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 show has won many awards.

Its popularity and critical acclaim make it worthy of our attention and being examined more closely. Interestingly, the Latino-themed show is not as Spanish-language driven as one might think. This fact emphasizes the demand for English-speaking series that would appeal to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences. Having the dynamics of daughter-mother-grandmother relations at its core, the comedy-drama provides a rich account of all generations of Latin immigrants in the United States of America. Before delving into the analysis proper, it is inevitable to introduce the group and place Latinos within the context of American society. From the most part the thesis does not adopt empirical approach. Jane the Virgin is a tool for determining how Latinos are represented by the others, not how they see themselves. This account, as already suggested, seems to take on a new direction towards more positive portrayals.

8

Counter-stereotypical representations of Latinos have already been identified by

Angie Chuang from American University and Robin Chin Roemer from the University of Washington. News articles on the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) triggered their concerns, so they examined DREAM’s coverage in selected media and based on exemplars presented they conclude that “Latino/Latinas overcome their ‘deficits’ of being Other, poor, and undocumented” through assimilation

(1057). Furthermore, positive representation of the ‘Other’ paves the path for the target group to more easily access the dominant culture. Mastro and Behm-Morawitz applied cultivation theory and social identity theory to their research on Latino representations on prime time television. The former theory holds that being exposed to images of

Latinos on television can influence social realities and viewers’ perceptions may alter by learning from television, whereas the latter approach adds that a group’s identity is informed and fostered by unfavorable images of the other group (112). In this case it would mean that individuals from the dominant American culture, i.e. non-Latinos may cultivate their identity through negative portrayals of Latinos on television. What if these portrayals are, on the contrary, more favorable ones as one can see in Jane the

Virgin? Non-Latino viewers can no longer reinforce their status quo vis-à-vis Latinos based on media exposure. In this way, Jane the Virgin tells its audiences about undeniable presence of people other than White, challenges the dominant ideology and calls for inclusion of Latinos (and other groups) into the debate on what an American is.

If nothing else, the show succeeded in bringing Latino culture into the U.S. mainstream.

The thesis consists of two parts: background information and the case study itself. The theoretical section starts off with an overview of attempts to categorize

Latinos into American racial system that used to be of binary white/black nature and that was abandoned as soon as 2000 census. Difficulty with assigning people to a priori

9 categories as well as a disruption of traditional black/white dichotomy is obvious in

2010 census in which multiple-race combinations were possible. Latinos complicate the issue by uncertainty about their allocation into race categories – they ponder whether they are white, black, the “other” or whether they constitute their own category (for instance, “Mexican” race was an option used for a time). Furthermore, they frequently occur in articles on whitening hypothesis (Vargas 2015; Vasquez 2014; Waterston

2006). Research done in this area so far has been enriched by Arlene Dávila’s inclination to talk about “Latinization” of America rather than “whitening” of Latinos

(11). Adding to this, the thesis provides definitions of the terms Latino and Hispanic that are used with different meanings by different scholars and still others use them interchangeably. Despite all the doubts on whether “Latino” is a meaningful identity due to a huge internal diversity, there is no doubt that it is a “visible identity”, in the words of Linda Alcoff (1). Most of the scholars favor pan-ethnic concept that covers all ethnic groups of Latino/Hispanic origin and places them in the same category. This homogenization was to a great extent brought about by the United States Census that has used it since 1980 for survey purposes. More importantly, collective identity serves for affirming otherness, for expressing “opposition to other social groups”, as Assistant

Professor in the Department of Communications at Salem State University Guillermo

Avila-Saavedra puts it (282). The thesis’ focus is on representation of collective identity as well.

Once Latinos are set into the framework of American society, a chapter follows that examines cultural appropriation of media genres, particularly that of telenovela.

The telenovela in English-language television, however, cannot be called telenovela any more. Rather, cultural appropriation of the format results in a hybrid of soap opera and telenovela, which is hidden behind labels such as sitcom, comedy or comedy-drama.

10

Ambiguity of the genre gives rise to uncertain delineation of its subject matter. As an

American show drawing much from the telenovela genre and as a supposedly Latino show produced in America and by Americans, does Jane the Virgin represent Latino values striving in the Unites States or does it show the imposture of American values on the Latino community? The thesis argues that the show reflects a double-faceted phenomenon that the scholar Ilan Stavans speaks of: “Hispanization of the United

States” and “Anglicization of Hispanics” are two processes taking place simultaneously

(Delgado and Stefancic 33). The thesis moves along the lines of Stavans’ view since it provides a firm grounding for approaching Latinos in the United States of America.

The following example should make the point: Cuban and Cuban-American are not synonymous labels; they are not part of the same culture. In the light of immigration and presence of minority groups in the States, a Cuban would be a first generation immigrant, born in Cuba and raised in Cuban culture. The latter is a mixture of a Cuban with American elements in it. This holds true for Latinos in general. Their Latino culture is left far behind, and all endeavors for its preservation take place in the

American context, which creates a new unique hybrid-culture to be studied: that in which one group is Hispanicized and the other one Anglicized to a certain extent.

Moving along the lines of this two-way interaction, the thesis examines how Hispanics manage to overcome low expectations and unfavorable perceptions associated with them. The thesis does so by tracing any signs of Hispanic progress and, consequently, the rebuttal of negative stereotypes by considering areas like education, language skills, job opportunities or family values as presented in Jane the Virgin. The findings prove that old stereotypes are challenged and Latinos’ threat is repudiated.

11

2 What then is a Latino, this new man?

“There are no Latinos, only diverse peoples struggling to

remain who they are while becoming someone else” (Shorris 12).

2.1 E pluribus unum

One. Many. One out of many. All of these indefinite pronouns precisely describe the United States of America; all of them exactly define the state of affairs of Latinos.

One nation - one people correspondence does not apply for the United States. Although predominantly racially white, America has been varied since its foundation. One does not need to look further than David Hackett Fischer’s Albion’s Seed or Charles

Murray’s retitling of the country to the United States of Diversity3 in order to disavow interpretations of America as mono-culturally dominated. Descriptions like melting pot, religious pot, salad bowl, pizza or cultural pluralism highlight the mixture of elements making up the entity that is called the United States of America. In this mosaic of cultures Latinos stand out as agents of change and re-writers of the traditional movement of American history. Native Americans’ Bering Strait crossing stacks the cards against Translatio Imperii, but otherwise the medieval historiographical concept with its conception that westward moves the course of history could be observed in the

United States before and after they became united. Starting with Columbus’ arrival and

Spanish pirate raids, the first British settlements, the Frontier, the Manifest Destiny, the

Gold Rush and European immigration in the beginning of the 20th century were all directed to the west and confirmed anticipated linear succession as defined in Translatio

Imperii. In contrast, the exodus from Latino countries, owing to geographical location, was targeted at El Norte.

3 See 12

Shorris states that Latinos’ uniqueness also lies in their opposition to the melting pot, which is greater than that of the previous immigrant groups (43). Many people believe that the concept of the melting pot does not apply anymore and reached its peak in the 1950s. Shorris is among them; for him the 1950s was the time of “happen to be” artists: one could present themselves as an American singer who happens to be black

(ibid. 382). Assimilationist forces were the drivers moving the acculturation process forward at first, but Alba and Nee look at assimilation as an evolving concept that needs to be redefined in the era of new immigration. The old definition implied its underlying ethnocentrism, its seeming inevitability and “no room for a positive role for minority groups” (2, 3, 5). This belief, put side by side with negative stereotypes Hispanics are encapsulated in, would render minorities in general and Hispanics in particular unwelcome in their new American settlements. Rather than blending into the mainstream, Geraldo Rivera opines that the experience of Latinos in America is best defined by acculturation, which is not the occasion of their disappearance as a distinctive ethnic group (244). Bolaffi’s understanding of acculturation asserts that it

“refers to both the acquisition of a new CULTURE – ‘other’ than the culture of origin – by an individual, e.g. a MIGRANT, and, more generally, to the acquisition by a social group of the cultural traits of another society” [emphasis in original]. In current parlance, the term associated with immigration would be selective acculturation, which allows learning English and taking on some cultural traits and at the same time the process is concurrent with preserving elements of one’s own culture (Portes and

Rumbaut 316).

There are many scholars who have attempted to puzzle out the complexity of

American identity. Rubén G. Rumbaut and Alejandro Portes, for instance, see American ethnicity as originating from and molded out of factors such as enslavement, conquest,

13 annexation and immigration (4). All of these factors, perhaps with the exception of enslavement, pertain to the description of Hispanic presence in the United States. The annexation of Texas together with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 exchanged

Mexicans for Mexican-Americans and made them “foreigners in their own land”.

Puerto Ricans cannot be called immigrants since the conquest of Puerto Rico in 1898 made the country a U.S. possession and granted citizenship status to island and mainland inhabitants. And so the story would go with other groups.

Conquest and annexation may have shaped Latino experience in the United

States to a great extent, but these factors were at stake in the past. Immigration, conversely, has been at the center of heated debate most recently, especially the situation with illegal newcomers. Undocumented immigration stands out as one of the central issues that Jane the Virgin touches upon. This topic generates controversy among public and accounts for negative perceptions that prevail over Latinos. For

Shorris, immigration was an “attempt to turn the world upside down. The hungry came to get fat, the poor came to get rich” (131). Generally, this may apply to the majority of immigrant cases; and has become a stereotypic characterization of new incomers.

Immigration and stereotypes go hand in hand and influence each other (see Gates 2014).

As will be seen in Chapter 4, Alba Villanueva does not conform to this pattern, though.

She was chasing her dream, enticed by the Dream – the one that promises the ideals of freedom, equality and opportunity. In the same way as Britain is said to be class- determined society, America has predominantly been marked by her racial categories – this partly explains why it is easier to climb up social ladder than to avoid racial discrimination.

Racial discourses do not operate in the same way in America and other Latino countries. Signs of racism can be observed even within the Hispanic/Latino group itself.

14

Almost all Latin American countries developed their own racial systems throughout history. The traditional American black/white dichotomy has been challenged not only by browning introduced by Latinos in general, but also by particular experiences in given countries. Shorris lists many variations that emerged with attempts to codify racism. For instance, categories in Mexico differed from the Cuban system; sometimes there were as many as sixteen variations in the colonial period. As a result, Mestizo,

Castizo, Mulato, Chamizo and others could be found there (149-50). These categorizations are further complicated by racial miscegenation and intermarriages that are now becoming a commonplace. Race relations in Puerto Rico are informed by the concept of mestizaje. The term upholds racial mixing as status quo of Puerto Rican culture and identity (Rivero 209), but it also testifies to missing boundaries for Latino identities (Alcoff 4). Trying to assign Latinos to conventional race groupings by non-

Latinos as well as their own self-identification is easier said than done.

The story of Mexican-Americans indicates that inconsistence in racial categorization exists. First they fell under the category of “other race”; objections brought about re-categorization and they were listed under the category White; then they were provided with their own “Mexican” race column in the 1930 census; in the

1950 census they were considered White again, and currently they can choose between

Hispanic or Some Other Race. Ambiguity of categories is heightened by the option to combine races. The skin color of Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans or

Nicaraguans further complicate the race politics of Latinos. An official Black, if light- skinned, may phenotypically by very similar to a darker-skinned White. Ian F. Haney

López distinguishes three terms that are significant in understanding race. These are: chance (biological determination of what race we are born), context (the setting where race is “recognized” or “constructed”) and finally choice or the power to jump races

15

(Delgado and Stefancic 9-14). The very last ability of passing confirms that race is not an inherent quality and is subject to change. Forcing any strict schematization of people is made intricate by enduring tendency to re-assign oneself from one category to another. As is telling the case of multiple-race possibilities in the United States censuses, so is the so called whitening hypothesis – becoming white. Notwithstanding

Arlene Dávila’s wish to push through the notion of “Latinization” over the talks on whitening, statistically Latinization is descending where race is concerned and more and more Latinos self-identify as white. Lighter skin color or proficiency in English are among variables that have the potential to de-stigmatize some Latinos, but as Alice

Waterston reminds, becoming white is always preceded by being listed in a “not white” category before (138).

The 1997 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) standards require the use of minimum five race categories on census: White, Black or African American, American

Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. Some

Other Race – the sixth category – was included on the 2000 and 2010 questionnaires.

The 2010 census treated “of Hispanic origin” and race as two separate concepts.

Implication stems from this that “people who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish may be any race” (Humes 2). Somebody of Hispanic origin could identify as

Native Hawaiian in the race column or, even more paradoxically, a person of Hispanic origin – an ethnic label – could state “Hispano or Latino group” in the sixth race category4. Tanya Golash-Boza and William Darity believe Hispanic to be a racialized ethnic label (901). United States Census Bureau does not seem to distinguish clearly between race and ethnicity, which has its consequences in real life. The presence of anti-immigration programs like Minutemen project that is responsible for checking the

4 Over half of Hispanics (26.7 mil.) identified as White and 18.5 million reported to be of Some Other Race in 2010. See Humes for details. 16 border or “Operation Wetback” that deported millions of Latinos in the 1950s is a sign that Latinos are perceived as a racial, not an ethnic group. Both projects were/are obviously guided by the “Us versus Them” principle.

