Masaryk University Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Alena Popelková
Racial Stereotypes about Latin Americans in the U.S. movies Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: M.A., Jeffrey Alan Smith, Ph. D.
2014
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
…………………………………………….. Author’s signature
I would like to thank my supervisor, M.A. Jeffrey Alan Smith, Ph.D., for his patient and help with the revision of the thesis. I would also like to thank my family and friends for their support and understanding.
Table of Contents
Introduction ...... 1 1. Process of stereotyping ...... 3 1.1. Cognition ...... 3 1.2. Stereotyping ...... 4 1.3. Mediated stereotypes ...... 5 2. Latino stereotypes in the U.S. movies ...... 7 2.1. Latino stereotypes in classical Hollywood cinema ...... 7 2.2. Latinos as a group ...... 8 2.2.1. Latin look ...... 8 2.3. Latinos as individuals ...... 9 2.3.1. El bandido ...... 10 2.3.2. The harlot ...... 11 2.3.3. The male buffoon and the female clown ...... 11 2.3.4. The Latin lover ...... 11 2.3.5. The dark lady ...... 12 2.4. Reasons to stereotype ...... 12 3. Stereotyping and reality ...... 14 3.1. Film versus reality ...... 14 3.2. Impact of stereotypes on American public opinion ...... 16 3.3. Impact of stereotypes on opinion of Latino minority ...... 19 4. How to eliminate stereotypes? ...... 21 4.1. Promotion of Chicano cinema ...... 21 4.1.1. The first wave ...... 22 4.1.2. The second wave ...... 23 4.1.3. The third wave ...... 23 4.2. Economic power ...... 24 4.3. Ten percent threshold hypothesis ...... 25 4.4. Latino screenwriters ...... 25 4.5. Media literacy ...... 27 5. Latinos in Hollywood and their experience ...... 29 5.1. Latin Look ...... 29 5.2. Spanish accent ...... 30 5.3. Homogeneous Latinos ...... 31 6. Case studies ...... 35 6.1. Shall We Dance (2004) ...... 35
6.2. Material Girls (2006) ...... 37 6.3. The Three Stooges (2012) ...... 39 6.4. Jack and Jill (2011) ...... 40 6.5. Shrek 2 (2004) ...... 41 Conclusion ...... 44 English Resumé ...... 46 České resumé ...... 47 List of sources ...... 48 Primary sources ...... 48 Secondary sources ...... 48
Introduction
According to several national studies in the United States over the last 15 years public support for various social and criminal control efforts is connected with the perception of
Hispanics as potential threat to society (Welch). This perception of Latinos has negative impacts on the way the dominant population treats this minority. This work operates with presupposition that the negative attitudes towards Latino within U.S. public are influenced by the way Latinos are portrayed in media, especially in films.
The media serves as the main source of information for those who have no personal experience. Unfortunately, they reflect reality just from one point of view and thus it is very problematic because the media misinterpretation plays a significant role in shaping public attitudes and opinion (Vargas, DePyssler). Film is nowadays one of the most influential media that provides the viewer insight into various places and times. However, what films show us is just a subjective simplified and limited representation of reality. Hollywood filmmakers claim that the characters are not “meant to be taken literally” or to represent entire groups, but by the repeated casting of members of one ethnic to a certain kind of simplified roles the stereotypes have formed anyway (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.” 18).
The thesis examines the characters that were repeatedly played by Latino actors (or actors who were at least considered to look Latino enough) and thus became stereotypical representation of the whole Latino ethnic. Some of the stereotypes have experienced some changes, but yet they can be still found as I will prove in the case study of five contemporary films.
However, if we want to examine the stereotypes in films, we first need to understand what stereotypes are and why and how are they formed because “learning about the process of stereotyping makes it easy to detect them” (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.” 23).
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Goddard and Patterson explain the brain functions that form the general framework for stereotyping. Their study is essential for understanding the reasons for the formation of stereotypes.
The basis of this thesis is the work of Charles Ramirez-Berg who focuses on the
Hollywood imagery of Latinos and responses of Chicano cinema to it. He describes the creation and development of Latino stereotypes in Hollywood and considers their possible future changes. Nonetheless, I use also reports of the national surveys held in the United
States to compare the stereotypes with reality and to find out how the stereotypes influence the public opinion. Moreover, the thesis includes also the personal experiences of Latinos working in the film industry that provides insight into their attitudes towards the stereotypes and possibility of their change.
The key concept of this thesis is then to find out what the best-known Latino stereotypes appearing in U.S. films are, what impacts they have on the public opinion and how or whereas they can be eliminated.
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1. Process of stereotyping
1.1. Cognition
To understand the problematic of stereotyping we have to first examine where does the tendency to stereotype comes from. It is logical then to start with the human mind.
Human mind is very complicated. Even though science has been developing quickly, we still know very little about the brain in comparison with the rest of the human body. One of the most important brain functions is the cognition. Variety of different psychological processes that occur in the brain like thinking, memory or perception, belong to the aspects of cognition. Cognitive processes are extremely important as they “are involved in every aspect of how we interact with the world – how and what we perceive, understand, decide, and how we behave” (Goddard, Patterson 48).
However, it is impossible to perceive everything that happens around us. Goddard and
Patterson say “we cannot process all the information or data that we are receiving from our sense at the same time [...] We need to both simplify and become selective about what information gets processed and how far it gets processed” (51). But even if we are simplifying and selecting yet we still perceive an enormous amount of information. The brain has a cognitive system based on categories that organize information and enable “the location, retrieval and use of information it contains” (Goddard, Patterson 50). The categorization makes our thinking automatic and quicker.
On the other hand, we should not forget about the fact that the way our mind works – in other words the way we think. It is “strongly related to our language and our culture, because it is through these that we perceive and understand the „real world‟”(Goddard,
Patterson 47). Moreover, our culture and society influence also the categorization as the categories used in a society are a reflection of its ideology. In this we can see the root of the
3 misperception of the others as “the way we think [...] is based upon social experience and relation rather than a literal representation of the physical world and its „natural order‟”
(Goddard, Patterson 54).
1.2. Stereotyping
The process of stereotyping is related to the cognitive processes that are based on the selectiveness and simplifying. Some cognitive psychologists describe stereotyping as “a value-neutral psychological mechanism that creates categories and enables people to swirl of data presented to them from their environment” (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.” 14).
Goddard and Patterson describe stereotyping as a constructing of “a simplified and limited model from the characteristics of a few group members” and applying these models to the whole group (57). At first, it was supposed that the stereotypes could include both positive and negative connotations given to an experience. However, the stereotyping for most of us gained a negative meaning and nowadays is it often seen as “the process of applying a simplified model to a real, complex individual” which has a “negative and derogatory effect”
(Goddard, Patterson 57). Today we understand stereotyping as “the act of making judgements and assigning negative qualities to individual or groups” (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in
Film.” 14).
Ramirez-Berg claims that the stereotyping as we know it nowadays consists of the three crucial elements – category making, ethnocentrism and prejudice (“Latino Images in
Film.” 15). This means that the categories we make in our mind are influenced by our own culture that we take as a norm. This norm is considered to be perfect and superior so everything that derives from it must be subordinate. Goddard and Patterson agree that the
“stereotypes are very bound up with the social and political structures of our culture”. On the other hand they also warn against the danger of stereotypes that “gain power and credibility
4 through wide use in everyday talk and texts“, even though they do not have to be true
(Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.” 57).
1.3. Mediated stereotypes
Bell Hernandez Castillo describes stereotypes as the “simple, one-dimensional portrayals of a certain group of people, usually based on race, gender, religion, profession or age” and she agrees that “we all stereotype people who are different from us”. Nevertheless, there are more kinds of stereotypes. For this thesis, the division based on the reach of the stereotypes is important. We can distinguish mental stereotypes that exist in the mind of individuals, and mediated stereotypes that exist in the media. The latter ones are public and have a global reach (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.” 38).
In general, researches showed that “there exists the tendency to racialize and genderize media representation” (Guzmán, Valdivia 206). The problem is that the media are extremely influential these days and form our attitudes. There is a threat that the stereotypes seen in the media might influence our attitude toward the others. Moreover the attitudes fix our beliefs that can lead to actions against the stereotyped groups. Stereotypes might be used to “justify acts that would be unthinkable to commit against a member of one‟s own group” including racial violence or lynching (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.” 20).
