just at the cusp of one or two seasons.
According to research done by USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative in 2021, the total percentage of Hispanic/Latinx characters was 5% out of 51,158 characters, and across 1,300 films only 3.5% were either leads or co-leads.
The same report explained how powerful the Latinx community is in terms of consumerism and population. This community makes up $1.7 trillion in consumer spending, 25% of movie tickets sold, and 49% of the Hollywood population, which is the Mecca of filmmaking.
Assistant teaching professor of media Benjamin Strack ties it back to the people sitting behind the table.
“Every step of it has to go right for real representation to work. The studio has to actually financially want to support it, and the writer needs to have an authentic background… and then you have to have that director work with a casting agent who actually is interested in accurately representing the people in the stories,” says Strack.
Nonetheless, when looking deeply at the issue, one can see how representation is missing both on-screen and behind the camera.
In the 2021 USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, only 4.2% of directors across 1,300 films were either Hispanic or Latinx, and the ratio of white male to Latinx directors is 50 to 1.
When looking at the statistics, Strack mentions how oftentimes cinematography is the last place where diversity hits mainly because one has to work their way up in the industry.
In order to combat these issues, Strack also mentions how the industry has begun adopting inclusion riders.
Inclusion rider is a term used to refer to people with clout who get involved in production and can negotiate a contract that states the studio and production went to great lengths to recruit and represent diversity both in front of the camera as well as behind.
Even with these measures, other issues may arise, including how one runs the risk of pinning the success of Latinx individuals in the industry on one sole person.
“We claim we reached representation because there are a few super victorious folks, like anyone who’s like ‘Oh, there’s not enough Latinx representation’ and people go ‘Well Lin Manuel Miranda’… but like, that doesn’t make representation broadly accepted — that means one person made it,” says Strack.
Although the visibility of Latinx characters is there, it does not mean that there is an accurate representation of Latinx characters, according to Strack.
Out of the 94 Hispanic/Latinx characters in American films from 2019, 37.2% spoke no English, 30.5% spoke English with an accent, 13.8% were seen as impoverished, and 39.3% were seen participating in organized crime, according to the 2021 report done by USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
In creating these stereotypes for the Latinx community, graduate student Isabel Vazquez-Rowe recalls a moment in her life when she first saw these types of characteristics being perpetuated.
“Tom and Jerry, Speedy Gonzalez… as a child, you don’t really pick up on the jokes or the things, especially at that age… on one hand he’s kind of a lovable character. How can you not love him? But at the same time, it’s like wow, he really does have super racist qualities because not all Hispanics, not all Latinos dress, speak, or look like that.”
Apart from the stereotypes that are present regarding the Latinx community in Hollywood, another topic that pierces the community is the topic of colorism, more common in telenovelas, also known as Mexican soap operas.
The term colorism was coined by Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker. Colorism refers to the discrimination one faces for having a darker skin tone within the racial or ethnic group that they belong to.
In talking about this issue, one also notices the colonial history of Latin America which can often lead to Latinx individuals with lighter skin tones having privileges that those with darker skin tones do not, such as representation.
A 2021 Pew Research study showed that 62% of Latino individuals say that having a darker skin tone hurts their ability to get ahead, whereas 59% of Latino individuals say that having a lighter skin tone helps their ability to get ahead.
Isabel recalls a moment in her life when she started noticing a pattern in the TV shows she would watch as a kid.
“I always was surrounded by the stories of people who just looked more European in American media … these telenovela leading actors and actresses could be mistaken for being American or German,” says Isabel. “And then when you do see an indigenous person, they tend to be like the nanny or the ranchero or the campesino and I’m just like, ‘I can’t, that’s all levels of wrong.’”
A ranchero refers to someone who lives and works on a farm, while a campesino is a term used to describe a rural farmer, with no specific relation to the land.
Oftentimes, those Latinx characters in media with darker complexions are portrayed as less than others or put to the side in comparison to the lighter-skinned characters.
Even through all these characters and displays of stereotypes, Isabel has seen a shift recently, especially in comparison to when she was younger. She mentions TV shows like “Wednesday” that feature Jenna Ortega, or Pedro Pascal in the “Mandalorian.”
However, she also talks about how important it is to not only see representation but to also see the stories that come along with the identity as well.
“[Jane The Virgin] was based about her and her experiences and her familia and I was almost starstruck by the fact that I was seeing all of a sudden Hispanic or Latinx stories being told. It also focuses a lot on the grandmother’s experience with being undocumented,” says Isabel.
It is not just important to Isabel to see visibility in Hollywood but to also honor the stories that come behind it as well.
Still, making sure that these stories are getting told properly all falls back to one concept: money.
Assistant professor for the Department of Communications Scarlett Hester explains, “I think unfortunately everything in the U.S. especially comes back to capitalism … so ideally it would be that those in power, those with the money to support projects would bring people on to consult on projects who identify in a variety of different ways.”
Strack also adds to this account “… the people with money, all they see [movies featuring a diverse cast] as is a risk, and they see … making [movies] for white male audiences as the least risk, and the further out you go from that, the more risk there is.”
In not taking this risk, and not letting the stories of Latinx individuals be heard, the Latinx community can go through what is known as symbolic annihilation.
“If you don’t see yourself represented on the screen or in any type of media its difficult to think that your voice matters or that the issues that your community faces matter, because in a lot of ways what we see in the media provides like a human aspect to people, its humanizing to see yourself on TV,” Hester defines.
When surrounded by white eurocentric stories, Isabel recalls moments in her career when she would only write about “white, cis characters.”
“So, it kind of goes hand in hand you know with all these white stories in media or literature surrounding me, [it] caused me to really write and focus on that and tell those kinds of stories,” says Isabel.
In the end, it all comes down to what you are streaming. Are you watching TV shows that have both on-screen and off-screen representation? Does the media accurately depict this representation? Or is it doing more harm than good?
“The burden shouldn’t fall solely on [the Latinx community] to do it, and it shouldn’t in an ideal world,” says Isabel.
However, Isabel also mentions how we can start having these important conversations.
“I think the most impact we can have on each other is to be united … in order to let those Latinx stories be represented … we have to find our community first and then talk together [about] how we can do it.”
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