The very same principle can be observed in the construction of race on television that is informed by the way discourse on race operates in a given society. Yeidy M.

Rivero analyzed the first locally produced program with leading black actors in Puerto

Rico. Mi Familia, aired in 1994, depicts life of a lower-middle class family. When he examined the sitcom and black shows in the United States of America, Rivero came to conclusion that while American black shows are constructed as “colored”, the narrative of Mi Familia is perceived as “colorless” owing to the absence of racial themes (215-

16), since for Puerto Ricans blackness does not generate allusion of otherness. It can be assumed that had Mi Familia been an American black show about Puerto Ricans, it would have been considered race-toned.

Despite rather problematic allocation of race categories to define Hispanics, their presence in the United States sparked anew the debate on American identity. The absence of precise definition of American identity and its ambiguous nature raise the question what the position of Latinos in American society is5. The puzzle has not been resolved as the politics of race indicate. A considerable number of scholars point out to confusing racial and ethnic categories used on U.S. censuses (Forbes 1992; Golash-

Boza 2008; Humes 2011). Their existence, however, highlights American national plurality that has been recognized since the country’s inception. When Congress approved Charles Thompson’s final design of the Great Seal in 1782, nothing prevented

5 Carson Holloway reacts to Samuel Huntington´s book Who Are We?: The Challenges to America´s National Identity and analyzes his claim that American identity is rooted in political creed as much as in preservation of Anglo-Protestant culture (106). This belief excludes immigrant groups other than WASP from identifying as an American. 17 the American bald eagle from carrying the message to the world. The official emblem recognizes multiethnic and multiracial reality on the one hand, but it also testifies to the existence of homogenizing tendency on the other. Externally treated as one, America has internally been a nation of diverse groups living together on a certain territory following certain truths. Similarly, Latinos are treated as a monolithic group from outside, but de facto there are many ethnicities inside the label Latino. They are one out of many – e pluribus unum.

2.1.1 Pan-ethnicity

As suggested above, it is easier to blur differences and approach the “other” as one, which prevents genuine sense of community from realizing itself. Many scholars show a preference for a pan-ethnic concept that fuses fractured pieces of a Latino mosaic into a whole. There is, however, at least one more problem with this pan- ethnicity. As Jose Calderon rightly points out, it should result from a “common collective experience”, but among Latino groups there is none (37). Mexicans tend to be associated with the turmoil brought about by illegal immigration most, Cubans are perceived to enjoy higher social status than other Hispanics and the first wave enjoyed warm reception since most of them were highly educated and light-skinned; Puerto

Ricans are officially American citizens since birth and the question if they are

Americans or Latinos is hard to answer. Since the term Latino encompasses such a wide variety of people and each of the subgroups has its own story, there is no single Latino history. If one dares to trace it, for Shorris this history is just an “algebra of race, culture and conquest” (15). Diverse historical experiences of particular Latino subgroups can be found in Appendix 1 in the history timeline6. Then again, which are the aspects that

6 For a brief summary of particular Latino communities, see e.g. Calderon pp. 37-39, Alba and Nee pp. 184-200 or Rumbaut and Portes 2001 for various data on educational achievements among Hispanics. A more homogenizing historical point of view is adopted by Roque Planas who poured together specific 18 overlook supposedly insurmountable differences and allow for such a gross over- generalization of numerous distinct ethnic groups?

Suárez-Orozco states three reasons why Latinos are approached as one in his and

Páez’s book Latinos: the relevance of racial and ethnic categories for social practices on state level, easier generation of conceptual understandings when placed into the broader

Latino framework and the ubiquity of Spanish language that all subgroups of the Latino concept share even if they do not speak it (5-7). Besides, there are other sociohistorical themes that account for the analytic use of pan-Latino construct. These are: the shared experience of immigration, U.S. relations with Latin America and racialization that challenges the traditional black/white binary opposition (ibid. 9). The enumeration seems more than enough to defend pan-ethnicity. Pedro A. Cabán traced the development of Latino studies and how those became absorbed into the field of academia. In his paper, he describes the resistance of mainstream departments to acknowledge the advance of Latino studies. However, in the 1960s and 1970s, one could talk only about Chicano studies or Puerto Rican studies. Due to various factors

Puerto Rican studies underwent Latinization, which was reflected in renaming of departments or adding Latino studies component to their titles (140). Even more notable is the fusion of Latino studies into race studies or American studies in general. This small teardrop in the sea is a part of a larger process of homogenizing tendencies of mainstream culture and is just one of many attempts to place all Latino groups under one umbrella term.

The existence of a pan-ethnic Latino concept leads into enquiry as to whether there is a pan-ethnic Latino consciousness. The multiplicity of experiences that

milestones of Hispanic presence in the United States and his article provides an interesting overview of their impact on America. 19 characterize various Latino groups suggests the answer would be no. Literature dealing with the issue tells there is, to a certain extent, some consciousness. Sandoval cites

Padilla’s “Latinismo” – a Latino consciousness observed between Mexicans and Puerto

Ricans in 1970’s Chicago (qtd. in Sandoval 6). This is, however, confined to specific groups, time and place and does not suffice to make any generalization about the existence of common Latino consciousness.

All this discussion is not only about the search for commonalities that would justify why Latinos are externally placed under one label, quite the contrary. The seeming imposture comes from media representations of a pan-Latino identity in North

America, fueled by the United States Census Bureau and its survey practices. Alcoff rejects the widely-held perception that pan-Latino identity is an outward product. The concept was embraced by such public figures as Simon Bolivar or Che Guevara as a call for anti-colonial strategy and solidarity years ago (10). There is another reason why being homogenized can be beneficial from Latino point of view. Assuming a common identity gives Latinos better chances of empowerment in American society. Silvio

Torres-Saillant explains how this view serves economic interests in corporate America,

“When over 30 million people can see themselves as a unit, sharing values, language, culture, and aspirations, capital can accumulate more rapidly” (Suárez-Orozco and Páez

447). Pan-ethnic identity is closely connected with new neoliberal policy. Neoliberalism has led many to acknowledge increasing consumer power of Latinos. Following its principles, minority groupings are measured along the lines of marketability. Among the scholars cited in the thesis, neoliberal policy is taken into consideration by Davila,

Waterston or Negrón-Muntaner et al. to name just a few.

The merger of Univision with Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. in 2003 was a strategic acquisition opposed by some, but seen as an advantageous step toward

20 attracting American audience (Ballvé 24). Once Latinos were unified, they became an easy target of various media and marketing campaigns. This point is one of the reasons why the thesis approaches Jane the Virgin as a show telling about Latinos as a whole – it draws on the supposition that media executives consider Hispanics as one target group and talk about Hispanics as one entity. Embracing pan-ethnicity from the point of view of the audience is logical as well. The viewers would probably not search for ethnic origin of individual actors in the sitcom (however, it will be examined in Chapter 4), but perceiving them as members of a Latino community in general is a more likely scenario.

Whether one approves of this overarching tendency or not, the truth is that pan-ethnic unity, as Calderon says, “is becoming a reality and a necessity” (42). In fact, pan- ethnicity or pan-identity of Latinos is just a miscellany of numerous ethnicities and identities in which uniqueness of each is erased by names Hispanic, Latino and Chicano most frequently. Which of these all-embracing tags that are used should be preferred? Is there the right one? Or are they synonymous?

2.2 “What's the Problem with 'Hispanic'? Just Ask a 'Latino'”7

The confusion of terms Hispanic and Latino has been present since both came into usage: Latino has been used in American English since 1946 and added to census in

2000 for the first time; Hispanic was created ad hoc as an institutionalized label in the

1970s and has appeared on censuses since then. Consequently, specific national labels ceased to be used as census categories. As the newspaper title above suggests, there is no clear definition of either, and there seems to be lack of understanding and approval of the concepts among those to whom they are applied. There is consensus only in one thing – Hispanic, Latino, Chicano or any other label are socially constructed and their meanings are assigned by those using them.

7 The title is an online article by Gonzales (see in the references). 21

The comedian Carlos Mencia ran his own The Mind of Mencia show on Comedy

Central from 2005 – 2008. In this program he embraced the notion of collective identity, but strived for finding the right word that would satisfy everybody. During the talk about assimilation and immigration on the National Public Radio he explained the reason for his preference for and frequent usage of the word beaner on his show:

I started to say Hispanic and people were just, they were saying things like

I'm not Hispanic; Hispanic is a word created by the Nixon administration.

All right, I'm sorry, I won’t use the word Hispanic any more. Chicano. Well,

I’m from El Salvador, and Chicano means Mexican, but Mexican that was

born here and what if I was born… All right, sorry. I didn’t mean to use that

word. How about I use Latino? I don’t speak Latin! I speak Spanish, and I

don’t even speak Spanish that well! All right, I’m not going to use that one.

What about beaner? Nobody? Fine? (“Conversations” 01:12 – 1:46)

Mencia had a first-hand experience with application of the terms to those that were supposed to embrace them and with reactions they provoked. Latinos/Hispanics did not welcome labels that would deny intra-group diversity and blur cultural boundaries among them. As Mencia’s account reveals, Hispanics do not accept the term Hispanic that was coined for political purposes. Nor do they feel familiar with Chicano unless they are Mexicans born in the United States. The word Latino is treated in similar fashion – cultural proximity or Spanish language competence do not constitute a fixed basis for marking Mexicans, El Salvadorans, Cubans or Venezuelans as one. These responses make it evident that the terms lack clarification and scholars’ choice is based on their preference for and understanding of a given concept. Mexican-Americans, for instance, call themselves Spanish-Americans, Americans of Mexican descent or

Hispanos depending on where they live (Shorris 102). Comparing Nicaraguans and

22

Cubans, the two groups adopted opposite positions toward racial and ethnic labels in the late 1990s. While Cubans did not favor one-size-fits-all term Hispanic, Nicaraguans embraced it as a refuge from negative stereotypes at first, but moved to the ethnic label

Nicaraguan when facing discrimination (Rumbaut and Portes 129). The shifts between various racial and ethnic designations underpin the fact that these categories are not static at all, and change with time and needs of communities.

In step with this, Gonzales also bumped into discrepancy in labelling. He cites many public figures linked to the Latino world and their preferences, but no summarizing end result can be obtained. His article suggests that Latino is used to affirm identity and culture. Hispanic is for many offensive, especially for those who associate the word with history and Spanish and Portuguese colonization, thus rendering it more racialized. How one understands their past has a direct impact on their self- identification. Shorris provides an example: an Indian believing in Columbus’ discovery would perceive whites as superior, whereas tracing the beginning of Latino history to the Maya or the Toltecs would result in a greater pride in one’s origin (15).

Terminology does not help much in promotion of these peoples’ history as originating with local Latin-American tribes. Hispanic is derived from Hispania, an ancient name for modern-day Spain. For Suzanne Oboler the term Hispanic creates a gap between how the descendants identify themselves and how they are identified by others, which points out that external labels do not seek to meet with internal experiences and understandings of given concepts. However, the usage of the word is justified by long- term Spanish colonial presence in the New World, which accounted for homogenization of Latin American experiences (Delgado and Stefancic 4). Considering the diversity of particular experiences of various Latino groups, the homogenization would be acceptable for practical reasons as already rationalized in the section 2.1.1, but reference

23 to Spanish colonialism is praised less. In contrast with Oboler’s approach, Angel R.

Oquendo opines that “Latino” is a more recent Spanish term that lacks the allusion to

Spanish colonial hegemony, unlike Hispanic, and through which the community calls for its culture’s recognition (ibid. 62-3). Oquendo might not be right in the first part of his claim.

The distinction might not be that clear-cut, but Latino is also linked to the times of empires. Etymological origin of the word refers back to the Roman Empire and its invasions of the Iberian Peninsula that promoted culture and languages originating in

Rome. In this sense, “latinization” that affected modern-day Spain subsequently accompanied conquerors of South American and North American continents across the ocean. The history of Latin America, with Spain and Portugal building a New World since 1519, has been characterized by supremacy of some. Taking this into consideration, categories with reference to Spanish origin may unintentionally serve the purposes of white Spanish-speaking elites (Forbes 65) and could be read as promotion of whiteness within the Latino entity. Which of the two, Hispanic or Latino, would be that category without such a reference? Given the choice, it follows that one easily find themselves in a dead-end street. Both Hispanic and Latino, if understood as explained above, bear connotations to Spanish imperialism and European historical roots. Jane the

Virgin also confirms this when it refers to conquistadors (see Picture 1). What to call then the descendants of those who came and conquered the New World? One more alternative arises - the term Chicano and its female gender variant Chicana. It emerged as a substitution for Spanish-American in the 1960s and replaced the word that implied assimilation and history originating in Europe. Nonetheless, this option must be left out as it is not all-inclusive and refers only to the Mexican-Americans. With Spanish-

American falling into disuse and Chicano not finding wide support, political

24 organizations opted for the term Hispanic (Calderon 40). Here we are again in a vicious circle.