This thesis works primarily with the mediated stereotypes, especially the ones seen in movies as the television is perhaps the most influential of all media up to day. The United
States Commission on Civil Rights supports the leading role of television when it states in its report from 1997:
Audiences place a higher value on television as a source of information and
entertainment than on other media [...] Television does more than simply
entertain or provide news about major events of the day. It confers status on
those individuals and groups it selects for placement in the public eye, telling
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viewer who and what is important to know about. Those who are made visible
through television become worthy of attention and concern; those whom
television ignores remain invisible. (Treviňo)
Unfortunately, as I have already stated earlier, the stereotypes may have a basis in reality but they are simplified, gather specific negative traits and put them into a particular image. This results in the negative images of certain groups. I wonder whether it is better to be ignored by the media or being perceived in a negative – stereotypical way. But even stereotypes have its limits. One character cannot bear all the negative traits so they are distributed among a “handful of mediated stereotypes who together are meant to represent the
Other” (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.” 39).
As far as Latinos are concerned, the quality of their media representation is low. They are mostly portrayed negatively – as poor, uneducated, lazy and violent with limited language skills. The problem is that “many people from majority use these representations to form their judgements and notions with very few real-life experiences with the Latino cultures” (Pehl).
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2. Latino stereotypes in the U.S. movies
2.1. Latino stereotypes in classical Hollywood cinema
It is important to examine the typical Hollywood film narrative before we start examining the role of stereotypical characters in it. The typical Hollywood film story has three parts – equilibrium, disequilibrium and equilibrium. (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in
Film.” 55). As Hollywood studio films are made for the dominant group in society, they represent the dominant ideology. This means the hero is usually a white, handsome, middle- aged, upper-middle-class, heterosexual, Protestant, Anglo-Saxon male. He is supposed to defend the status quo that is the best of all worlds and which is threatened by people who are different from the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant norm. These negative characters are often represented by the people of colour. They occupy minor roles that are used to display the
“absolute pre-eminence” of the hero. They need to be defeated to regain the status quo
(Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.” 67).
Of course, there are many more narratives that can be seen in the movies, however, I agree that this is the most typical one, that can be traced in some variations in many successful movies throughout the history of filmmaking.
Latinos tend to be represented in a negative way. They are usually portrayed as gang members, teen mothers, illegal immigrants, drug dealers and traffickers, common criminals or blue collars with bad-paid jobs such as maids, nannies, janitors, cooks, mechanics or gardeners. In general, we can divide the representation of Latino into two groups – the stereotypical representation of Latinos as a group and the individual stereotypical characters
(Vargas, DePyssler).
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2.2. Latinos as a group
Group representation is more common. The Latinos as a group are mostly viewed as illegal immigrants who live in separated communities and are unable or unwilling to assimilate (Vargas, DePyssler). In general it is believed that all Latinos:
- are loud,
- are catholic,
- are poor and uneducated,
- are passionate,
- speak Spanish,
- have big families.
We can see also representation of Latinos who are always dancing, peasant, violent and having many names (Comedy Girls NYC). Latinos are equally often portrayed as unskilled immigrant workers (Brayton 3).
2.2.1. Latin look
We can see that these stereotypes are considerably influenced by the race and sexuality. As far as the race is concerned, Guzmán and Valdivia use term “Latinidad”. They say that “as a demographic category, the Latinidad describes any person currently living in the
United States of Spanish-speaking heritage from more than 30 Caribbean and Latin American countries” (207). The major problem of the Latinidad is that it is socially constructed from the outside – that means by the dominant group – with marketing and political homogenizing implications that leads to a suppression of differences and specificity of the Latin American nations (Guzmán, Valdivia 208). However, the Latino population – similarly as the European or Asian population - has a heterogeneous character. Suzenna Oboler stresses that “the majority of U.S. citizens with a Latin American background identify more strongly with their respective country of origin than with the continent as such” (qtd. in Heide).
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The other important issue is the sexuality which “plays a central role in the tropicalization of Latinas” (Guzmán, Valdivia 211). The tropicalism is also connected with the tendency to homogenize Latinos. It is represented by the bright colours, rhythmic music and brown skin. The men are portrayed as the Latin lovers – macho, dark-skinned with moustaches – while women look like the harlots – wearing red-lipsticks, bright seductive clothing and extravagant jewellery, often having curvaceous hips and breast and long brunette hair. Their bodies are sexualized and exoticized. The emphasis put on the breast, hips, and buttocks (Guzmán, Valdivia 211). This results in the tendency of mainstream cinema to portray Latinas as a sex object – for example as a damsel in distress that needs to be rescued by an Anglo male – while white females are portrayed as strong, intellectual or authoritative
(Anthony).
In general, “whiteness is associated with a disembodied intellectual tradition free from the everyday desires of the body”, Guzmán and Valdivia claim, in contrast “non-whiteness is associated with nature and the everyday needs to the body to consume food, excrete waste, and reproduce sexually” (211). Jack Thomas includes an example of these different portrays stating that “when white women are prostitutes, they are usually the „hooker with a heart of gold‟ like in Pretty Woman. When Latina is a whore, she‟s just a slut”.
This perception of Latinos might be influenced by the tendency to see Latinos as less civilized and thus more influenced by the natural needs of the body. It seems that the natural wildness is reflected as well in the personalities of Latinos – their voluptuousness, hot-temper and loudness.
2.3. Latinos as individuals
All these presuppositions are combined and mixed with even more ones. Together they form the six basis stereotypes that can be seen in Hollywood movies throughout the
9 history of filmmaking. These six stereotypes that should together represent the Latino minority in the United States are:
- El bandido
- The harlot
- The male buffoon
- The female clown
- The Latin lover
- The dark lady
Ramirez-Berg suggests that these conventional Hispanic stereotypes could be divided into two triads based on gender. Each triad consists of a central positive stereotype and two negative alternatives. In the female triad the central position is occupied by the dark lady, the negative alternatives are the harlot and the female clown. Similarly, the positive male stereotype is the Latino lover, accompanied by the negative bandido and buffoon (“Latino
Images in Film.” 165-6).
2.3.1. El bandido
The image of the Mexican bandit is associated especially with westerns. However, this stereotype has roots in the era of silent movies where appeared Latin villains called “greasers”
(Treviňo). Later the character moved to adventure films and lately he has shifted into the gangsters/drug runners or gang members. Ramirez-Berg describes the bandido in western films as a dirty, unshaven, violent and treacherous man with a heavy Spanish accent, scars, scowl and little intellect. The current incarnations vary a little bit. The character usually keeps the Spanish accent but the scars have transformed into tattoos. Moreover, in comparison with the original bandidos or gang members, drug runners have more intellect which they use to gain success in their illegal activities (“Latino Images in Film.” 68).
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2.3.2. The harlot
The harlot is a female counterpart to el bandido. She is hot-tempered and passionate which results in her disability to control her emotions. She is often an overly sexualized woman of ill repute. Ramirez-Berg describes her as a “sex machine innately lusting for a white male” (“Latino Images in Film.” 70). Alicia Perez adds that harlots are usually “fiery and uncontrollable” and are connected with what she calls a “Latin look” based on the tan skin, dark hair and voluptuous body. In current films the harlot is represented by a ” Hoochie”
– a young loud hot-tempered gang member living in ghetto with bad attitude and many kids, usually wearing vulgar clothes, extreme hairstyle and big earrings – or simply by varieties of sex bombs, mistresses and prostitutes (Tomas).
2.3.3. The male buffoon and the female clown
The male buffoon and the female clown share more features than the other pairs. In general, we can say that besides the question of gender they are more or less the same. In the first decades of Hollywood films, they just filled the background. We can see them for example in the westerns as the weak, sleepy, ignorant peons occupying landscape while
American cowboy expresses his heroism and gallantry or as the cowardly audience for a gunfight (Treviňo). Both the characters work as a “comic relief” in the story - their facial expresses and gestures are exaggerated and they act childishly (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino
Images in Film.” 71). They both make fools of themselves and speak funny English with heavy accents (Vargas, DePyssler). These stereotypes transformed into the minor comic roles of the Latinos as labourers – maids, nannies, shop assistants and many others – and the crazy family members.
2.3.4. The Latin lover
The positive stereotype of the male triad is the Latin lover. Traces of this stereotype come back to the silent era. The most memorable Latin lover of this era was Rudolph
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Valentino who popularized this type of character and help to its quick establishment as a
Hollywood standard (Treviňo). He is characterized as a dashing and magnetic male,
“possessor of a primal sexuality” who can make the love sensuous and dangerous – that means different from the Anglo standard (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.” 76). He has an “irresistible erotic appeal to Anglos” (Vargas, DePyssler). He usually speaks in a deep voice, using also Spanish words to express his passion and most of them are great dancers.
