Hispanics in Jane the Virgin 2016
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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Silvia Hrinková Fighting Conventions: Hispanics in Jane the Virgin Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey A. Vanderziel, B.A. 2016 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature 2 Acknowledgement I would like to thank God for smooth writing process; my supervisor Jeff Vanderziel for invaluable comments, supportive remarks, his personal positive mind, his promptness and availability; the Masaryk University and its library for access to wide range of sources that helped craft the thesis and finally my family and friends for their encouragement. 3 Table of contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 5 2 What then is a Latino, this new man? ........................................................... 12 2.1 E pluribus unum .................................................................................... 12 2.1.1 Pan-ethnicity .................................................................................... 18 2.2 “What's the Problem with 'Hispanic'? Just Ask a 'Latino'” ................... 21 3 From soap opera to telenovela and back again ............................................. 28 4 Jane the Virgin ............................................................................................. 38 4.1 Behind the scenes: Production context ................................................. 38 4.2 Behind the misconceptions: Re-writing old stereotypes ....................... 41 5 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 69 References ........................................................................................................... 75 Appendix 1: A brief history timeline .................................................................. 82 Appendix 2: Latino shows list ............................................................................ 84 Appendix 3: Print screens ................................................................................... 85 Résumé ................................................................................................................ 89 Resumé ................................................................................................................ 90 4 1 Introduction If you’re white, you’re all right; if you’re brown, stick around; if you’re black, get back. (Big Bill Broonzy) Is there a panic about Hispanics? If so, whose panic is it? Is it her – America’s panic about new arrivals? Is it their – Hispanics’ panic about how they will be received? How are they represented by the dominant culture? The thesis sets out the problem of Latino presence in the United States; a group that has already surpassed African- Americans as the most populous non-white component of American society. The 2010 census demonstrated changing racial and ethnic makeup of the nation. A remarkable growth was marked by the Hispanic and Asian populations. There were 50.5 million Hispanics in the United States - their increase compared to the census a decade before amounted for “more than half of the growth in the total population” (Humes 3). The numbers alarmed many and led to predictions that in 2050 Hispanics would overcome non-Hispanic whites and constitute almost a third of the whole nation’s population (cf. Darder and Torres 2015; Golash-Boza and Darity 2008)1. The perceptions and stereotypes about this immigrant group, or better said immigrant groups encompassed by the umbrella terms Latino or Hispano2, have generally been negative, which resulted in portraying Hispanics as not useful for or in extreme cases as a threat to American society (Gates 2012; Chuang and Robin 2015), especially as an economic threat motivating opposition to immigration notwithstanding the fact that the Valentino et al. survey did not find evidence of such an effect (150-1, 157-8). The fear of terrorism accelerated the discourse on immigration policy after September 2001. Juxtaposed with 1 For all current statistics and projections see “FFF”. 2 Hispanic and Latino are used interchangeably throughout the thesis. 5 recent threats from “ISIS”, Hamas, Hezbollah and other military and resistance movements, immigration from Latin American countries is one of the issues at play that worries American political representatives much. In current parlance, resolution of the situation would translate into building a wall on the Mexican-American border and deportation policy of undocumented immigrants that is so enthusiastically promoted by Donald Trump, a running presidential candidate for 2016 elections. Any move like that would demonstrate how clash of cultures can be brought into extreme, and, more importantly, it highlights the significance of the notion of culture as such. Guido Bolaffi’s Dictionary of Race, Ethnicity and Culture defines culture in two ways: as “the body of knowledge and manners acquired by an individual” and as “the shared customs, values and beliefs which characterize a given social group, and which are passed down from generation to generation”. Often cited is also a definition by Clifford Geertz, the American anthropologist, who sees culture as “a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life”. The focus on values, customs and inherited conceptions can, and indeed it does, generate stereotypical portrayals of ethnic groups. The way these are passed down from generation to generation takes on a new dimension with immigrant groups and the process of their acculturation and integration into the new society. With respect to this, it is important to consider the role media play in cultural promotion. The power of television lies in its ability to reach millions of people at the same time. Professor Doris A. Graber says that “the media set forth cultural values that their audiences are likely to accept in whole or in part as typical of U.S. society”. In this way media “homogenize our society” (2). Constant influx of illegal immigrants especially from Mexico underpins the widely-held perception of a Latino as poor and uneducated and poses a 6 challenge for anybody wishing to uproot such claims. The thesis, in contrast, maintains that negatively-nuanced Latino stereotypes are turning out to be passé and that this minority (a word that will not be accurate in a couple of years time) is becoming to be depicted in a more positive light. A recent telenovela-like soap opera Jane the Virgin serves as a case study and is analyzed critically to prove the claim that Latinos are getting out of the barrio, moving up the social ladder and adapting well to the majority culture while still preserving some elements of their ethnic culture. The show testifies to America’s long-term attempts to change widely-lamented underrepresentation of Hispanic minority in both media and non-media environment (cf. Mastro and Behm-Morawitz 2005; Negrón-Muntaner et al. 2014). Outside the media realm, the most current example of recognizing the ‘Other’ is the National Hispanic Heritage Month. In literary world, the names of Sandra Cisneros and Junot Diaz are now well recognized. In today’s mediated society it is required to present social reality of diversity onscreen as well. The situation in media has not been that favorable until recently. Appendix 2: Latino shows listprovides a synopsis of noteworthy Latino-staring or Latino-themed shows that became significant in introducing this major minority to that message-carrier medium that television undoubtedly is. Occasionally, Latinos would appear even in leading roles. I Love Lucy, regarded as one of the greatest sitcoms of the last century and all times, starred Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as her husband Ricky Ricardo, a Cuban-American singer and bandleader, but this was a rarity rather than a common practice. Since the 1950s little had changed and in 2002 television season Latinos were still underrepresented in entertainment programming (ibid. 111). Another report by Frances Negrón-Muntaner et al. confirms the stagnation in casting Latinos in English-language media. The situation seems to be changing now. Besides Jane the Virgin, two other shows were aired in the middle of 2015-2016 TV season: a 7 sitcom Telenovela with Eva Longoria about a Latino telenovela star who does not speak Spanish and a crime drama Shades of Blue starring Jennifer Lopez as a single-mother agent working in an anti-corruption department and bribing officers because of her financial problems. Casting female minority characters in leading roles, these three situation comedies seem to be a major step forward in attempts to overcome double discrimination of Latinas – both in terms of their gender and ethnicity. Negrón- Muntaner et al. demonstrated that Latinas surpass their male counterparts in percentage of appearances, but do not play any television leads (2-3, 10). Jane the Virgin is thus part of the trend in which female appearance is concerned, and it also sets forward a new trend with a female lead. Jane the Virgin tells a story of a 23-years-old Jane Villanueva - a working, religious, young Latina woman who is accidentally artificially inseminated. Starring Gina Rodriguez, Justin Baldoni and Andrea Navedo, the