Many scholars use the terms Hispanic and Latino interchangeably, still for others their meanings are contrasted. Putting aside historical perspective, Alcoff is concerned with spatial referentiality when defining Latinos. She is convinced that

“Latino identity generally signifies one’s situatedness outside of Latin America”, which places the label more “under the domain of North American symbolic systems” (2).

This holds true when taking into consideration linguistic analysis of the words Latino and Hispanic as well. Hispanic is Americanized, Latino is a proper Spanish word. The first one is gender-neutral, the latter one distinguishes between two forms when addressing male and female individuals. In this sense, when Latino is used, it is supposed to comply with political correctness. Some scholars use Latin@, others

Latino/a, still others Latin/a. Entitling her book Latino Spin, Dávila consciously makes use of the term that “neither signals nor marks differences in gender, race, ethnicity” in order to spotlight how the media and the press support the whitewashing theory by employing the very same grammatical form (7).

Probably the most general and generalizing definition of Latinos is that from

Delgado and Stefancic’s book, “persons who trace their ancestry to Latin America or, in some cases, the Caribbean or Spain” (1). The Latino Media Gap report by Negrón-

Muntaner et al. worked with the same definition of Latino, “persons born in the United

States who are of Latin American descent and/or who have been born in Latin America and have immigrated to the United States” (2). Federal institutions have their own definitions for the purposes of collecting data and administrative reporting. In the 1977-

78 order as well as on the 2010 census, Hispanic was defined as “a person of Mexican,

Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central, or South American or other Spanish culture or origin,

25 regardless of race” (Forbes 62). As with the definition of Latino, the keystone is where one, more specifically his or her parents and grandparents were born. If Hispanic and/or

Latino denotes anybody from the Latin world, calling Latinos to be Latinos is a misnomer.

According to the definitions, such a person may or may not share culture or language of their predecessors, but biological determination and origin are used with the aim of sorting out. As Forbes observed, the Hispanic concept can be absurdly applied to peoples such as Maya or Zapotec without any knowledge of Spanish language or with different cultural backgrounds (64). Language here stands out as one of classifying markers of culture and origin. Guillermo Avila-Saavedra agrees when he discerns

Hispanidad as a collective identity based on shared language from more racially tinted notion of Latinidad that still builds upon language, culture or religion (273). He acknowledges the importance of language as one of the forces that help unite Hispanics.

Interestingly, Forbes brings into question the origin of the notion of Hispanidad – the term was used by Franco in fascist Spain as a propaganda tool and after his death

(coincidence?) it was “taken up by the United States” (66). One might ask with him whether America promotes Spanishness by implementation of the term into practical usage. Whether this ‘Spanishness’ means origin, culture, language or all together is as unclear as the demarcation of meanings of Latino and Hispanic and has yet to be resolved.

It is remarkable that any homogenizing term, be it Latino or Hispanic, emerged as an external label and does not come from inside the group. Suárez-Orozco and Páez underline the fact that Latino has been invented and is applicable only in the U.S. context. There are Latinos in the United States, but Mexicans, Puerto Ricans or

Dominicans outside the borders (4). Hispanic followed the same trajectory - it was

26 brought by American institutions and would not survive elsewhere but within the context of the United States. What then is Latino, this new man? As for identity, there is none; a Latino is just a creation, as Shorris informs in the beginning of the chapter. As for naming, there is no less ambiguity either. The term covers U.S. Latinos, Latin-

Americans (those who settle in America and become a Latino), indigenous Latinos and mestizos as well as Hispanics and Hispanic-Americans are envisaged when the word

Latino is uttered. If a generic Hispanic does not exist, does it make sense to cope with

Hispanics at all? Dávila does justice when she describes Latinos as a “group that is at once both living and socially imagined” (161). The thesis therefore deals with a group that in reality does not exist, but another reality underneath, be that reality social, political or cultural, treats the group as if present and calls for examination of their presentation. “The ‘Others’ cannot represent themselves”, Ronald Takaki notes, so

“they must be represented” (299). The analytical part of the thesis that follows scrutinizes Jane the Virgin, its genre first and content later on, and examines how their

(re-)presentation in and by the mainstream media is carried out and what outcomes it produces, whether these are positive-toned or negative-nuanced.

27

3 From soap opera to telenovela and back again

“In various degrees, Latinos use melodramatic serials to keep

in touch with Latino culture as well as learn more about and keep in

touch with the dominant European American culture.” (Rios 60)

In the 1930s, American television came up with a new format that was financially supported by soap manufacturers. Accordingly, it started to be called a soap, a soapie or a soap opera. The term survived to present day and still denotes a melodramatic serial broadcast daily on television or radio, characterized by stock characters and situations and oriented at mass audiences. Colgate-Palmolive

Corporation, being aware of commercial effect of soaps, subsequently introduced the genre in Cuba, giving birth to radionovelas (Straubhaar 154), which is perceived as a pre-stage for the telenovela. Jeremy Tunstall in his book Mass Media Were American chronicles the recent development in mass media industry and searches for reasons why

American media are not as popular as they used to be. Among the aspects that brought about the decline is the reinvention of soap operas in other countries, among them a well-known format of telenovela in Latin America (11). It is a truth universally acknowledged that telenovela as such traces its origin to Latin America, but it is less frequently perceived as being based on soap operas coming from the United States, which is true no less. In view of that, Jane the Virgin is an adaptation of telenovela genre that itself is an adaptation of the original soap opera. This boomerang effect insinuates constant bidirectional influence of American and Latino cultures on each other. As reminded by Ilan Stavans, “Hispanization of the United States” occurs together with “Anglicization of Hispanics” (Delgado and Stefancic 33).

28

The two formats8, soap opera and telenovela, can be distinguished by their scheduled broadcast times: while American television soaps were arranged for early afternoon, telenovela ran in prime time in the evening (Tunstall 15). According to this distinction, Jane the Virgin as a soap opera would be a daytime show. Its telenovela nuance, however, puts it into the evening schedule. It tempts one to claim that telenovela would probably not have made it into the primetime on American television had it not undergone this format permutation. The Latin American genre would probably not be exalted if an American imprint were missing. Latinos are given their space, but at the same time confined to rules and conditions set up by mainstream culture. Clearly, its evening running time cannot be perceived as a specific feature of this particular show, but rather a part of a wider trend on U.S. television and elsewhere which dictates that main series of a television season are broadcast at 8/9 pm. The trend began in the 1970s with Dallas and other night-time soaps. Interestingly, the reason behind this lies also in the soap opera and telenovela distinction. The target audience of the former one was “at-home” women, whereas reinvented telenovelas in Latin America were intended for a mass audience (ibid. 15-6). Although this mass appeal of telenovelas in Latin America or soap operas in America made the genre a representative of “low” popular culture, the thematic content of Jane the Virgin heightens the show’s status. Jane engages more with political and social issues than typical telenovelas or

American soaps would do, thus making it a considerable social commentary.

Telenovelas usually incorporate themes like romance and social mobility (Artz 194), which are, although present, not core pullers of Jane the Virgin’s content.

8Global Television Formats sets a framework for categorization of television genres and formats as separate concepts and distinguishes between the two words. See, for instance, chapter 5 in Oren and Shahaf´s compilation (listed under Straubhaar reference) in which Yeidy M. Rivero considers how television genres can function as formats and vice versa as demonstrated by ¿Qué Pasa, USA? He cites Omar Rincón who contends that telenovela in Columbia is perceived as a format (92). For Harrington Bielby telenovela is also a format (391). Joseph Straubhaar, on the other hand, approaches the telenovela as a new television genre. For the purposes of the thesis the distinction is not relevant and format and genre are used interchangeably. 29

Noticeably, even if Jane the Virgin is not a telenovela proper, allocating it to prime time broadcasting signifies the ubiquitous media battle for audience and the pursuit of commercial interests. In this sense, the position of Hispanics in American society is changing and they are searched for as potential consumers and money-givers; a consequence of neoliberalism that has been mentioned. Earl Shorris also takes into consideration the purchasing power of Latinos, as it was done by Dávila, Negrón-

Muntaner et al. or Waterston. For Latinos, being a target of marketing strategies was a sign of being finally included and integrated into American society. “To be a consumer was to be wanted; to be wanted was to be equal; to be equal was to be an American at last”, Shorris clarifies (231). Constantly increasing numbers of Hispanics in the United

States aroused media markets that immediately began to woo Latino viewers, who have the potential to invigorate revenues. Thanks to low production costs and wide appeal, telenovelas especially occupy a significant position in a world where advertising goals need to be achieved. Series melodrama in any form—telenovela, soap opera or their hybrid— “continues to bring large advertising revenues to local television stations and national Spanish-language networks operating in the United States”, Rios stated more than a decade ago (59). More probably than not it is still like that.

Changing demographics, with Hispanics always growing in numbers, meant that

Univision and Telemundo, the two major Spanish-language networks operating in

America, gained enormous success with telenovelas when presented to the audiences in the States, but it was not supposed to last long. Distribution of telenovelas from Latin

America challenged American programming. In order to address the needs of Latinos born in the United States, it was required to turn away from the mere importing and airing of Latin American telenovelas and make programs that would reflect and relate to social realities of Latinos in the United States (Hanson 324). NuvoTV was the first

30 cable network to produce programming for English-speaking U.S. Latinos. A groundbreaking production that put in motion American programming and started a new trend of Latino representations onscreen came with ABC television network in 2006.

Ugly Betty, a remake of Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty, la Fea, was a smash-hit in its first season and set the path for the future of Hispanic, but also non-Hispanic programming and audiences. America Ferrera starred in the role of Betty Suarez, a hard-working young Mexican-American woman who gets a job in a high fashion magazine and whose appearance contradistinguishes her from skinny and good-looking female colleagues of hers. First of all, Ugly Betty demonstrated that Latino-themed series do not inevitably have to denote Spanish language programming. Second, it did not abide by melodrama that informed traditional soap operas and telenovelas as their main ingredient. Third, it ignited discussion on distinction between format and genre9.

Last but not least, with Betty being physically unattractive, it challenged the archetype of a beautiful model-like white American woman and moved optimistic attitudes and search for inner happiness to the core of its focus. Jane the Virgin continues the trend both as for its genre and content.

Martín Ponti from University of Illinois-Chicago compared programming of both Univision and Telemundo. While the former imports telenovelas and reinforces stereotypes, the latter produces original programming and constructs Latinidad through urban characters and challenges to patriarchal values (2). The CW’s Jane the Virgin walks in line with the style set up by Telemundo. Both a setting in Miami that brings to light urban characters and the absence of Alba’s, Xiomara’s and Jane’s husbands make the show a more realistic portrait of Latinos in the United States than traditional Latin

American telenovelas with haciendas, complete families and happy endings. This type

9 See note 8. 31 of serial narratives, closed-ended, is typical of Latin America, while open-ended soaps are more frequently produced in the United States of America and other countries

(Bielby 384). Jane ended her strong first season giving birth to Mateo and becoming a single mother and her story was to be continued in the next television season, which moves the show further away from a stereotypical telenovela happy ending.

Artz summarized findings of a couple of scholars searching for telenovela themes and highlights such narrative conventions as melodramatic style, happy ending, romantic narratives, social mobility and affluence (200). If one wants to go into details,

Spain’s Tele5 came up with nine characteristics that are typical of telenovelas:

“sentimentalism, a happy ending for the central couple, easy-to-follow stories, simple dialogue, female-centered narrative, family complications, high drama and suspense, everydayness and local colour, and easily recognized archetypical characters” (ibid.

200). In Jane the Virgin, it is possible to identify everydayness –school, jobs, family, relations are parts of everyday lives of Villanuevas and other characters. The narrative is female-centered; it spins around Jane and her story. Interestingly, the narrator is male.

There is high drama and suspense secured by two criminal murderers who even kidnap

Jane’s son Mateo. There is not a happy ending for the central couple; in fact, there is no central couple and viewers are left to guess if it would be Rafael or Michael. Jane as a student or a waitress, Michael as a detective, Rafael as a hotel owner, Xiomara as a

Latino singer and Rogelio as a telenovela star are archetypes of both Latino and

American worlds. As can be seen, there are many signs that would categorize Jane the

Virgin as a telenovela, but a vast majority of them are visibly modified and altered to fit the new American reality.