This stereotype remains almost unchanged until these days. The difference is that the original
Latin lovers were seen as gentlemen from upper class. On the other hand current Latin lovers are much more sexualized and work more with the Latin look that attracts the attention of women. They are represented by the sexy gardeners, craftsmen but also some gangster.
2.3.5. The dark lady
The position of positive female stereotype holds the dark lady – a fair-skinned,
European-looking woman (Vargas, DePyssler). Like the other female stereotypes, she is erotically appealing. In contrast to the harlot, she is virginal, upper-class and controls her emotions. She keeps a cool distance and often acts in opposition to Anglo males what makes her fascinating and attractive for them (Ramirez- Berg 76). Nowadays the dark lady does not have to be from the upper class. One of the incarnations of the dark lady is for example the poor Latina trapped in the submissive role that needs to be rescued by a kind-hearted white man (Perez).
2.4. Reasons to stereotype
As far as stereotypes are concerned questions worth mentioning are: How did some characters become the stereotypes and why are the stereotypes used if they are so bad?
Hollywood filmmakers do not want the film characters to be “taken literally” or to represent entire social groups. They do not even claim that the films represent reality. They
12 are simply telling stories and the character should narrate the story, not represent reality.
However, some characters tend to reappear in very similar forms in many films. This repetition causes the formation of stereotypes that we accept as a norm (Ramirez-Berg,
“Latino Images in Film.” 18).
If we are not sure, whether a character is a stereotype, we can put it to a “stereotype communication test”. It means that we just imagine that the character is a member of different ethnic, class etc. If it functions well even under these circumstances it is not a stereotype, in contrast, if it seem rare it is probably a stereotype because it “relies on specific stereotypical traits of the group to make its impact” (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.” 73). On the other hand, there are characters that would work well even without Latino cast, but they are hardly ever played by non-Latinos and so they automatically became stereotypes.
The answer to the question why the stereotypes keep being used is very simple – the economy. Stereotypes work “as a sort of shorthand” (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.”
18). By the repetition of characters looking and behaving similarly in the films the viewer gets to know them. He is then able to predict who the character represents as soon as he sees it.
This is very important, because it saves both time and money for the filmmakers. Just try to imagine that a drug dealer in a suburb would be played by a white, Protestant, Anglo-Saxon male from upper class. The filmmakers would need to explain somehow that he is a drug dealer because the viewer would not know that. On the other hand if we see a Latino male with a tattoo and bad clothes we immediately expect him to be a drug dealer or a gang member because it is always that way.
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3. Stereotyping and reality
3.1. Film versus reality
It has been already mentioned that the stereotypes are one-dimensional images so it does not reflect the complexity of reality as “the Latino experience is diverse, rich and multidimensional, as is the range of all human experience” (Johansen, “Why Latinos Should
Depict Latino Experience.”). On the other hand, even though they do not fully reflect the reality, they are not completely made up. Ramirez-Berg says that the stereotypes may have a
“basis in fact” and that there is something he calls a “kernel of truth”(“Latino Images in
Film.” 16). He explains that there are always some aspects of reality that are in some ways very similar or at least partly correspond to the stereotype, however, the important details “are either omitted or completely recast in the stereotype” (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in
Film.” 18).
More authors agree with the truthful basis of stereotypes, on the other hand they also warn against its negative impacts. Sara Gates says that “some may carry half-truths, but many are over-exaggerated” that might have a greater impact on the public perception than we would expect. For example Jeanine Basinger thinks the problem is the stereotypical imagery of Latinas as maids. She does not refuse that there really is a considerable number of Latina maids, however, “the issue is that not all Hispanic women are maids” so the roles of maids should be played also by the other ethnics (qtd. in Navarro). Similar attitude holds Mexican
Ambassador to the United States Eduardo Medina Mora. He did not deny that the drugs are a significant problem in Mexico, but he argues that it is not a reason for reflecting Mexican
American only as drug dealers and gangsters. He adds that the stereotyping in Hollywood limits the range of roles suitable to a Mexican actor as “even our best actors [...] cannot escape the gardeners and drug dealers trap for Mexicans in Hollywood” (qtd. in Estevez).
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To sum it up we can agree with Treviňo saying that all these stereotypes “reduce to a one-sided, superficial and exaggerated depiction the real variety and depth and complexity of a struggling people”. He adds that “social issues affecting Latino life in the USA have seldom been addressed in Hollywood films” and that they are portrayed as people unable to control their lives, fight for their rights or care for future. Moreover, he brings to mind that there is another problematic aspect of the representation of Latinos in general as “historically, there have been relatively few portrayals of Latinos of any kind in motion pictures and television” especially if we consider what population size they have represented.
According to the data released by the National Council of La Raza Latinos are the largest ethnic minority in the country that in 2010 formed 16% of the nation‟s total population. Their population has grown much faster than the U.S. – between 2000 and 2010, their population grew by 43% and it is supposed that the trend will continue and that by 2050 the Latino population will form 30% of the American population. Moreover, La Raza mentions important data proving that the stereotypes do not reflect the reality and heterogeneity of the Latino population. They state that most Latinos are native-born
Americans and nearly 74%of them are U.S. citizens. The majority of them are proficient in
English. 66% of Hispanic households are married-couple families.
As far as jobs are concerned it is said that they represent a wide variety of occupations.
However, only about 19% worked in management and professional ones because they are disproportionately employed in service and support occupations. It might by caused by the fact that only 55.5% of Hispanic students graduated from high school in the past few years.
On the other hand, in 2010 63% of Hispanics older than 25 had at least a high school education and there were 14% Hispanics with at least bachelor‟s degree. The unemployment rate in 2011 was 11.3% (rate of total U.S. population was 8.8%). In 2009 twelve million
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Latinos were counted as poor (“Twenty of the Most Frequently Asked Questions About
Hispanics in the U.S.”).
3.2. Impact of stereotypes on American public opinion
A serious problem of the stereotyping is that the stereotypes are believed and the belief is usually connected with an attitude toward a group (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.”
20). I have found results of two researches that support the above mentioned impacts of the media.
The first one - the Impact of Media stereotypes on Opinions and Attitudes Towards
Latinos implemented by Latino Decisions – is a complex research project consisting of two parts – a national survey and an interactive online experiment including Non-Latino respondents. The survey showed that there are positive perceptions of Latinos. The majority of the respondents consider them to be family oriented hardworking, religious and honest. The respondents had mixed feelings about the education, will to learn English or the number of kids of Latinos. Unfortunately, the survey showed that the respondents see Latinos in film to play roles of criminals or gang members (71%), gardeners (64%), maids (61%) or police officers (56%). On the contrary, Latinos are seldom seen as lawyers and judges (38%) or teachers (42%) (Barreto, Matt A., at al.3-7).
The other research was made by sociologists Jeffrey Timberlake and Rhys Williams.
In fact, it was based on the Ohioan phone survey that compared stereotypes of immigrants from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. The researchers consider Ohio to be the most suitable place for the survey because there is a relatively low level of immigration which makes the researches think “that Ohioans‟ attitudes are more likely to reflect national- level debates on immigrants and immigration policy” because the attitudes are not influenced by a negative personal experience. The survey focused on five stereotypes – the level of poverty, intelligence, dependence on government assistance, assimilation and violence. The
16 research reveals that “Latin Americans were rated most poorly on all of the characteristics.”
They held an equally bad position only with Middle Easterners in the question of the level of assimilation and violence (Fuller, “UC Research Examines Stereotypes of Immigrants to the
United States.” ).
As far as the first survey is concerned I should add that it focused also on another important issue that plays an important role in the shaping of public opinion. That is the level of contact or how the researchers called it the “familiarity with Latinos” (Barreto, Matt A., at al. 2). The majority of the respondents report they are familiar with Latino culture (74%) but just 44% daily interact with them and just 30% personally know many Latinos. The level of personal contact is also a problematic issue of the other survey. The fact that the Ohioans have a minimal personal contact with immigrants makes them more depend on the stereotypical images of immigrants presented in the media. The researchers of Latino decisions claim that
“without direct experiences, media takes on a larger role in establishing opinions and attitudes” (Barreto, Matt A., at al. 5). I absolutely agree with this. The Ohioans have no chance to contrast the mediated images with real-life experience – either bad or good – because of the low level of immigration. So the second survey can be used not just to compare the different perception of immigrant groups but also to prove how the mediated stereotypes influence the public opinion.
