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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). 1 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. 2 1. Process of stereotyping 1.1. Cognition To understand the problematic of stereotyping we have to first examine where does the tendency