Based on his own study of three telenovelas, Ponti comments that gender roles are inverted by characteristics of leading characters – as soon as male characters are

32 flawed, the position of a leading heroine is reinforced (3). In this way, Jane the Virgin also departs from traditional telenovela structure. Jane is apparently the main protagonist of the show, but this does not necessarily make Rafael or Michael unworthy of taking up the position. Another observation of Ponti can be applied here. Drawing on his case studies, one finds out that geographic location is ignored in the construction of

Latino identity – a Telemundo practice that distorts a true Latino experience, but serves the purpose to “secure an audience base”. Thus, a Latino is grossly generalized to be merely an inhabitant of the United States who speaks Spanish (5). Artz believes that geographical indistinctiveness is typical of both Telemundo and Univision alike (200).

In Tierra de Pasiones that Ponti examined the story is set in Miami, yet shots of vineyards are from California. The same holds true for Jane the Virgin: all events take place in Miami, but shooting took place in California. Miami has become a frequent filming location for many telenovelas/soap operas as well as a recurrent setting for a number of them; that is why it merited the title of “the new Latin Tinseltown” (Gutman and Hodd). This lack of specificity is one of the ways in which media participate in homogenization of the Latino community, which confirms that Graber’s opinion on media as promoting cultural hegemony is right. In practice, this hegemony operates through a pyramid structure – homogenization of society (i.e. America) appears to be preceded by homogenization of its distinct elements (i.e. various minority groups) within which differences are further homogenized (e.g. construction of pan-Latino identity).

Mercedes Medina and Leticia Barrón, a Spanish and a Mexican scholar respectively, participated in the 9th World Media Economics and Management

Conference where they presented on how telenovelas are produced and distributed on a global scale. Despite the genre’s world-wide occurrence, they revealed that the majority

33 of the articles on the export of telenovelas deal with those exported to the United States and not to Europe or other continents. Furthermore, they identified subject matters of

Hispanic telenovelas in the United States; those are: immigration, cultural shock, adaptation to the new country and usage of words like “speranza” [hope], “sueño”

[dream], “dos culturas” [two cultures], “dos tradiciones” [two traditions], “dos idiomas”

[two languages] or “viaje” [journey] (2010)10. Jane the Virgin tells about immigration, hope and dream that brought Jane’s grandparents to the United States; one witnesses how the two languages and traditions interact, but the element of cultural shock is missing from the most part since it concerned only Alba as a first generation immigrant.

Jane incorporates into its structure the themes of Hispanic telenovelas. However, in no way is it a Hispanic telenovela aired in the United States; nor is it an American telenovela about U.S. Hispanics as differences in themes between telenovela and soap opera above indicate. Ponti’s analogy between Univision and Telemundo unveils another striking point relevant for the purposes of the thesis – transforming telenovela into a mutation of soap opera interlarded with telenovela features is a bona fide move that seeks to meet realities of U.S. Latinos. Thus, departing from the telenovela proper is the first step in combating stereotypes and the mutation of the genre paves the way for further content-based challenges to widely-held negative viewpoints of Latinos.

Another important aspect that differentiates American and Spanish soaps is unforeseeable script changes based on viewers’ feedback all of a sudden, a strong point of telenovelas accounting for their long-term success (Gutman and Hodd). This practice is employed by Jane the Virgin’s producer Jennie Snyder Urman. The content of the show is a social commentary and has to react to ongoing events, which is reflected in the script that is being written just before an episode. To illustrate the point, when a

10 The translations are from < http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/spanish-english/ > 34 famous Mexican drug dealer Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known as El Chapo was captured on 8 January 2016, it could not have remained unmentioned in the show. There is a reference to him in season two, episode ten aired just a month after the arrest took place.

When Rogelio, Jane’s father and a telenovela star, interrupts his mom talking to his new co-star Adriana during filming, there is a shot on the actress and “almost met El Chapo twice” text appears on the screen when introducing her to the audience (24:10). This is not the only occasion of commenting on reality off-screen. Heavy topics that are tackled in the show vary from deportation of undocumented immigrants through struggles in the early motherhood to 2016 presidential elections (Wieselman). Putting it in the words of a journalist Jarett Wieselman, by utilizing real-life experiences Urman created an

“onscreen world that reflects — and comments on — our real world” (22 Jan. 2016).

Beside telling about Latinos in English, the recent Latino shows Jane the Virgin and Telenovela, but also Ugly Betty, have at least one other feature in common: they all depart from the telenovela’s and soap opera’s melodramatic nature. This is not to say that melodrama is not present at all; it is simply not sine qua non of the serials. Whether shows like these are a subgenre of soap operas and/or telenovelas or they require straightforward re-categorization, it is not easy to state (cf. Bielby 392). What they share is, however, their listing under the category of comedy. The genre takes on a new meaning if dealing with minority groups. Avila-Saavedra examined three television shows with a Latino theme—George Lopez, Chico and the Man and Mind of Mencia— and made an attention-grabbing observation about the role of a comedy genre in presenting collective Latino identity. In his opinion, arguably, comedy renders racial and ethnic stereotypes less insulting than other genres and thus more likely to be accepted by audiences (271, 275). That Jane the Virgin is a comedy has another meaningful implication – it allows to capture Latinos in a non-stereotypical manner.

35

Jane the Virgin embodies the tension between ethnic otherness and cultural assimilation that Latinos in the shows scanned by Avila-Saavedra, namely George Lopez, Freddie

Prinze Jr. and Carlos Mencia in comedy genre have to face. It is the linguistic tension between adoption of English language that is a part of mainstream television for its social power and Spanish language that “should” be used to reflect ethnic pride (ibid.

274).

Despite the tension, embracing English by Latino actors can and in most cases does translate into career success. Gutman and Hodd compared the accomplishments of the telenovela and the soap opera on American television. In their online article they treat the telenovela as a great vehicle for Latin stars eager to make it on English language television. Just one example: Jencarlos Canela, an American actor born to

Cuban parents in Miami who is among the main protagonists in Eva Longoria’s NBC production Telenovela launched in 2015, is well known for his role in Más Sabe el

Diablo. His stunning career as a telenovela star was confined to Spanish-language productions at first, but once he got his name recognized as a Latin star, his English- language occurrence in Telenovela was made possible. In Jane the Virgin, the tension between ethnic otherness and cultural assimilation takes on the form of “telenovela versus reality” battle. In the show, there are many situations envisaged as if happening in telenovela and these scenes are reiterated throughout both seasons; which will be analyzed in detail and illustrated by examples in the next chapter.

The reasons why Latinos devote time to telenovelas are as personal as they are social and cultural. Spending time together watching television helps maintain family ties. A long-term interview research in Connecticut conducted by Diana I. Rios from the the University of Connecticut revealed that for grandchildren watching telenovelas signifies closeness and respect for grandmother’s choice (62). It is a recurrent scene in

36

Jane the Virgin in which all three generations—Jane, Xiomara and Alba—sit together on a sofa watching a telenovela. Other respondents find telenovelas more practical.

They can serve as a tool for “learning about the United States and for feeling connected with an ethnic homeland” (ibid. 62). This illustrates how selective acculturation works; both cultural maintenance and assimilation take place at the same time. Artz cites some scholars who see telenovela as a selling medium – merchandising and product placement are inseparable parts of telenovela narratives. They are “value-laden with real life advice: go buy something! (213)”. In the very first episode of Jane the Virgin, the voiceover introduces three loves of 10-years-old Jane: together with family and God there are grilled cheese sandwiches – her American passion (00:27). Ilan Stavans should be recalled here again: “Hispanization of the United States” (embracing telenovela for merchandising purposes; bringing family and God to focus) and “Anglicization of

Hispanics” (spreading of globalization and American products) go hand in hand.

This chapter demonstrated that Jane the Virgin is and is not a telenovela; that it is and is not a soap opera. It shares features of both and is categorized as a comedy or occasionally a dramedy. As a new hybrid-genre it stands on its own. Ponti concluded his examination of selected telenovelas with the claim that telenovelas “have become transculturated and transnationalized products made north of the Rio Grande”, which further implies that Latinos no longer control their representation (6). Tunstall’s assertion that in Brazil the telenovela “came to reflect Brazilian values” (21; cf. Artz

2015:197; Straubhaar 2012) raises the question what values Jane the Virgin is supposed to reflect: as a telenovela those of Latinos or as an American sitcom the values of their receiving country? A look into the background of the show is more telling, because, as

Artz reminds, “No scripts are innocent; no programming lacks ideological constructs”

(195).

37

4 Jane the Virgin

“What’s beautiful about Jane the Virgin is it is giving you a

glimpse into a life that happens to be Latina and also American

without hitting you over the head with it” (Gina Rodriguez, qtd. in

Feeney 62).

4.1 Behind the scenes: Production context

Marcelo Ballvé, a journalist specializing in Latin America, casts a spotlight on the growth of Spanish-language media in 2003, including the battle of Latino newspapers in his report. At that time, new Spanish dailies emerged that advocated their visions of serving Latino communities, but many of them did not see eye to eye with objectivity advocated by mainstream media corporations; the clash was best exemplified by the separation of La Opinión and Tribune Co. in Los Angeles (22). It is interesting to go through English-language media dealing with Latinos in this context of objectivity. Are they serving the community or pursuing ‘objectivity’ and disinterestedness? Is combination of both possible? What answer does the production context of Jane the Virgin provide? How did the production team constructed the sitcom?

With emergence of specialized ethnic media, the interests and needs of minority groups would primarily be served by them. In the initial phase it was like that. Jane the

Virgin, on the other hand, is a product of the CW network – a mainstream American television channel. In journalism, the jackal syndrome, or pack journalism, is used to describe the phenomenon in which organizations of high prestige set standards that serve as examples and are followed by others – the jackals (Graber 40). Is there any

38 proof of the jackal syndrome in Jane the Virgin? Copying the genre of the telenovela can be perceived as borrowing from Latino culture. The end result is seeing the

Hispanic world through American eyes. According to Negrón-Muntaner et al., in the period 2010 to 2013 the number of producers, directors, writers or any other Latinos behind the scenes was stunningly low (3). In the previous decades there had been no significant executive positions, with the one exception of Desi Arnaz, who was involved in the production of I Love Lucy. Carolina Rivera, one of the head writers of Jane the

Virgin who was born in Mexico, is very influential for the telenovela format of the series due to her background (Stilson). As the one writing scripts and determining the stories, she has the power to lead it her way, but also to make the Latino elements in the show more believable. Jennie Snyder Urman—executive producer of the show, showrunner, writer—is an American, which makes the show more American than

Latino. Writers were chosen from different backgrounds on purpose in order to make stories “as authentic as possible” (Wieselman).

There does not seem to be a dissonance between Jane the Virgin’s production efforts and the show’s reception. This “infectiously enjoyable confection of outlandish telenovela-inspired soap opera (think Ugly Betty) grounded in lovably fractious family dynamics” is mostly praised by the reviewers on Metacritic; some see it as “a remarkably sure-footed, enjoyable dramedy”; others think “this could be that rare telenovela that assimilates”, “uses old twists in new ways”, and adopts a “self-aware, but not self-parodying approach”. It has been highly assessed by professional associations in the form of People’s Choice Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Critics’

Choice Awards, the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards, Best Actress – Television Series,

Musical or Comedy or the George Foster Peabody Awards. Many other prizes and even a greater number of nominations support critical acclaim the show has received. It is a

39

Latino show—about Latinos, with Latino features, presenting Latino stereotypes—and it is an American situation comedy at the same time – it is a product of an American television, produced by an American and in the United States. First of all, Jane the

Virgin is not aired only in one state, but carried by the CW nationally to the whole

United States. It has also been exported abroad; so far the program has been bought by

170 markets approximately; ranging from Canada through the United Kingdom,

Australia and New Zealand to Southeast Asia and the Philippines. It tells Americans and other groups in America about Hispanics, but it also talks about Hispanics as portrayed by the Americans to other nations all around the world.