Many other authors agree with the influence of a lack of personal experience on the shaping of public opinion. Jamie Pehl says that Latino stereotypes influence a social standard that creates a norm. People‟s ideas are then, “created not out of reality but from this standard”.
In other words it causes that many people with only a few personal experiences with the
Latino cultures use the stereotypes to form their judgements. However, people should avoid these judgements based on the mediated images as they contribute to the homogeneous perception of Latinos that influences attitudes towards all members of the ethnic.
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Kelly Welch fears the negative impact of stereotypes as well. She thinks the negative stereotypes towards Latinos have a power to influence the public policies. She found out that the public in the states with a larger Hispanic population was more supportive of harsh policies of social control than the public in states with a higher general immigration. She adds that the “Hispanic stereotypes are driving public attitudes about immigration and not a general dislike of immigrants.” Very similar opinion holds Sara Gates. According to her “people claim to feel positively about immigration in principle”, however, it depends on who the immigrants are because the “reaction to immigration is often filtered through attitudes toward the particular characteristics they believe immigrant group hold.” I think that the Ohioan phone survey confirms this statement.
Besides immigration, the stereotypical image of Latinos as criminals connected with drugs and gangs has a negative impact as well. Latinos and other minorities do not commit more crimes than the dominant population, “however, they are three times more likely to be arrested for the same offense, under the same circumstances, than non-minorities” (Jimenez).
Moreover, according to the national report of Juvenile Justice and Mental Health the minorities are more often sent to jails and prisons, they experience a harsher treatment and the law enforcement officials use more often excessive force in minority communities. This is really an enormous problem as the majority of the immigrant population has nothing to do with crime. Jimenez thinks that the negative attitude toward Latinos is caused by the
“sensationalism and media attention to gangs” that paints Latinos “with criminal brush”. To support these statements she adds that there were 3000 gang members in Monterey County,
California which might seem to be a great number, nevertheless it is just 3% of its Latino population. This means that 97% of Latinos in the county are not involved in gangs.
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3.3. Impact of stereotypes on opinion of Latino minority
The media representation has a great impact not only on the dominant population but also on the minority group that is being represented. Mexican ambassador to the United States
Mora thinks that movies provide insight into the attitudes of the country which produce them.
Stereotypes fueled by film influence the American public (Estevez). This issue is extremely problematic because the immigrant can see in the media the “America‟s evaluation of them and their experience” which is evidently not positive at all (Vargas, DePyssler). The media give the viewer insight into the popular perceptions of Latinos – who they are and what they do (Treviňo). However, Latinos and their culture keep being represented as exotic, foreign, poor and lazy and this make them accept these representations as a truth and fact which damages the self-image and psyche of Latinos (Pehl).
Unfortunately, these stereotypical perceptions negatively influence the attitudes, self- perception and self-confidence even of the young generation of immigrant children and children of immigrants. The young generation is raised outside the land of origin of their parents so in fact they hold a difficult position on the border between two countries and their cultures. They are less fixed to the original culture than their parents and, as for the rest of the
American population, television is an important source of information for them. Latinos
“grow up marginalized by the portrayal of negative stereotypes” (Hernandez Castillo).
“Television may be entertainment,” notes Patti Miller, on the other hand we should care about
“what message does that send to a Latina girl about her place in the world” (qts. in Navarro).
I agree that the stereotypical images of Latinos as maids, illegal immigrants, gang bangers and drug dealers shape the image children have of themselves. Cartoonist and political satirist Lalo Alcaraz stresses that especially for young Latinos – who are learning what does it mean to be Latinos and are proud of who they are although some of them do not even speak Spanish – it is important to have a personal knowledge of Latino reality
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(Hernandez Castillo). The influence of Hollywood stereotyping could be so enormous that some authors even conclude that “Hollywood has in many ways created rather than represented Hispanics” (Brayton 462). In the next years this statement might prove to be true as the new generations of American-born Latinos will lack the personal knowledge and contact with the lands of their parents‟ origin and they will have to face the mediated perception of Latinos as homogeneous unit.
Moreover, there is a threat that the young generations will accept the stereotypes as a norm that they might use to think about themselves. For example, the over-sexualized perception of Latinas endangers the self-confidence of American-Born Latinas who do not fit the Latin look because they are forced to take the look as a norm because they see it in the media every day (Perez).
Another issue affecting young Latinos is the number of their white suburban schoolmates believing the myths they see on screen which causes the discrimination of
Latinos at schools (Pehl).
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4. How to eliminate stereotypes?
The Latino population is the largest and fastest growing minority in the United States with an obvious influence on the popular culture. The Latino influence is visible in many fields of everyday life – from television and radio to culinary habits. However, there is an evident disproportion between the size of the Latino population and its rather limited political influence. This disproportion is caused by the heterogeneous character of the Latino population (Heide). This character has also a negative impact on the attempt to eliminate stereotypes.
Some authors compare the Latino stereotyping with the African American one. Both these minorities have to deal with stereotypes based mainly on their race that show them as criminals or inferior workers. However, the African Americans were able to protest against these stereotypical roles offer to them with the help of groups like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Unfortunately, Latinos have never been united enough to pressure the film industry as the black group did because they have always been much more heterogeneous and so happened that these negative stereotypical roles passed from African Americans to Latino actors (Navarro). Lichter and Amundson found out that from 1955 to 1986 were 50% more likely to appear as unskilled laborers in television than the black and white population (qtd. in Brayton 463).
4.1. Promotion of Chicano cinema
It is not easy to change the stereotypical image of Latinos, however, it is not impossible. African American improved their representation on screen. It means that the unified Latino population could also make a change. Edwin Pagan, the cinematographer of
21 document Latinos Beyond Reel1, thinks that Latinos need to fight for better stories about their community. To do so they should get together and put a pressure. One person alone cannot change the habits of the rest (Puga). However, the Latino population is heterogeneous as it consists of many nations. On the other hand, the time and distance from the lands of origin might contribute to the gradual adoption of the united Latino identity.
In response to the stereotypes arose a Chicano movement. The origin of the movement traces back to the 1960s. It is connected with the Civil Rights Movement and movements of
Mexican American students that protested against racism, discrimination and exclusion.
These movements raised the consciousness of the Mexican-American population (Johansen,
“Notes on Chicano Cinema.”). The majority of this population then started to use a term
Chicano (which originally had a pejorative meaning) for their self-identification instead of the hyphenated identity. They wanted to symbolically dissociate from both Americans and
Mexicans. They also reject any kind of identification with Spanish origins. (Heide)
The movement realized the importance of film and the media and agreed to promote the ethnic pride by production of Chicano films. Johansen (“Notes on Chicano Cinema.”) defines this kind of film as:
- Film by Chicanos = any sort of film made by Chicano filmmakers.
- Film for Chicanos = all the films addressed to Chicano audience.
- Films about Chicanos = any sort of film in which appears a Chicano.
History of Chicano cinema can be divided into several waves.
4.1.1. The first wave
The era of the first wave of Chicano cinema lasted from 1969 to 1976. During this period, the Chicano cinema was revolutionary as the Chicano filmmakers rejected the traditional Hollywood paradigm for being imperialist, racist and oppressive. The first wave is
1 Latinos Beyond Reel is a documentary about the Latino portrayals in mainstream film industry. 22 typical with a production of documentaries as non-narrative, non-mainstream forms which provided filmmakers with limited resources make films (Ramirez-Berg, “Strategies for
Screenwriters.”). The filmmakers wanted to raise the consciousness of Chicanos, celebrate their culture and history and politically, socially and culturally mobilize the Chicano audience. During these years was established a professional training ground for the Chicano filmmakers (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.” 186). In the 1970s the majority of the
Chicano filmmakers were trained at the University of California. This development allowed several filmmakers even to enter the mainstream with films like I Am Joaqín (1969) or Raices de Sange (1977). In 1975 was founded El Chicano Film Festival (Peña Acuña 401).
4.1.2. The second wave
The new generation of the trained filmmakers brought changes to the Chicano cinema.
Since 1977 to the present day, the separatist tendencies of the Chicano filmmakers have moderated. The ideological messages in films soften as the Chicano cinema gets deeper into the mainstream. On the other hand, they do not want to fit the mainstream and keep the rebellious attitudes (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.” 186). During this period raises a number of Latino students at universities enrolling in film and TV production programs who are forming the basis for further development of the Chicano cinema (Ramirez-Berg,
“Strategies for Latino Screenwriters.”).
4.1.3. The third wave
In the late 1980s, there was a group of filmmakers who derived from the second wave.
They produced films within the Hollywood system or films very close to the Hollywood paradigm. Characters are shaped by several facts, not just by ethnicity. These films do not aim at resistance as the films of the first or second wave. The subject of critique does not appear on the surface. On contrary, it is embedded in the deeper structure of the film. It usually
23 shows the dissatisfaction with the system that is somehow rotten (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino
Images in Film.” 187).
In addition there is a number of film festivals – besides El Chicano Film Festival – attempting to promote the Chicano cinema held all over the United States. Moreover, the Imagen
Foundation organizes the annual ceremony where are the entities and individuals elevating the image and status of Latinos rewarded with the Imagen Award (Villafañe).
4.2. Economic power
As the greatest minority in the United States, Latinos positively contribute to the country in many ways. However, their demographic, social, economic and political realities are often ignored. Latino population includes the most frequent moviegoers among all ethnic groups. Their purchasing power reaches up to 1 trillion dollars. Such a considerable economic power could enforce the filmmakers to modify their habits of stereotyping Latino characters
(Villafañe).
Actor Esai Morales encourages Latinos not to go to films that negatively depict
Latinos. He criticizes them for going to whatever. Instead they should support the movies that are good for Latinos and walk away from those that are not (Pondal). Important Latino producer Moctesuma Esparza agrees with Morales. He thinks that Latinos should realize that they can choose what film, show or network they will watch. He discourages them of going to films that do not portray Latinos accurately, because it is a way how to defend their image
(Villafañe).
I agree that Latinos‟ economic power is a reasonable factor. However, the audience does not have to know that the film includes stereotypes or they just simply do not realize that the character on screen is a stereotypical one. Moreover, the main cause of the evolution in the roles given to Latinos might be the attempt to attract the economically important Latino audience (Peña Acuña 400).
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4.3. Ten percent threshold hypothesis
With the economic power of Latinos is very closely connected the “10 percent threshold hypothesis” (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.” 267). This hypothesis is based on the evolution of Irish stereotypes. Irish immigrants made their way into all walks of the American life. By 1880s they formed over 10 percent of the American population. This meant that they became a significant purchasing power. They got into the film industry – a place where they could display their talent and where they could told their experience. The great number of Irish formed important both consumer and talent base which led to minimization of Irish stereotypes.
Emanuel Nuňez thinks the Irish example could be applied also to the future development of the Latino representation as the Latinos demographically crossed the 10 percent threshold. In addition, the number of Latino filmmaker increases together with the necessity of the self-representation and artistic expression. However, the hypothesis does not have to be valid. (Ramirez-Berg, “Latino Images in Film.” 267-70)
Moreover, I have already mentioned that who “they” are matters. It is easier for the
Irish as European immigrants to get into the industry and assimilate than for Latinos who are much more often marginalized in all spheres of life.
4.4. Latino screenwriters
The university training opens doors to Hollywood for many Latinos. This is significant because Latino filmmakers can reflect the real Latino experience. Unfortunately, the ultimate creative control in Hollywood stays in the hands of “those with economic control” (Johansen,
“Why Latinos Should Depict Latino Experience.”). Chon Noriega says that “for the most part,
Hollywood ignores Latinos. When you see a number of Latinos in movies, you typically see a gardener, a cholo, or maids. And those stereotypical roles are disrespected.” They exist just
25 because someone writes a story and makes a movie about them (qtd. in Martinez). The reason why the non-Latino screenwriters portray Latinos this way might be simpler than we could think. The writers write what they know. Unfortunately, the Latino characters are usually written by the writers who personally either do not know any Latino, or know just a Latina maid or Latino gardener they hired, or they know them just from mediated stereotypes.
(Hernandez Castillo; Navarro)
The best way to produce more real-like scripts is to let the Latino screenwriters make them. They know everything about Latinos, their personalities, culture and diversity and they have many valuable experience of what it is like to be a Latino in the United States and they can reflect all this knowledge into the scripts.
The Latino characterizations - written, produced and directed by Latinos - differ significantly from Anglo misconceptions. The Latino filmmaker can bring a “fundamental shift to positive portrayals” of Latino based on their real lives (Treviňo). The Latino writers are believed to be the only ones who can write stories exploring the diversity of Latino world.
Even actress Judy Reyes says that the progress will take much longer if there will be a lack of important Latino writers and producer in the film industry (qtd. in Navarro). On the other hand, even Latino writers do not always write realistic scripts. Producer David Valdes argues that although he has read many Latino scripts, he has not found one that he could take to
Latinos yet (qtd. in Isais) .
The truth is that Latino screenwriters hold a complicated position. Ramirez-Berg explains that if they want to be successful in Hollywood they need to master the dominant screenwriting which is mostly stereotypical. At the same time, they should alter the stereotypes to contribute to their ethnic group. On one hand, if they stick on the ethnic stories they risk being marginalized. On the other, if they get too deep into the mainstream they risk
26 losing touch with their background and forgetting who they are (“Strategies for Latino
Screenwriters.”).
Several authors try to form advices for the screenwriters focused on the best way how to eliminate the stereotypes in movie scripts. The most important is to avoid a good versus bad binary. Some writers seem to take revenge on Anglos for the decades of stereotyping by turning them into the villains. Nevertheless stereotyping is unrealistic no matter who is the stereotype group (Ramirez-Berg, “Strategies for Latino Screenwriters.”).
The stereotyping should be eliminated in general. Even positive stereotypes are bad because they limit the real characters. The best way to fight stereotypes is by reflecting a real human experience, the complexity of the world and of the human character. Vargas says that it is the mixture of positive and negative qualities that makes us human, so we should reflect it on the screen instead of the unrealistic one-dimensional characters. On the other hand, he realizes that the Latinos in the film industry are in a complicated position as they can only decide whether they will involve in stereotyping and become successful or avoid stereotyping and become marginalized. However, he gives them advice:
Embrace the human experience. Don‟t simplify it. If we‟re going to push for
positive stereotypes, at least let‟s exaggerate them to the point of ridiculousness
so neither negative nor positive are taken seriously.
4.5. Media literacy
It is important to admit that the stereotyping in films is not only a matter of filmmakers. An influential role plays the audience. “Media consumers also hold a great deal of the responsibility for solving the problem” because they should be able to change the perception of Latinos by a critical analysis of the images provided by the media (Pehl). The media literacy is essential to make our own rational decision. The key principles we need to realize while dealing with the media (including movies) are that the media do not present the
27 real complex world but rather a limited construction of it. As construction, they can be deconstructed and analyzed. Finally, different media depictions are shaped by a number of contexts which influence the way they represent the world.2 As the media audience we should actively interpret information received from the media (Vargas, DePyssler).
2 We can see considerable differences between mainstream and independent cinema. 28
5. Latinos in Hollywood and their experience
With the growing number of Latinos entering the film industry, the stereotypes seem to be changing. Even though there are many Latino actors, director, writers, producers and executives in Hollywood really doing their best, the process of eliminating the stereotypes is very slow and difficult and so the negative stereotypes persist (Isais; Villafañe). In fact, some believe that the negative stereotypes will probably never completely disappear (Treviño). On the other hand, many Latinos feel positively about the evolution of stereotypes. This section describes the personal experiences of Latinos working in the film industry and their opinions of the future development of this issue.
5.1. Latin Look
The Latina stereotype is based mostly on the Latin look. Nevertheless, it does not reflect the actual appearance of many Latinas. Actress Marissa Tomei had to gain weight and wear bronzing products for her role in The Perez Family to look more like the Hollywood idea of a
Cuban prostitute. In contrast, Estrella Nieto was picked without auditioning to play a Mexican girl although she is not Mexican and she cannot even speak Spanish. The producer simply said that her skin looks like the skin of a Mexican girl (qtd. in Isais).
Similarly the roles of Latinos are often cast by actors and actresses from Spain such as
Penelope Cruz or Antonio Banderas. The reason for this is simple. They just look Latino. To the contrary, Gina Torres never played a Latina on screen although she is a Dominican. The problem is that she is black. She says she quickly realized that she was not going up for Latina parts because Latinas were supposed to “look Italian” (qtd. in Perez). Torres‟ experience might serve as an example of the suppression of the diversity of Latinos. In general there is a lack of the Black-Latina representation in Hollywood which decreases the self-confidence of
29 the real-life Black-Latinas as they seem not to be important enough to be portrayed on the big screen (Perez).