The main protagonist of Jane the Virgin, the actress Gina Rodriguez said about the serial, “To read a story about a young girl where her ethnicity wasn’t at the forefront, where her dual identity was so integrated in life that it didn’t feel like a separate conversation, was such a breath of fresh air” (Feeney 62). The ethnicity of individual actors is not at the forefront; yet, it is noteworthy to look at it. Ethnic origins of the actors are so intricate that it is easier, albeit not more accurate, to lean toward pan-ethnicity for practical reasons. Gina Rodriguez stars in a Latino role played by a

U.S. Latino. Being of a Puerto Rican descent, Rodriguez is and has been an American since her birth. This does not hold her back from identifying with Hispanics. Father of

Jane’s child and her teen crush Rafael is played by the actor Justin Baldoni who has a

Jewish mother and an Italian father. Yael Groblas starring Rafael’s wife Petra, a Czech runaway girl becoming an American, is an Israeli actress. Brett Dier in the role of Jane’s ex-fiancé detective Michael is a Canadian actor. Jane’s mother Xiomara is played by a second-generation Puerto Rican Andrea Navedo born in New York. Ivonne Coll in the role of Jane’s grandmother Alba is a Puerto Rican and as was mentioned earlier, she can be perceived as a Latino, yet is officially born an American. Jaime Camil in the role of

40

Rogelio (Jane’s biological father) is a Mexican, in contrast, but still the majority of the main protagonists are not fully Latinos. Is it correct to call Jane the Virgin a Latino show at all? It seems to be a multi-ethnic show or, if narrowing it down to Latinos, a

Puerto Rican show would be a more appropriate description since all three leading female characters have this ethnic origin. Confusing terminology does not make it easier to determine the status of the dramedy. Is Jane the Virgin about Latinos or about Latin

Americans? Widespread usage of Latino does not seem to differentiate between the two variants. Considering grandmother Alba who migrated from Venezuela, it would be about Latinos who become Americans; otherwise it is more appropriate to talk about a

Latin American show.

4.2 Behind the misconceptions: Re-writing old stereotypes

Creating stereotypic characterizations is a convenient way to deal with those who come and somehow differ in manners, lifestyle, appearance or traditions. Locals are eager to ascribe certain attributes and characteristics to newcomers and in this way sort them out. Media, as noted, do have the power to diminish or reinforce these pictures or even draw their own ones. Stereotypes fuel immigration debates and immigration is perceived through the lens of stereotyping, as some surveys have revealed (cf. Gates 2014). In the Latino case, if there was sporadically any visibility within the sphere of media invisibility and exclusion, it was subject to decades-old stereotypes (Negrón-Muntaner et al. deal with this in more details). Furthermore, mediated stereotypic portraits take on more salience due to their direct impact on audiences. More specifically, pervasive negative stereotypes about Latinos presented on television and in films account for unfavorable views non-Latino viewers hold (Barreto et al. 2-3). The following part of the thesis explores various determinants in Jane the

41

Virgin and attempts to uncover which of them divert from conventional stereotypic portrayals and shed a positive light on Hispanics.

“She wouldn’t take roles that cast Latinas in a stereotypical light”, Feeney clarifies why Gina Rodriguez agreed to be cast in the show (62). The roles Latinos perform in movies or on television are an effective vehicle for determining to what degree stereotypes are akin to reality. A long-term pattern confined Latinos to the roles of criminals, law enforcers or blue collar workers (Negrón-Muntaner et al. 16-9). The

NHMC report by Barreto et al. confirms that non-Latino viewers associate Latinos on television with negative and subordinate roles (2). Shorris is another one who identifies stereotypes on television. Roles Latinos most frequently occurred in were those of brutes who either rarely spoke or had terrible accent; and by this “linguistic brutishness” and absence of language for socialization television separated them from the rest of society (60). Lourdes Miranda King focused her attention on Puerto Rican woman and the myth of passive female. She informs that terms like macho and machismo were imported to the States with the aim to describe the Latin male stereotype. False assumptions that Puerto Rican men are irresponsible and skirt-chasers affect treatment of women, thus rendering the stereotype complete (ibid. 209). This or that, machismo as a myth is still alive and as a male stereotype still pervasive. Jane the Virgin’s main male protagonist Rafael used to be a playboy who even seduced Petra when she was engaged.

He again becomes one in the second season, Episode 14 when he needs to get over Jane.

Jane the Virgin’s producers integrated the macho stereotype into the show, and they subsequently rebutted it by changes in Rafael’s personal life.

Among negative stereotypes that prevail one can find beliefs that Latinos have too many children, take jobs from Americans, refuse to learn English as well as views that they are less educated and welfare recipients (Barreto et al. 5). This is not what

42

Jane the Virgin presents. The main heroine Jane, her mother Xiomara and her grandmother Alba uproot the claim that Latinos are multi-children families - each of them bore just one child. They are fluent English speakers, value education and do not misuse social benefits. All of the above is studied in detail in the following pages. Yet, certain positive Latino stereotypes can be encountered in public opinion. Qualities like family orientation, hard work, church-going and honesty are highly valued by non-

Hispanics (Barreto et al. 4), and those attributes are depicted as typical of Latinos in

Jane the Virgin.

Education

Linda Chavez fights against stereotypical portrayals of Hispanics as poor and powerless and is highly optimistic about their advancement. She criticizes affirmative action policies and bilingual education as government actions that keep Hispanics depicted as poverty-stricken while the evidence is found that many of them move out of the barrios and become part of the middle class. Chavez is sometimes criticized for her conservative views that the progress of Hispanics is conditioned by their assimilation to the mainstream. However, most importantly, she considers the emerging middle-class among Hispanics as a rebutting evidence that impedes a widely-accepted view of

Hispanic population as poor and impoverished (6, 101). Jane the Virgin focuses on the middle and the upper class characters, with Jane belonging to the middle class and

Rafael, father of her son, to the upper class. Jane’s biological father Rogelio is a self- made man and as a big telenovela star now occupies imaginary upper strata of the society as well.

Moving upwards along the class lines is facilitated by higher education.

Education, Geraldo Rivera says, is the “biggest anchor” that holds Latinos back from making progress (114). Jane is quite dissimilar; as a graduate student who obtained a

43 teaching degree she came the longest way of all three generations. Her ambitions result in graduation, a temporary teaching experience and a subsequent career of a novel writer. She is a representative of that group of Latinos who value education. Jane knew who she was from early childhood: “a good student”, the narrator confirms in the beginning (Season 2, Episode 4). Low educational achievements among Latinos are not a result of incapacity or inability. Compared to the mainstream Americans, they lack ambition, Rivera generalizes (137). The character of Rogelio de la Vega, Jane’s father, runs counter to the general perception that Rivera advocates. In Episode 13, viewers find out that he never attended college, “preferring instead a school of hard knocks”

(33:28)11. In spite of lacking higher education, he pursues his career as a famous telenovela star, which must be a result of strong determination and motivation.

For those who have already improved their social status the progress should be accompanied by leaving their enclaves (getting out of the barrio) with the aim to join others with the same status where ethnic origin does not play any role (Chavez 137). In the second season Jane goes to talk to “twenty-something wanna-be rock stars”, whose usage of loud music frequently wakes Mateo up (Episode 2, 10:57 – 11:59). These young American girls are Jane’s problematic neighbors. The scene invites the audiences to leave behind the idea of Hispanics concentrating in enclaves and suggests their dispersion among other members of the society. It is further noticeable in the twenty- first episode, when she browses her high-school yearbook or when she delivers a speech at a high-school reunion: the display of her classmates reveals that she attended a mixed, not a specialized secondary school. Rogelio’s new assistant Paola used to work for Jennifer Lopez and Rogelio himself used to cooperate with Britney Spears; the facts put stress on mingling of American popular culture with Hispanic scene and vice versa.

11 If not stated otherwise, references to particular episodes are from Season 1. 44

The national ethos of the American Dream is upheld by the belief that progress and social mobility can be attained by all those reaching for it. Many perceive the notion of the American Dream as a dominant theme in American national narratives.

History provides an answer to the question why and how it has become one of the core elements of American culture. There is no dream where there is no land, a simplified summary would be. It is not surprising that the American Dream has become a part of the national identity since it has grown with the nation itself. The Epic of America, a book by a well-known American historian John Truslow Adams, starts with a legend about a bearded god Quetzalcoatl, the good monk of Tula, who sailed away, but promised to return and his people awaited him (9). Shorris identifies the monk as “the culture-bearer in Aztec mythology” (22). A short version of the story would be as follows: Quetzalcoatl got drunk, committed incest, left the town and the legend predicts his return. The vision of his reappearance and the experience of the expectancy symbolically mark the very beginning of hope and dreaming. Also, this is the part of

Mexican/Spanish history that presents a link to the mythological element of American society and the nation’s stereotypes associated with the American Dream.

What can one dream with the American Dream? Although lacking any clear definition or explanation, the notion implies equal opportunities for everyone lusting after wealth and success in the country of unlimited possibilities. Most often than not its achievability is measured by those born poor and ending up enormously rich, what a successful politician of the nineteenth century Henry Clay labelled a self-made man. A man of modest beginnings himself, he coined the term in 1832 in order to refer to the

American nation of the time (Cullen 69). A word that is now a part of the national lexicon is a strong evidence of upward mobility. In Jane the Virgin, it is the character of

Rogelio de la Vega who is a representative of self-made men. Jim Cullen, the author of

45 a book on the American Dream, is even more specific in what the myth embraces. He believes that “beyond an abstract belief in possibility, there is no one American Dream; instead, there are many” (7). Probably the best-understood definition is provided by

Adams; it is “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement” (404).

For some people it is more about a spiritual well-being, others take into consideration their bank accounts, still others combination of various factors. What all of them share is one of many Cullen’s dreams – “a dream of personal fulfillment” (9). In this process of realization of the American Dream education plays a significant role. Since all can be educated, all can achieve economic success (Darder and Torres 160). Jane seems to master this well.

Employment and possessions

If “better and richer and fuller” characterizes the American Dream most precisely, it is questionable what the three adjectives denote for individual people.

Climbing upward the social ladder is best visible through material possessions. “The

American Dream of owning a home” is among the number of dreams in Cullen’s categorization (136). In his account of Latinos, Rivera does not forget to mention how

“the American dream of homeownership was taking hold in the Latino community as well” (104). Hogar, a housing initiative, offered low interest rates and increased number of Hispanic families burdened with mortgages. It is evident that the house where

Villanueva women now live was rented when Alba reproaches Xiomara she should not just follow her dreams as this will not pay rent. On the contrary, Rogelio as a famous celebrity can now afford to buy a big house when Xiomara suggests moving in together.

He proudly mentions his “one and only Las Vegas residency” in Episode 19 (17:30).

46

Jobs in retail and service jobs in hotels, restaurants or office buildings are among those occupations that rely most on Latina and Asian immigrant women workers

(Suárez-Orozco and Páez 260). Jane, although not an immigrant herself, fits to this pattern. She works as a waitress while finishing her graduation program. This fact denies the belief that Latinos take jobs from the Americans. She feels offended when

Rafael unintentionally uses the phrase “just a waitress” (Episode 2, 08:58) and suggests a lower status the job has. She has higher aspirations obviously and these can be observed in her graduation and becoming a teacher, all of this accompanied by her life- long dream of becoming a writer. Her position is specific since she is presumably not employed by an American. As a waitress she works in Rafael’s hotel. It is not explicitly mentioned in the show whether Rafael is an American or is supposed to represent a

Latino. Both his name Rafael and surname Solano, as well as the migration of his mother Elena to the United States, support the hypothesis that Rafael is a Latino. Should that be the case, he would be a Cuban most probably – he is a wealthy hotel owner in

Miami, a city most associated with Cuban immigrants. The presupposition is supported by the discussion of pan-ethnicity in 2.1.1 and the belief that in a Latino show executive producers would opt for the main protagonists to represent Latinos as well. Based on this assumptions the thesis henceforth approaches Rafael as a member of the Hispanic community. Jane’s presence in his hotel can be then interpreted as the reality of mixing classes within the Latino community. What is highlighted is the possibility of upward mobility for Latinos and negation of a common view of a Latino as a working-class member only, indicating that Latinos can make it up the ladder through the middle class to the top.

47

Language

The research by Mastro and Behm-Morawitz that scrutinized Latino representation on prime time television more than a decade ago revealed a prevailing stereotype that concerned accent – there was a tendency to depict Latinos with an accent rather than blacks or whites (120). In Jane the Virgin, there is only one character with a perceptible accent - Rogelio de la Vega. The process of acculturation can be traced through many factors, with linguistic change being the most obvious. Once English begins to be used in households of ethnic groups, Alba and Nee believe it becomes a “critical factor in the

Anglicization process” (219). The relation of English and Spanish in the United States is sometimes referred to as diglossia, “the situation when two languages coexist in one speech community, but differ in domains of use (Delgado and Stefancic 571). The relation is unequal. In order to understand the construction of identities through linguistic codes, Ana Celia Zentella advocates an anthropolitical linguistics that assumes that Latinas/os usage of English and Spanish is inseparable from socioeconomic and political realities (Suárez-Orozco and Páez 322). “Jane calls her abuela but says grandma to her friends. This kind of code switching isn’t a major plot point or conflict, just a fact of life” (Feeney 62). As one can see in Jane the Virgin,

English language prevails over Spanish in frequency, but all three generations represented by Jane, her mother Xiomara and grandmother Alba seem to be fully bilingual, retaining love to Spanish and proving proficiency in both Spanish and

English. In this way, they can live comfortably in American society and preserve cultural heritage of their ancestors at the same time; the phenomenon known as selective acculturation by scholars.

Jane the Virgin denies the claims that Latinos do not speak English well as it also negates the loss of Spanish. Jane, Xiomara and Rafael all speak perfect fluent

48

English; the fact intensified by the Spanish-colored English of Rogelio. Undoubtedly,

Jane and Xiomara master Spanish as well, which is obvious any time Alba speaks to them – she does so only in her native Spanish language. What would a political commentator and a Hispanic American civil rights activist Linda Chavez think of that?

The increasing number of Hispanics exacerbated debates on the status of English language. Paralleling the proportion of Hispanics in America to the number of French

Canadians in Canada, she ponders if “the real fear of many Americans” – bilingualism – would be adopted one day (88). As a strong advocate of Hispanics’ inclusion into the mainstream she believes they should “eventually embrace English as their language”

(98). Alba does not seem to manage that. Yet, all the subsequent generations, here represented by Xiomara and Jane, give the impression they are perfectly fine with having English as their language, but also not forgetting Spanish as their language.

Given her pro-assimilationist stance, Chavez does not want government to be responsible for the preservation of distinctive language and culture; this responsibility should be transferred to home environment (163). This claim of hers is much in favor of

Alba and might explain why she so tightly holds to using Spanish. Her switching to

English would probably cause the evaporation of Spanish from their home.

Abandonment of Spanish language creates a “loneliness peculiar to motherless children”, Shorris claims (120). Spanish language is a part of Alba’s identity to a great extent. She speaks Spanish even to a guy at physical therapy and is surprised upon finding out he understands – she uses Spanish no matter if she is understood or not

(Episode 13, 09:30).

Margaret E. Montoya’s theory of bicultural character of Latino/a experiences in the United States leans on the construction of public personas by “masking our inner selves” (Delgado and Stefancic 437). Wearing school uniforms or hiding Spanish accent

49 served as a disguise of her “Other” status. She would use Spanish to express personal feelings or with the aim to deliver an utterance only to the members of the community

(ibid. 436). In Jane the Virgin, there are some moments when Spanish is used as a tool for disguising. The most notable one is the scene with Alba in hospital and Xiomara speaking Spanish to Jane. She does so in the presence of a policeman to inform Jane that Alba would be deported, knowing that the police officer would not understand their communication after she has checked his Spanish language skills (Episode 10, 25:00 –

25:41). There are not many situations that would make Xiomara speak Spanish other than sustaining her cultural heritage. Besides using the language for disguise, she is found singing in Spanish as a bar singer in episodes 1 (32:25) and 6 (36:30) in the first season or Episode 11 in the second season (32:15). All other situations testify to her inclination to English as a more prestigious language. The same applies to Rogelio. As an actor and a singer he performs exclusively in Spanish, but unlike Xiomara, he speaks

Spanish to his parents and occasionally to Alba to demonstrate his affiliation to her and her ethnic origin. Jane values both languages highly. In her search for a babysitter, the characteristic of being bilingual is marked as an advantage (Season 2, Episode 7,

16:19); the same happens when she evaluates Professor Chavez as her potential date – being bilingual is among his pros (Season 2, Episode 10, 41:10).

The presence of a funny voiceover is an inseparable part of Jane the Virgin serial. Anthony Mendez, an Emmy-nominated voice-over actor, narrates and comments on foreseen and unforeseen events in the show with wit and a bit of irony. Jane’s life twists around immediately after her insemination and the narrator notes, “Jane’s life was now this stuff of telenovelas” (Episode 1, 12:00) with an ironic Spanish-accent flavor to his remark in order to fit the Latino world associated with telenovela. He adapts his voice with the aim to be more authentic and consistent with the reality he witnesses, and

50 in no way is this “making fun of the accent, it’s just an enhancement”, he assures

(Friedlander). It happens rarely in the show that code-switching would mark any of the two languages negatively. Rogelio’s Spanish accent became typical of him and his

English is grammatically flawless; only once does his Spanish penetrates his English – in Episode 17 he mispronounces the name of the hotel Marbella with /j/ phoneme as would be correct in Spanish (14:04). The name of a wanted criminal in the show is in

Spanish - Sin Rostro, but once it is disclosed who the murderer is, the renaming to Sin

Rosetro occurs to convey the name Rose. Playing with Spanish/English words is nicely captured in the conversation of Alba with 6-years old Jane. She asks her to think of words that make her calm – one thing for each initial letter in the word ‘calma’. Jane does only ‘calm’ and says, “I spell it in English” (Season 2, Episode 8, 01:53; see

Picture 2).

Leslie G. Espinoza expresses her belief that assimilation requires uni-lingualism of the dominant culture (Delgado and Stefancic 17). Double-usage of English and

Spanish among Villanueva women and other characters in the show exalts selective acculturation as a means to accommodate a minority culture into a majority culture.

Since one’s identity is articulated also through language, adoption of ‘English only’ standpoint among Latinos would mean taking on a new identity, that of the majority culture. Why has Spanish not died out in Jane’s household? All the credit for efforts to preserve their true Latino identity goes to Alba, a grandmother faithful to her

Venezuelan roots.

Family

The importance of family for Hispanics is doubtless. In her book Latino Spin, a

Puerto-Rican professor of anthropology Arlene Dávila gathered information on Latino

51 experiences in the United States and her knowledge about the community and looks at the dynamics that arise from the clash of cultures. The book reads as a critique of mainstreaming tendencies and uproots claims that Latinos pose a threat on American society. In her own words, “Latinos can give America back to America”, because “their values make them more American than the Americans” (2). These are values like a strong family tradition or opposition to homosexuality and divorce. Jane the Virgin apparently builds on these traditions – Jane is opposed to pre-marital sex and together with her mother and grandmother they provide a vivid picture of family connectedness.

Heterosexual love is always the norm in telenovelas and even more in Latino traditions.

The same holds true for Jane the Virgin. It is the norm for the Villanuevas to engage in a man-woman partnership. Homosexuality and divorce are not opposed, but are not promoted by Latinos either. Rogelio is an exception to the rule – he is divorced three times. Homosexuality is presented as the experience of the Americans, here represented by Rafael’s half-sister Luisa; although marginally to the show Rogelio’s father is gay as well. Homosexual relationship of Luisa and Rose may indicate the triple oppression these Latinas may face: as a woman, as a Latina and finally as a lesbian. Furthermore,

Rose is married to Luisa’s father, thus linking lesbianism with bisexuality.

“Hispanization of the United States” and “Anglicization of Hispanics” can be seen in the promotion of heterosexuality on the one hand and presence of homo- and bisexuality on the other.

Linda Chavez is also sure that “Hispanics’ attachment to family is one of their most positive cultural attributes” (109). Mario T. García in his essay “Border Culture” describes early life of Mexican immigrants in El Paso and the Southwest of America in the beginning of the 20th century. He stresses the importance of the family as “the most basic cultural institution” that Mexicans brought with them (Takaki 72). The traditional

52 pattern – men at work and women taking care of household – was altered by women’s greater desire for independence and their entering the workforce in industry (ibid. 73).

In Jane the Virgin, the disrupted traditional family structure is demonstrated by grandmother-mother-daughter household, Rafael’s rotten marriage, Xiomara being a single mother and later on Jane ending up in the same family status – a single mom raising a child on her own. Still, the importance of family is not denied. The most convincing statement is from the mouth of Rogelio, “Of course I’m here. For family.

And nothing is more important” (Episode 10, 16:00). He shows that his words are not empty in the last episode of the first season when he is willing to miss a big show because of family and not missing Jane giving birth to his grandson (25:15). A strong family tradition is depicted in Episode 13 in which all the family supports Jane during her amniocentesis test and when they prepare at-home graduation ceremony for her, or throughout both seasons in recurring scenes of various family members and friends sitting together on the bench on the veranda and solving problems together.

Elizabeth M. Iglesias zooms in the role of Latin mothers. Their images are quite unlike those of white, i.e. WASP mothers; they are characterized by maternal stability, female solidarity and lack of individual freedom resulting from fulfilling the needs of her dependents. This quality of maternal strength and reliability provides an alternative to Western capitalist mother and is seen in positive terms (Delgado and Stefancic 510-

1). The role of mother is the most important job for Jane when she gives birth to Mateo.

However, she goes through a big motherhood dilemma as soon as a graduate program slot is available: should she sacrifice her career to be with Mateo as much as possible or would she attempt to make a balance between the two? Episode 21 illustrates the battle.

Jane acknowledges in her high-school reunion speech that mom is the most important job, but she does not want to be “just a mom”; she also wants a career, life (20:09). This

53 is the motherhood struggle that Wieselman identifies among heavy contemporary topics that may have an appeal and are confronted in the show (see p.35).

“Latin daughters are raised to identify with their mothers”, Iglesias notes (ibid.

512). In Jane the Virgin the pattern is altered. Juxtaposing Alba as a representative of the first-generation immigrants and Xiomara, her daughter already born in the States, a generation gap is manifested. When Jane returns home from a meeting with Michael after she decided to break her promise and finally have sex with him, her mother and grandmother impatiently await her narration. A viewer can see two reactions that are poles apart when Jane tells them nothing has happened: disappointing expression of

Xiomara contrasts with approbatory face of Alba (Episode 3, 40:47; see

Picture 4). Jane did not want be like her mother either. In the first and the third episodes, she makes it explicit. Xiomara got pregnant with Jane as a 16-years old and

Jane has a clear opinion on that, “You were irresponsible” (Episode 1, 24:38). Jane wishes for a life different than that of her mother. Paradoxically, she ends up unmarried and pregnant just as her mother was. Similarities exist between Alba and Jane, which underlines the role of grandmother in the process of upbringing and passing on the traditions from the Latino world to a world where Latinos are at the given moment.

Libby Hills highlights the presence of three women from different generations in one household. Not coincidentally was her online article published on the occasion of

Mother’s Day. She perceives Jane the Virgin and the intergenerational Villanueva family as “a powerful image of modern matriarchy” (10 May 2015). Her claim is strengthen by the fact that it is not a mother-children household with an absent father; it is actually three mothers with three absent fathers. To be disinterested, Alba’s husband has passed away, Xiomara’s partner and Jane’s father is finally present after years

54 without his daughter and Jane and Rafael seek ways to co-parent effectively. Although both parents are present to a certain extent, none of these cases pertains to the conventional family paradigm; traditional nuclear or extended family pattern is anything but present. Traditionally, women would be assigned their role as child-bearers and men as bread-winners. Jane the Virgin takes the side of dysfunctional families with women as both child-bearers and bread-winners. If patriarchy as a social system reflected in mother-father-child unit used to be typical of Latinos, it seems to have faded away.

Another stereotype is then uprooted – that Latinos live in traditional patriarchal families. Family as such remains the core element of the Hispanic culture, but its gender composition may provide a new alternative to the long-established structure.

Religion

Oliva M. Espín relates the honor of Latin families to sexual behavior of Latin women, who are expected to maintain their virginity until marriage. This tradition, as she notes, “continues to be a cultural imperative” (142). Jane is a representative of this tradition, although Alba has much to do with her choice. Espín also confirms the status of the Virgin Mary as a role model for unwed Latinas (142). In Jane the Virgin, there are numerous occasions that support this observation. After Jane is mistaken as a patient and gets inseminated, there is a shot of a pregnant Jane the virgin with a picture of Mary the Virgin above her head, although in that particular moment she is not aware of her pregnancy yet (see Picture 7). Shots like this are reiterated in both seasons, linking

Latino women to the Holy Mary and Latinos in general to their religious tradition.

Latinos have always been perceived as very religious people. As seen in Jane the Virgin, religion is an inseparable part of Latino life and affects behavior and thinking. The Catholic Church in particular has enjoyed the status of the strongest

55 denomination. Its impact is manifold. When Jane decides to break her promise of chastity and spend the night with her fiancé Michael, she first attends a church service.

The choir sings “Don’t have sex, Jane” (Episode 3, 27:55), and is just the first obstruction in the course of events that will prevent her from carrying out her plan. As absurd as it is, it demonstrates moral obligation of the Latina girl to consider religion in all spheres of life. That Christianity is an intrinsic component of Jane’s life is made obvious as soon as she becomes a teacher in a Catholic high school in Episode 6 and when she demands a Sunday religious school for her not-yet-born child in Episode 9.

After being kidnapped, the return of Jane’s son Mateo takes place symbolically in a church. On one hand, religious affiliations are perceived as an important part of Latino world; on the other hand, the whole Episode 7 gives the impression that the same belief is being ridiculed.