But as far as the look is concerned there are numerous actors and actresses of Latino origin who rarely play Latino characters because they do not look Latino enough. We can list
Alexis Bledel, Frankie Muniz or Cameron Diaz who have at least one Latino parent. It was told to actress Sara Paxton that the white girl would be never hired to play a Latina
(Hernandez, “Sara Paxton Explain Why Hollywood Won‟t Let Her Play Latina.”). Similarly
Puerto Rican Lana Parrilla say that although she played Latinas at the beginning of her career, she has always been said not to look Latina enough because they wanted a Latina with
“darker skin, and longer hair” (Hernandez, “‟Once Upon a Time‟ Star Lana Parilla says
Hollywood Told Her: You don‟t Look Latina Enough.”).
Unfortunately there are also actors who do not care about changing the stereotypes.
The Colombian actress Sofia Vergara is often criticized for playing stereotypical roles which damage the image of Latinas. However, she does not think she does anything bad. In her opinion, the stereotypes of Latinas are not negative, in contrast she appreciates them for showing Latinas as pretty, sexy and scandalous (Hernandez Castillo). Her attitude towards the stereotyping might have a lot to do with her lack of Latino immigrant experience as Vergara was born and brought up in Colombia and moved to the United States when she was already quite a known person.
5.2. Spanish accent
Another important issue concerning the stereotypical roles is the Spanish accent that are the characters supposed to have. Many Latino actors try to get rid of the accent. At the same time there is a number of Latinos who do not even speak Spanish, unfortunately the roles are given mostly to those actors who have the accent so even if they can speak perfect
English, they are forced to speak with accent if they want to get a role.
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Even Vergara says that she was trying to get rid of the accent. However, she could not concentrate on both the pronunciation and acting during the auditions and she realized that it is the accent that the filmmakers want. She just quit trying to change her accent which have brought her many roles (“Sofía Vergara talks First Fragrance”).Similar experience has
Roselyn Sanchez who admits attending the speaking classes until today (Latinomediaworks,
“RoselynSanchez.”).
An interesting example is Lupe Ontiveros who was born in the United States and spoke perfect English. However, she had to put on an accent that her family lost a generation ago to get a part (Navarro).
5.3. Homogeneous Latinos
The stereotypes provide the simplified images of reality that suppress human diversity.
The Latino actors have to deal with being cast for the same roles all the time.
Besides her accent Ontiveros can serve also as an example of actress forced to play
Latinas occupying inferior works. She played a maid at least 150 times. Sometimes she is said to be a Latino incarnation of the African American actress Hattie McDaniel who played similar roles in 1930s (Navarro). She said that at beginning of her career she simply worked as an extra and was happy for whatever role she got. Anyway, she soon realized that she does not want to play maids all the time. Unfortunately, she had already made her name as a maid so many important filmmakers like Steven Spielberg - whom she cannot reject - asked her to play maids. However, she started to work with independent filmmakers who allowed her to play a variety of Latinas so she could reveal her talent. Finally, she added that she did not regret playing so many maids (Pondal, “Celebrity Habla – Lupe Ontiveros.”). She claimed that at least she had a chance to portray them honorably and give them soul and heart
(Navarro).
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Roselyn Sanchez says that she has been rejected for playing a doctor because she has an accent. The producers thought that the doctor should speak perfect English. However, she does not agree with them because her brother is a doctor even though he speaks with an accent (Latinomediaworks, “RoselynSanchez.”).
The filmmakers often ignore the fact that real-life Latinos are not just the inferior workers and poor immigrants. Luis Guzman narrates the story of how he got to acting. He says it was an accident. Some man simply asked him to join the career on the street as he is a
“hard-ass looking” Latino. Until that he was working as a social worker in New York City where he got many important experiences with junkies, drug dealers or criminals that he could later use in his acting career. He has already played in more than a hundred movies but most of them were just minor roles so he complains that often happens to him that people ask him where they know him from (Latinomediaworks, “Celebrity Habla 2 – Luis Guzman.”).
Similar problem has the actress Sonia Manzano. She notices people smiling at her and thinking where they know her from. However, she does not mind it. She confesses to be happy to be an actress because by appearing on the big screen she shows children how diverse the American society is and that even Latinos have a place in it. She considers it to be important because it teaches children that they can participate in the society and as well as contribute to it. (Latinomediaworks, “SoniaManzano.”).
There are also many people in the film industry that feel positively about the development of stereotypes. The current president of CNN Worldwide Jeff Zucker thinks that with the increasing diversity of society it is just a matter of time before the Hispanic portrayals evolve into a fuller picture because the range of role also increases. Similarly Fox‟s senior vice president for Diversity Development Mitsy Wilson appreciates that the industry is moving in the direction of putting Latinos in roles of leading characters (qtd. in Navarro). The
32 first Latino Miss USA Laura Martinez Herring claims that in Hollywood is everything changing and that it makes her and the other Latinos happy (qtd. in Esais).
On the other hand, there are Latinos who are not so sure about the positive development. Lalo Alcaraz wonders whether the stereotypes can be better. He just knows that
Hollywood should catch up to reality. Latinos simply know that they have to combat the stereotypes as there is no chance to avoid them. Esai Morales claims to be “pissed” because the industry provides just whites‟ image of what they consider to be reality. He and other
Latinos are forced to play roles that he calls “the four haches”. That means Hostile,
Hormonal, Humble and Hysterical Latinos (qtd. in Hernandez-Castillo). He stresses that
Latinos have more to offer to America as they are also a part of it (Pondal, “Habla Esai
Morales.”).
Another prominent figure who does not think the stereotypes would be changing is
Moctesuma Esparza. This Latino producer - a representative of the first wave of the Chicano movement – has dedicated his life to the fight against the stereotyping. He has already produced many films with the positive images of Latinos. In addition, he fought for the diversity in film and journalism schools and established an independent distribution company
Maya Entertainment and a chain of theatres Maya Cinemas. Even though he still wants to transform the stereotypical Hollywood image of Latinos into an image of them as people ready to contribute to the country and society, he does not see the image of Latinos has transformed. In his opinion, it is right the other way round – the stereotypes have even gotten worse. According to his study, in the 1950s and 60s there were thirteen Latinos who could headline a movie whereas today there are only five. All of them are women and only one of them – Cameron Diaz – could raise the money for a film alone just by her name. The other four – Zoe Saldana, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson and Eva Mendes – fall into a co-star category. (Hernandez-Castillo; Latinomediaworks, “MoctesumaEsparza.”).
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To sum it up the situation within the Latino filmmakers is diverse. Some of them believe the stereotypes are changing some do not. However, most of them claim to make efforts to contribute to the positive portrayals of Latinos. Some of them try to avoid playing stereotypical roles, others exaggerate the stereotypes so much that they cannot be taken seriously. On the other hand, there are numerous actors who keep playing the stereotypical roles without considering the negative implications it might cause to real-life Latinos. These actors often include Latinos who were not raised in the United States so they lack the experiences of the ordinary Latin Americans and the actors who are not even Latinos and are cast according to their appearance which makes them fit into the Latin look category.
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6. Case studies
The stereotypes can be seen in all kinds of the media. Very often we do not even realize that the character has been stereotypical. In this section I examine five films where the stereotypical characters can be found.
I have chosen the current mainstream films produced by the well-known film studios. All the films were shot in the last ten years and thus they represent the up-to-date stereotypes. The three films of older date I knew before, for the other two I searched at Internet Movie
Database3 where I looked up films in which particular Latino actors were cast. At first, I picked about ten movies that seem to be suitable for my research and at the same time are available in the Czech Republic. While watching the films I concentrated both on the Latino characters and the major characters‟ attitudes to them. After having all the films watched I chose five of them that I considered as the most convenient for my research. Even thought the other movies also support the points I have made about stereotypes, the stereotypes in them were either less evident or there were just few of them. On the contrary, the selected films include handful of Latino stereotypes as well as some attempts to eliminate the stereotyping.
6.1. Shall We Dance (2004)
An American remake of Masayuki Suo‟s Shall We Dance? mostly tries to negate the
Latino stereotypes. Nonetheless, I found also some stereotypical features in the film.
John Clark (Richard Gere) is a Chicago lawyer. He has a beautiful wife (Susan
Sarandon) and two teenage children. On his way home from work, he spots an interesting young Latina woman sitting at the window of a dance studio. He is so attracted by her beauty that one day he starts to take dance lessons there without telling his family. Unfortunately, this young lady does not care about him. On the contrary, she rejects him. Nevertheless, he still
3 www.imdb,com 35 seems to be fascinated by her. In addition, he gets every time more interested in dancing. His family suspects him of adultery so his wife hires a detective to spy on John. When they reveal the truth, they support him in dancing. At the end, the Latina leaves for England and asks
John to dance with her at a goodbye party. However, John decides to dance with his wife instead. Later he and his wife arrive at the party and all the characters seem to be living happily ever after.
The movie follows the traditional Hollywood narrative paradigm. A white, middle- aged, Anglo-Saxon male hero has a perfect life, work and family. However, he is attracted by a Latina that in fact disequilibrates the status quo. At the end, he rejects the Latina and returns to his Anglo wife so the status quo is maintained.
The young Latina – Paulina (Jennifer Lopez) – can be classified as a dark lady. She attracts the American hero, but she does not want to seduce him and keeps a distance. On the other hand, she bears traces of more Latino stereotypes. Her appearance fits the Latin look.
Her body is sexualized, she is a great dancer and she is very passionate while dancing. In addition, when she narrates a story about her childhood she mentions that her entire family are dry-cleaners. In fact, it was a white, Anglo-Saxon costumer that inspired Paulina to start a dancing career. This contribution of whites to the improvement of Latinos lives for better often appears in the Hollywood narrative paradigm.
The movie includes another two minor characters connected with Latino stereotyping.
One of them is Chic – a young Latino guy who attends dance lessons with John. At the beginning he acts as a kind of Latin lover – he claims to start taking lessons because of
“babes” and he very often speaks about seducing women. On the other hand, he is hardly ever shown with any women and at the end it turns out that he is actually gay. This might be an attempt to fight the homogeneous stereotypical images of Latinos by showing their diversity.
On the other hand, the major point of the filmmakers was probably not to show that all the
36
Latinos are not Latino lovers and that there are also homosexual individuals. The filmmakers perhaps wanted a ridiculous Latino character the audience might laugh at - simply a male buffoon.
The last character worth mentioning – Link Peterson (Stanley Tucci) – is not Latino at all.
Link is a John‟s colleague who loves Latin dances. Unfortunately, he feels shame for this so he hides his identity while dancing. He pretends to be a Latino - he puts on a wig, uses bronzing products and wears bright, shiny clothes. This vision of “what a Latino should look like” perfectly fits the Anglo stereotypical image of Latinos. Later Link realizes how ridiculous his behavior is and throws the costume away. This might symbolize the need for rejecting the stereotypical views of Latinos. The Link‟s Latino alter ego is so exaggerated that it shows the audience that Latinos do not neither look nor act that way. The viewer gets a chance to compare this comic exaggerated image of Latino with the portrayals of Latinos in other movies where they are supposed to be taken seriously.
Even though the movie might seem to be “stereotype free” there are hidden features of many Latino stereotypes. On the other hand, the filmmakers probably only wanted to entertain the audience, not denigrate Latinos. As far as consequences of stereotyping are concerned I do not consider this film to be negative. The dark lady is at least one of the positive stereotypes and the rest of the stereotypes there are exaggerated or comical thus they should not be taken seriously.
6.2. Material Girls (2006)
A family comedy Material Girls shows the attitudes and prejudices of the members of upper-class towards the less privileged population and their changes caused by newly gained experiences and knowledge. The film is naive and simple, yet it includes the stereotypes and at the same time negates some of them.
37
Sisters Tanzie and Ava Marchetta are rich heiresses of a prospering cosmetics company.
They are living idyllic lives full of wealth and fame when a scandal with their product appears. They lose everything and are being obliged to sell the company. Nevertheless, they decide not to do so and try to find out the truth to clear their father‟s name instead. They move into a flat of their Colombian nanny and maid Inez and with help of real friends they reveal who is responsible for the scandal. At the end they save the company and restore their social position.
The most obvious stereotypical character is the Latina nanny. Inez lives in a small flat in a poor neighborhood – as soon as the girls come to the visit her, their car is stolen. Inez‟s flat is full of religious items – there are crosses all over the wall in her living room. She uses
Spanish words while speaking. She lives alone, but she has two small daughters in Colombia because she is not able to get them to the United States. However, kind white American girls help her and at the end of the movie she reunites with her children. There is no reference to the children‟s father. This is a typical depiction of middle-aged Latinas – an immigrant single mother who has to work hard (often as maid or nanny) to earn a living for her family. The image of a family separated by immigration and reunited thanks to the help of a kind white
Anglo savior is also often seen.
Another Latino character is a young Latino Rick (Marcus Coloma). At the beginning, he is depicted as a guy parking the sisters‟ car at the parking lot of the company so both the girls and viewer consider him to be working there. This would be also the logical outcome as he is
Latino. Nonetheless, later in the film it shows up that he is a lab technician who parks the car just because he wants to be nice and he later dates one of the sisters. The character shows that
Latino can be more than a guy working at the parking lot. On the other hand, he helps the girls to break into one of the offices. So he also bears some stereotypical features. The fact that he is capable of breaking into some places indicates that he probably comes from a poor
38 background where he has learnt this. Moreover, it might seem that all Latinos – even those who work as lab technicians – could be able to burgle.
The film shows the importance of knowledge. The upper-class sisters know nothing about their employees. At first, they even have not known that Inez has a family. However, when they are forced to spend more time with the Latinos, they get to know them and realize that they have been wrong about them. The movie could inspire the audience to avoid prejudices by using their own knowledge.
6.3. The Three Stooges (2012)
The movie The Three Stooges is an example of current movie where one of the traditional stereotypical Latino characters appears in an almost unchanged form and carries various negative characteristics.
Larry, Curly and Moe are three friends that grew up in an orphanage like brothers. Even as adults they stay at the orphanage and work as servicemen there. However, as they are lazy, irresponsible and cause many accidents the orphanage goes bankrupt. If they do not get
830.000 dollars in 30 days, the orphanage will close down. So the three men leave the orphanage for the first time to earn the money. They are hired by a Latina woman to kill her husband. However, they find out that her husband is their old friend and a mate from the orphanage Teddy who has inherited a lot of money after his adoptive mother‟s death. The three stooges decide to save him and ask him for the money they need. They really save
Teddy‟s life, unfortunately he refuses to give them the money they need. Luckily at the end the orphanage is saved by a TV producer who intends to start a reality show about the three stooges.
The Latino stereotype of this movie is obvious at the first sight. Lydia (Sofia Vergara) is a typical harlot. She is a representative of the Latin look. She is tall, slim and tan with dark long hair. She wears high-heels and tight short dresses that put attention to her breast. She
39 apparently does not love Teddy. She probably marries him to get his money. When she appears for the first time, she is cheating on Teddy with his best friend Mac. She is hot- tempered, impulsive and manipulative. She wants Mac to get rid of Teddy. Mac says that he loves her and that she can just divorce, however, Lydia says that she wants her husband‟s money even though she does not need them. Later she persuades Mac to kill Larry, Curly and
Moe after their unsuccessful attempt to kill him (as they considered him to be Lydia‟s husband). Moreover, she is sexually involved even with her father-in-law, Teddy‟s stepfather
Mr. Harter. It later comes up that Lydia and Mr. Harter are just using Mac to get rid of Teddy.
Fortunately they are defeated and arrested. Teddy finds a new partner and starts a family with her.
I wonder why the filmmaker did not cast any non-Latina. The story would function also very well with any white American. The problem is that according to the filmmakers, the
Latina harlot fits there much better. The film proves that the repetition of casting Latinos for the stereotypical roles keeps going on and thus it sabotages the attempts to eliminate stereotypes.
6.4. Jack and Jill (2011)
Jack and Jill is another comedy where we can find a Latino employed as a minor worker in a house of an upper-class white Anglo-Saxon male. However, in this movie, he is depicted in a more stereotypical way than the nanny and maid Inez in Material Girl.
Jack and Jill (Adam Sandler) are identical twins. Jack works in advertising. He has a big house and a happy family. On the other hand, he has a complicated relation with his twin sister who is coming for a Thanksgiving visit. Jill is an annoying, ignorant, loud and masculine middle-age woman living just with her parrot. When Jack finds out that she wants to stay with them in his house for some time, he decides to find her a man to get rid of her.