Jane as a pregnant and unmarried young woman does not set an example to follow for her students, so school representatives need to adopt a policy that would defend her presence as a teacher. The nun director believes that the Lord brought Jane to their school “to bring more people to our church” (8:10), and whether it was a

“medical mistake or not, it is a miracle” (18:50), so she comes up with the idea of a hugging therapy: Jane is positioned to the role of Virgin Mary and hugs people to grant miracles. The nun even made coins, which is illustrated in Picture 3. Episode 4 also contains a disapproving reference to Catholicism. Jane’s wedding plans with Michael include regular meetings with a priest that are referred to as pre-cana. The word is explained as a “catholic marriage counseling led by a priest”, after which an additional post-scriptum note appears on the screen clearing up the matter, “who has never been married” (4:47). Should that be an attack on the Catholic denomination, it would be politically incorrect. Episode 11, likewise, presents a priest kissing with a nun during

56 shooting for a telenovela with Rogelio (08:05) and reveals that the guy from physical therapy that Alba asked on a date is a priest. The witty humor of the narrator and the show as such does not render the criticism sharp, but its insinuation cannot be denied. If

Latinos are seen as predominantly Catholic, the situations might evoke a denunciation of a belief that constitutes their values and traditions.

Reality on the one hand, possibly faults of the show on the other, but the search for an explanation might not be vain. Recalling Avila-Saavedra’s observation, racial and ethnic stereotypes disclosed in comedies are less likely to be perceived as insulting

(271, 275). In step with him, absurdity and ridicule may be used with the aim to get rid of stereotypes and are not disregardful to the importance of religion as such. Jane admits fantasizing about Rafael in the presence of a priest (Episode 4, 13:05) – the holy confession in particular, the church as an institution and religion in general are still the loci where the truth is told, which slightly improves the distorted image of religion and its influence. Alba, Xiomara and Jane do not ascribe the same meaning and significance to the role religion plays in their lives. If a believer at all, Xiomara is a non-practicing one. Jane pays much respect to it, as has been shown. She is pleased when she finds the first Bible Alba gave her and exclaims she wanted one for Mateo (Season 2, Episode 16,

04:35). Episode 18 reveals that Easter time is the most meaningful for Alba who looks forward to the celebration of the resurrection. It is she who rebuts Jane’s doubts about the resurrection: “That’s what faith is about, the banishment of doubt”, she assures her adding a piece of advice, “Don’t let your head get in the way of your heart” (02:40 –

02:46). Religion here is presented as a way for a better life lived with hope and the faith

Alba defends as a tool to de-dramatize life events. It is a comfort in troubling situations:

Alba prays the confession of faith when Mateo is kidnapped (Season 2, Episode 1,

09:55); Jane searches for a rosary when Alba is in a coma, since she is convinced Alba

57

“would want us to pray” (Episode 10, 03:30) and even Xiomara is moved by grief in the same episode and appeals to God. Indeed, there are some scholars who have already made inquiries into the impact of religion on Latinos. Thanks to their religious and

Catholic adherence, Shorris informs, Latinos obtained the virtue of belonging to the group, the sense of a structured world from hierarchical organization of the church and also loyalty (332). Again, it is the grandmother Alba Gloriana Villanueva who stands out as the core ingredient of the cake called religion that is baked and eaten in Jane’s household.

The power of grandmother

Familism and family connectedness, as discussed above, are frequently stressed in Latinos’ ethnic narratives. The presence of grandmothers in multigenerational dwellings is especially influential in the transmission of family rituals. Celia Jaes

Falicov adds that sometimes these rituals, under cultural transformation, might end up reflecting dual lifestyles, “both ethnic and modern at the same time” (Suárez-Orozco and Páez 280). Alba acts as a catalyst in Jane’s life. Jane’s determination to withhold from sexual relationship before marriage is fueled more by the promise she gave to her grandmother than by her own conviction. The tension between the seemingly incompatible liberal American way of life and the traditional Latino chastity is brought to resolution by the accidental insemination, making Jane an unmarried pregnant woman and keeping her virginity untouched. In this way, Jane becomes both “ethnic and modern at the same time”. In this context, the presence and power of grandmother cannot be overlooked. In the opening episode of the dramedy, two passions of Alba are introduced: God and Jane (00:30). Since she thinks nothing is better than linking the two passions together, she comes up with the idea of no-sex-before-marriage. Jane gives the promise of chastity as a kid. Once her life is turned upside-down after a mishandled

58 insemination, she is quick to respond to the new reality, “And now that I am pregnant, why should I wait another year, another week, another minute even”, she ponders

(Episode 3, 04:12). She remains loyal to her culture and traditions her grandmother promotes, yet she strives to accommodate them in the American society that is now her society. When Rafael is asked to guess what the baby’s first word Jane wants to be, he immediately comes up with abuela (Episode 19, 23:47). Although it is not correct (it should be “daddy”), his guess correctly assumes a strong position of grandmothers in

Latino families.

“Grandmothers are ever present and highly vocal in family affairs”, Oliva M.

Espín proclaims (142). Abuela takes care of both Villanuevas, Jane and Xiomara, after they find themselves dumped by their partners. She prepares food for them and acts as their comfort (Episode 20, 3:30). Alba is the glue that keeps family together; she is the breathing apparatus that maintains religion and faith alive and she is a language enthusiast who promotes and conserves Spanish as an inextricable component of their ethnic identity. In the third episode of the second season, the narrator informs that 25- years-old Alba cherished traditions. With Venezuela being miles away she needed to sustain her identity with new traditions, therefore she wove clothing and wrote a speech for Xiomara’s baptism, both of which Xiomara used at Jane’s baptism and both of which were subsequently handed over to Jane on the day of Mateo’s baptism. “May you carry with you the vitality and spirit of the generations before you”, Jane is reading from the letter (28:30). The words demonstrate how much Latinos value their descendants, customs and Latino heritage. The role of abuelas is not confined to the domestic environment and keeping traditions alive, though. Geraldo Rivera extends the significance of their presence to shopping malls and supermarkets. “Shopping for

Spanish people is often a family affair”, he marks another characteristic of Hispanics

59

(76). Black Friday shopping is a big day for the Villanueva family. In Season 2, Episode

7, Alba appears in a tracksuit and is clearly the biggest enthusiast of pushing the trolley and searching for discounts. They even have rules for the shopping, as Rafael is informed upon joining them, which is convincing enough to claim Black Friday shopping is a years-long tradition.

When Mexican immigrants moved to El Paso in the end of the 19th century, they did their best to stimulate patriotic sentiments through celebration of Mexican

Independence Day and other events. El Monitor in its October 1897 edition criticized

Americanized Mexicans (‘Angrigados’) for negating the meaning of the remembrance,

“Do they think they are members of the Anglo-Saxon race who only happen to have dark skins because they were born on the border! What nonsense! (Qué barbaridad!)”

(qtd. in Takaki 80). Hispanic Heritage Day is celebrated in Jane the Virgin with all respect. None of the female representatives of the three generations disvalues the importance of ethnic pride. In Episode 10, the Villanueva family represented by Jane as a student is invited to participate in the celebration. Jane knows her mom is not a good cook, so she asks her grandmother to do it. Instead, grandma proposes a different plan.

“I’ll teach you. Like my mother taught me”, she tells Xiomara enthusiastically so that she will not mess it up (32:11). The words resonate strongly and abuela Alba is a key player in preparing the food for Heritage Day and passing on another tradition.

The role of grandmother is a significant one in all aspects. Pre-marriage virginity as an inherited conception is expressed in the symbolic form of a lily flower and strongly alludes to Jane’s grandmother Alba, who is the author of the idea. Alba as a carrier of traditions is, however, not a carrier of stereotypes. She is very religious, but unconventional. She has a gay friend at church and is also superstitious – believes her first love Pablo Alonso Segura is cursed. Shockingly, the great promoter of no-sex-

60 before-marriage idea confesses she spent a night with Pablo before marrying Mateo. It looks like everything is underpinned by Alba, and everything is brought to ruins because of Alba. “Nobody messes with abuela”, this is taken for granted (Rivera 77).

Gina Rodriguez mentions in Adweek that the show is popular with many of her friends’ grandparents just because it is grounded in old traditions, which makes it attractive for that generation (Stilson 21). Alba Villanueva is, however, not as conservative as one is tempted to think at a glance. When Jane is convulsed with her dilemma over Rafael or Michael, Alba joins #teamRafael for a simple reason: she stresses his physical appearance; she is “old, but not blind” as she proclaims about herself (Season 2, Episode 2, 10:10). When a chat window pops up and Jane reads a message in Spanish from a man named Pablo, she realizes that Alba is having a virtual relationship (Season 2, Episode 14, 12:35). Episode 19 further disrupts the image of abuela as an impoverished immigrant – she is seen driving a car (41:27).

Unquestionably, years have passed by since her immigration, but one cannot forget that her arrival was characterized by absence of any financial capital. Alba is cognizant of shopping on Amazon, which she demonstrates by comparing it to an online dating site

(Season 2, Episode 10, 34:05). The reference to Amazon indicates that Hispanics are searched for as potential consumers thanks to their purchasing power. Alba Villanueva is a carrier of Latino traditions and should be credited for their survival in American society; yet, she is also progressive in a sense and acculturated well enough not to be perceived as an intruder.

Immigration

The ethnicities of individual actors have already been discussed. Interestingly, experiences of Jane, Xiomara and Alba very strikingly resemble real-life experiences of

61 the three actresses. All three of them—Rodriguez, Navedo and Coll—have ties to

Puerto Rico, but only the oldest one was born there and can be considered an immigrant. In this context it is appropriate to mention, but also necessary to disregard the actual state of affairs of Puerto Ricans. The great paradox is that they are officially citizens of the United States as the only subgroup of the Hispanic community, but still as the only ethnicity remain colonized. Shorris sets the record straight: they cannot become Americans [emphasis added] since they do not cross any border; so nothing changes for them (145). In Jane the Virgin, the Villanueva’s family tree in America was commenced by Alba’s exodus from Venezuela, thus starting a new chapter of her and her descendants’ lives. In this particular case, Venezuela is a tribute to a Venezuelan telenovela Juana la Virgen of which Jane the Virgin is an adaptation. What the actresses and their heroines share is the similarity at the generational level. The first generation representative is an immigrant, the second generation is already born in the

States and the third generation is linked to a Latino country of origin through grandfather or grandmother.

There are plentiful motivations that bring immigrants to America. Social benefits or government policy are among primary driving forces for some; others come to El

Norte lured by the infamously famous American dream in a vision of a life better than the one lived at home. If it is believed that the primary reason of undocumented immigrants for crossing the border is social benefits, another stereotype held by the majority, and if denial of social benefits should serve as discouragement for incoming waves of immigrants, Alba’s case diverges from the assumption and stirs away from the stereotype. In the eight episode of the first season she retells her story of immigration.

Alba narrates the story of Jane’s grandfather: their family was very rich, he was a Venezuelan oil magnate, but gave up all money for love of Alba. Mateo, her husband,

62 had some family problems with his brother, so they decided to leave to North America although they were not allowed to due to “stupid immigration laws”, as Xiomara comments (35:05). The renouncement of all financial assets means that Mateo and Alba did arrive as poor penniless immigrants, but not with the aim to misuse and derive benefit from welfare system. Portes and Rumbaut in Immigrant America identify following types of immigrants: labor migrants, professional immigrants, entrepreneurial immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The first group, they argue, “corresponds most closely to popular stereotypes” (20) and the highest number of undocumented newcomers belongs to this type. The second group can be labelled as “brain drain”; majority come legally with the aim to improve lives, but not to escape poverty (25).

Alba Villanueva would appear to fall into the first category, but in her narration to

Mateo about ther first Christmas in America she complains how frequently she became a victim of stereotypes during her beginnings in the new country. A woman asked her what grade she got to in school and she angrily reminds herself, her husband and the audience that she used to be a nurse back in Venezuela (Season 2, Episode 8, 15:45).

Her experiences disclose the victimization of Latinos due to stereotypic views non-

Latinos tend to hold; and she combats it by revealing what is not obvious at first.

Linda S. Bosniak, Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School who also teaches immigration law, reveals powerlessness that accompanies the lives of illegal immigrants once they set foot on American soil. The government is authorized to enforce state’s borders through enforcement of immigration laws. Deportation is one form through which this practice can be exercised. The threat of being expatriated brings about the reluctance on their side to stand up for their rights so that they would not draw attention of immigration authorities to themselves. This practice strengthens their marginalization

(Delgado and Stefancic 104). Since Alba is in the country illegally and has no

63 insurance, she is haunted by the vision of being deported. Her nightmare is not far from realization when she is pushed down the stairs and finds herself in hospital. Her daughter Xiomara is told by the doctor that Alba will be deported to Venezuela in order to get the care she needs in the process called “medical repatriation”. Her reaction is sincere, but contradictory. “This can’t be legal”, she cries forgetting that her mother is an illegal resident (Episode 10, 19:13; see Picture 5). The scene also brings to mind an initiative from 1994 (“Prop”). Had it come into effect, California Proposition 187 would have denied access to public services like health care and education for those migrants without papers. Alba has been accepted as a patient since she is in a coma, but medical repatriation would apply as soon as she regains consciousness.