Unfortunately it soon shows up that it is not as easy as he thought. Moreover, Al Pacino –
40 whom Jack needs for a commercial – gets obsessed with Jill so Jack forces her to date him. At the end, Jill refuses Al and starts her life with Jack‟s gardener Felipe and his family.
In the comedy, the Latino stereotypes are represented by Felipe and his family. Felipe is a male buffoon. He works as a gardener and he always makes fun of others. He keeps saying:
“I‟m kidding.” Once he takes Jill to his family reunion. At this reunion are reflected many of the Latino stereotypes. There is a Spanish guitar music playing in the background. There are colorful balloons everywhere in the park. Felipe family is numerous and all the family members are called just by variations of names Juan and José. He introduces his kids as José,
José Junior and Josefina. He invites Jill to eat a Mexican food, but he prevents her from eating a jalapeño pepper saying her that it is too hot. On the other hand Felipe‟s grandmother is eating the peppers all the time. This probably represents that all Mexicans love the hot food.
All the family members love fun – they are just drinking, eating, singing, dancing and playing football. However, there are also hints of fact that they are poor. As an example of the poverty might serve their “dance floor” made of pieces of ripped paper boxes pasted together.
So even though the movie‟s happy ending includes Felipe, it is still extremely stereotyping and does not contribute to the positive picture of Latinos on screen.
6.5. Shrek 2 (2004)
It is important to realize that the stereotypes can be seen even in cartoons, comedies and fairy tales. We are taught to perceive some group in a stereotypical way from childhood.
Shrek 2 is one of the films where the stereotypes can be found.
Shrek and his wife Fiona are invited to the Fiona‟s kingdom Far Far Away. However, no one seems to be happy to see that the princess married an Ogre. In addition, Fiona‟s father and a fairy godmother have made a deal that Fiona will marry a prince Charming so they try to separate Fiona and Shrek. Later the king realized that the Fiona‟s happiness is more important
41 than any deal and the story ends up with a great celebration where Shrek and Fiona get together and the fairy godmother and her son Charming are defeated.
The animated films prove that the Latino imagery goes beyond the visual depiction. The king tries to get rid of Shrek by hiring a killer – someone with a Spanish accent hid in the darkness. This depiction is close to the image of bandido – mysterious man killing others for money. We can see what the killer actually looks like when Puss In Boots (Antonio Banderas) attacks Shrek in woods. In addition, there is a flamenco music playing in the background. He is charming and his appearance reminds of Zorro – similarly he signs by carving later P into a tree with his sword. He fights with Shrek but he is defeated and starts being humble. He claims to be poor and that he has to care about his sick parents and little brothers and sisters.
While speaking with Shrek he uses some well-known Spanish words like “por favor” or “sí”.
On the other hand, he shows to be honorable – he refuses to leave Shrek because he wants to pay him back that he saved his life and becomes a reliable companion of Shrek and Donkey.
Later in the story there is a scene where knights – substituting police – are arresting Shrek,
Donkey and Puss In Boot. In the scene, the knight find out that Puss have some bag that strikingly resembles drugs. This is related to the fact that Puss is supposed to be identified as a
Latino and thus a drug dealer.
Puss represents also a Latin lover. He is handsome and gives his companions advices concerning women. When Shrek and Donkey wake up after drinking the magic potion, we can see Puss in arms of one of the girls saying Shrek: “We love your kitty.” Similarly, when
Fiona in her human form meets Donkey and Puss while searching for Shrek, Puss answers to her question whether he is Shrek: “For you, baby, I could be.” At the end of the movie, at the party –or fiesta as the Puss says – Puss starts to sing “Livin‟ La Vida Loca” and flirts with a cat in the audience while singing. After the party Puss appears with two women trying to cheer Donkey up by saying he can find him some burro.
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To sum it up, we can say that although Puss is just a cat he is definitely meant to be a
Latino and bears stereotypical features that allow us to classify him as a Latin lover with some features of El bandido. This representation sends children a message about the Latino population that teaches them to connect Latinos with crime and sexuality.
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Conclusion
Although Latinos are nowadays the largest minority in the United States, they keep being portrayed as a homogeneous group of uneducated immigrants, gangsters, drug dealers, criminals and inferior workers. As the analysis of the national surveys showed the stereotypes are not only far from true but they also have negative impacts on the public opinion about
Latinos and that is the reason why they should be eliminated.
Unfortunately, the process of changing the stereotypes is very complex and problematic and would need to involve many people. The scripts should be written by Latino screenwriters who master the Hollywood paradigm, but at the same time avoid stereotyping.
Actors should reject offers to play stereotypical roles and avoid exaggerating them.
Nevertheless Hollywood filmmakers can always hire someone else to write the scripts or to play the Latino roles if the Latinos refuse to do so. This is the reason why the audience plays an important role in the fight against stereotypes. The audience can decide what films they will go to. Viewers who want to contribute to the positive development of the stereotyping, can do so by not going to the stereotyping films. They can support more realistic independent films instead. Regardless, if they go to a stereotyping movie they should be able to deconstruct it and not just take the images for granted. The children in schools should be taught to critically analyze mediated images instead of taking them for granted. In addition they should learn more about the cultures of the minorities that would provoke deeper understanding of the others. Moreover the individual Latin American nations in the United
States should aim at substituting their heterogeneous character by a more united one that would aim at the improvement of their situation. To effectively do so, they should support organizations promoting their civil rights such as the League of United Latin American
Citizens or the National Council of La Raza. This is probably the best way to change the stereotypes.
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To sum is up, as the case studied show there are still numerous characters in the U.S. movies that portray Latin Americans in a stereotypical way. On the other hand, there are also every time more films where the depiction of Latino comes closer to the reality. Nonetheless as long as there will be enough people caring just about success and not considering what they might cause to the real-life Latinos, the stereotypes about Latinos probably will not be completely eliminated.
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English Resumé
This bachelor‟s thesis deals with the stereotypes about the Latin American population that appear in the U.S. media – especially in films - and the consequences of stereotyping that influence both the dominant American population and the Latino minority.
At the beginning, there are explained the key processes of the human mind which are related to the creation of stereotypes. It is followed by the description of the particular stereotypes about Latinos as a group, and a list of the six individual stereotypical characters that can be found in the history of the U.S. filmmaking. Later, it compares the stereotypes with reality using the results of the national surveys held in the United States. Moreover it discusses the impacts of the stereotypes on the dominant population and on Latinos.
On the other hand, the thesis focuses also on the possibilities of changing or eliminating the stereotypes. It states efforts of some Latinos working in the U.S. film industry that might improve the situation and also their personal experiences with stereotyping.
In the last part of the thesis are analysed five contemporary films. The analyses reveal stereotypes that appear in the film and they deal with the impacts they might have on the viewer.
The conclusion provides a summary of the main points concerning stereotypes and their impacts. Moreover, it lists some aspects that together might contribute to the fight against stereotyping.
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České resumé
Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá stereotypy o latinsko-americkém obyvatelstvu, které se objevují v amerických médiích, zvláště pak ve filmech, a jejich vlivem jak na většinové americké obyvatelstvo, tak na latinsko-americkou menšinu.
Na začátku jsou vysvětleny základní procesy odehrávající se v lidské mysli, které mají za následek tvorbu stereotypů. Následuje popis jednotlivých stereotypů o latinoameričanech a seznam šesti základních stereotypních latinsko-amerických charakterů, které můžeme najít v historii amerického filmu. Na základě výsledků národních průzkumů jsou pak stereotypy srovnávány s realitou. Zmiňuji také dopady těchto stereotypů na většinové americké i menšinové latinsko-americké obyvatelstvo.
Na druhou stranu se práce zaměřuje i na možnosti změny či odstranění stereotypů. Uvádí snahy některých latinoameričanů pracujících v americkém filmovém průmyslu, které by mohly přispět ke zlepšení situace, a také jejich osobní zkušenosti se stereotypy.
V poslední části práce je analyzováno pět současných filmů. Jednotlivé analýzy se zaměřují nejen na jednotlivé stereotypy obsažené ve filmech, ale zohledňují také jejich možné dopady na diváka.
Závěr shrnuje hlavní body týkající se stereotypů a jejich následků. Dále pak uvádí některé z klíčových aspektů, které by dohromady mohly pomoci v boji proti stereotypům.
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