Bosniak’s claim that illegal residents avoid authorities can be exemplified by a situation in episode twenty. Due to her status as an undocumented citizen, Alba decides not to stand up for her rights and officially accuse Magda, the woman who pushed her down the stairs, so that avoids an encounter authorities. “Police make her nervous”,

Jane explains to her police officer boyfriend Michael and comments that it is a

“problem ethically” (Season 2, Episode 2, 15:15). Alba decides to legalize her unlawful stay in the country after an encounter with police in their house in the same episode; the event made her “so scared that she cannot move” (34:30). Her status affected both

Xiomara’s and Jane’s lives and she does not want it to hang over the childhood of her great-grandson Mateo. As a result, she finally decides to overcome her fears of deportation and apply for a green card. She does so as a responsible, law-abiding and distinguished woman who even introduces herself in English (Season 2, Episode 5,

4:20, 10:09). The clothes she put on and, most significantly, her utterance in English prove she cares and does her best to legalize her stay. Remarkably, this is the only moment in the show that viewers can see and hear Alba speaking English. Linking her

64

English performance with legalization of her stay reinforces her good intention and respect for the country’s laws. When Alba wins the long battle and is granted her wished-for green card, it not only makes her a lawful citizen, but moves her away from the margins, as Bosniak advocated.

Mateo Gloriano Rogelio Solano Villanueva continues the immigration story as an immigrant’s descendant, more precisely as a representative of the fourth generation.

His life perspectives are bright as far as immigration and stereotypes are considered.

Vertical movement – the achievability of the American Dream – has been demonstrated by Alba. Juxtaposing Alba, Jane, Xiomara and Mateo, there are signs of progress recorded horizontally. With every subsequent generation future prospects are better and advancement more visible, which is the ideal of the American Dream. Already in the

States, Alba has been unemployed. Xiomara has an irregular job as a bar singer and manages to earn some money. Jane is a waitress, a teacher and a writer, gaining a kind of financial stability and living comfortably. Mateo will probably be super-rich; as the son of a prosperous hotel owner he is supposed to inherit $40 million, a sum that Jane cannot come to terms with. She sees an apparition of Oliver Twist Mateo, i.e. as a beggar in Episode 6 of Season 2 and this convinces her to retreat. They decide with

Rafael that for every dollar Mateo gets he has to give a dollar away. She immediately fantasizes about a charitable Mateo. At the United Nations speech with the American anthem in the background, he thanks his mentors Michelle Obama and Angelina Jolie, showing how deeply rooted charity in American culture is and Latinos’ recognition of it

(35:40). Ilan Stavans and his belief in “Hispanization of the United States” and

“Anglicization of Hispanics” applies again. Hispanization is exemplified by Latinos as givers, not takers; Anglicization implants charity in Mateo’s lifestyle. Mateo Gloriano

Rogelio Solano Villanueva is a vivid example of Americanization, a strong rebutting

65 evidence of decades-old stereotypes and a follower of the Latino heritage. His name will always bear close tights to Latino culture and traditions: it is a memorial to his great-grandfather (Mateo), grandfather (Rogelio), father (Solano) and Gloriano

Villanueva is a celebration of the three women that will raise him in the way family will always be exalted. Alba’s participation in his raising and Jane’s preference for a bilingual babysitter will most likely result in the continual process of passing on traditions, with stereotypes left behind.

Telenovela versus reality

It is appropriate here to quote Gina Rodriguez, the actress in the role of Jane, who tells about her serial that “it has the telenovela world of heightened reality, but it has a very American feel of bringing things back to grounded reality” (Stilson). The structure of Jane the Virgin illustrates Rodriguez’s words. Every episode begins with summarizing recaps of previous episodes followed by short excerpts from Jane’s childhood that introduce viewers to Jane the child and Jane the teenager. What happens next is the reflection of these characteristics, attitudes and experiences in her current life. Jane herself is a telenovela enthusiast and a daughter of a huge telenovela star. Her life is linked to the telenovela world and Latino culture even more after she becomes an official writer of telenovela scripts in Episode 12. She needs to think outside the box, transcend her mind to the telenovela world and has to envisage how Rogelio would act and react in order to write an episode script. Three episodes later she is caught up envisaging a scene in which she would stop Rafael from leaving and run into his arms.

The narrator clarifies what Jane does not realize, “That was the stuff of romance novels and not real life at all” (Episode 15, 26:00).

66

“Bringing things back to grounded reality” is emphasized by situations when that stuff typical of telenovelas is brought to absurd ends. The two worlds mingle together frequently in the show. In the second episode, Alba is watching a telenovela starring Rogelio, Jane’s biological father. Full of excitement she wants to inform

Xiomara that El Presidente did not drown. The timing is so perfect that when she opens the door of her bedroom, she finds him there. “El Presidente”, she calls out (40:57). In that particular moment telenovela suddenly becomes reality. That the collision of telenovela with reality is often blurred and not noticeable is best demonstrated in the second season, Episode 13. Rogelio and Xiomara have broken up and as friends practice a scene from Rogelio’s telenovela. The moment they are supposed to stop rehearsing is also about them, they kiss and go off script (22:44-23:55).

Talking about Rogelio de la Vega, his character and scenes including him are always hilarious; at times even ridiculous. He has his own ring-tone (“It’s another beautiful day to be Rogelio, wake up Rogelio.”), wears concealer in his bag and is a huge fan of hashtags. He prepares a “grand entrance” as in a telenovela to introduce himself to Jane in the fifth episode. Paradoxically, in a show combatting stereotypic characterizations there are stereotypes embedded in the script. A poor Mexican stereotype is applied by Rogelio when he comes to visit Xiomara at a dance class. “For those of you and your parents who don’t own a television, my name is Rogelio de la

Vega”, he starts his introduction to Xiomara’s pupils (Episode 13, 20:25). Making a telenovela star a representative of a telenovela absurdity then reads as a call for displacing Latinos from the world they are confined in: the world of stereotypes that does not capture their lives and experience objectively.

This analytical chapter displayed in what ways the decades-old stereotypes about the Hispanic community are turning out to be ill-directed and non-topical. Latinos are

67 presented in a positive light in many aspects. Jane the Virgin shows that they are also members of middle and upper classes; that they do not lack neither education nor aspirations; that ghettoization is no more the case; that their English language skills are excellent; that the family as an institution still enjoys a high status; that patriarchal multi-children families are no more a reality; that their strong religious affiliations do not equal conventional expectations; that they are not just impoverished immigrants and that they do have a will and a desire to change their lives for better. In all of this the presence of abuela cannot be disregarded. Should a one-statement conclusion be made, it would claim that Latinos are able to succeed in American society and that the myth of the American Dream can become a reality even for those born outside the borders and arriving with hope and a vision of a brighter future. Jane the Virgin provides a positive and optimistic account of immigrants from Latino countries.

68

5 Conclusion

“We have to understand and internalize that Hispanics are the

hardest working of Americans, the most patriotic of Americans, the

most family oriented and entrepreneurial of Americans. Everything

that is supposed to be uniquely American we embody.” (Raul

Yzaguirre, qtd. in Dávila 33)12

This Master’s thesis hoped to be a contribution to the field of cultural studies in general and the minority issues in particular. It sharpened the focus on the fastest- growing minority group in the United States and depiction of its values and stereotypical images on television. Immigration, stereotypes and media are intertwined and insinuate influence on each other (cf. Avila-Saavedra 2011; Barreto et al. 2012;

Gates 2014; Mastro and Behm-Morawitz 2005; Negrón-Muntaner et al. 2014; Valentino et al. 2013). Issues like welfare, illegal immigration and association with crime account for depictions of Latinos as takers rather than givers to the American nation.

Drawing on Samuel Huntington’s claim that mass immigration transformed

America’s Anglo-Protestant culture, Holloway discusses Tocqueville’s account of democracy that suggests transformation of the culture from within, not from outside

(112-3). In line with Tocqueville and Holloway, any radical transformation that is more criticized than appraised is not brought from outside. Latinos, then, cannot be perceived as agents of negative changes taking place in American culture, which should erase any frustration over Hispanics as they do not pose any threat to American society.

Nevertheless, their presence raises some question marks. Can Latinos become part of

12 Yzaguirre, the veteran civil rights activist and former president of National Council of La Raza, struggled to correct the image of Latinos at La Raza’s 2006 meeting. 69

American culture by embracing the political creed alone? Is there a possibility for future generations to self-identify as Americans or will they always be strangers, intruders, the

‘Other’? Once they are present, should they assimilate or preserve their ethnic and cultural distinctiveness? These are the questions to be tackled first if one wishes to do a research on Latinos. Jane the Virgin is persuasive in promoting selective acculturation as a solution. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur once wondered what then was American, that new man. Letters from an American Farmer expresses his belief that in America

“individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world”. Latinos are part of this new race and possible agents of future changes. They boast to be vivid examples of a new hybrid culture that results from selective acculturation. “To some extent, she is Jane: a college-educated millennial who simultaneously embraces the Latin culture she inherited and the American landscape she was born into”, Terreno says about Gina

Rodriguez (54).

In a time of proliferating media it is expected and inevitable for minorities to confirm their presence in the U.S. society by their presence on television. It has been confirmed that non-Latinos shape their views on Latinos based on their presentation in news or entertainment programs (cf. Barreto et al. 2012; Valentino et al. 2013). Once these depictions are favorable and run counter to traditional, mostly negative perceptions, it may well have a huge impact on real life interactions between Latinos and non-Latinos. Jane the Virgin provides these positive images. Becky Villaescusa of

Latin World Entertainment tells the recipe for Hispanic actors to succeed in U.S. television markets, "They need to be talented, they need to be bilingual, bicultural ….

Those are the most important things (qtd. in Gutman and Hodd)." Eva Longoria is a popular and successful Hispanic, but in no way can she be called bilingual. She herself

70 proclaimed that despite her "strong ties" to Hispanic culture, she only recently began learning Spanish (EFE). Maybe that is why her recent project Telenovela tells a story of a telenovela star who does not speak Spanish. For her, language is obviously not a marker of one’s belonging to a culture. In spite of that, “it’s a mainstream show that has lots of Latin culture," though (ibid.).

Alternative reading of both shows, Telenovela and Jane the Virgin alike, would claim they are parodies on telenovelas. In a sense they indeed are, but only to emphasize how much Latinos wish to be freed from stereotypes associated with them. The two shows are not telenovelas proper, yet both include shooting of telenovelas as part of their program. In neither of them Latinos are parodied. Alba, Xiomara and Jane watch telenovelas regularly to demonstrate the value of their culture. If there is a parody, it is a cry to abandon stereotypes. The thesis did its best to anatomize Jane the Virgin as much to a tittle as possible in order to provide objective, undistorted analysis. Discussion of the genre, its production and reception, individual actors’ and production staff’s backgrounds, thematic issues and stereotypical features that are present in telenovelas/soap operas and Latino shows were all done with the aim to examine to what extent the sitcom departs from stereotypical representations of Latinos on

American English-language television.

Initially, the telenovela was produced by Latin American producers for an

American soap company. The alteration of the genre – from soap opera through telenovela to a comedy hybrid – is the first important step in uprooting stereotypical portrayals of Latinos, as demonstrated on the examples of Telemundo’s and Univisión’s programming strategies by Ponti. The limited space of the thesis does not allow for a more detailed discussion of the telenovela genre and soap opera. For that reason and following the purposes of the thesis, only those aspects of telenovela and soap opera

71 were pointed out that could be illustrated by Jane the Virgin and that would bring a reader closer to the genre and the content of the show. Telenovelas have transformed into a new genre that now appears in the form of comedies or comedy-dramas on the mainstream English television. This trend, Avila-Saavedra says, serves a dual purpose – it talks to U.S. Latinos since it represents their lives and it appeals to non-Latinos as a source of information as well (289).

Opportunities for future research multiply. A whole thesis could be written to discuss just the genre. It might be enriching to update the thesis as soon as the last season of Jane the Virgin is announced, although it is not expected that the findings here would be challenged in any significant way. The plot develops, experiences of the characters accumulate, but once it is a show about the middle and upper class Latinos, it will not turn to depict poor and uneducated Hispanics. Promotion of matriarchy and

Rogelio’s hashtag “#firstmalefeminist” provide a firm grounding for approaching the sitcom from a feminist perspective. Jane the Virgin is bound to the presence of grandmother. Would the lives of the characters have been the same if abuela had been absent? It might be telling to compare the show with another Latino program in which the role of grandmother is attenuated or missing.

“Michael, you are too pale for the baptism photos”, Rogelio expresses his opinion and suggests Michael should use a spray tan (Season 2, Episode 3, 23:18).

Latinization of the United States is a current phenomenon that cannot be denied13. In the period of last forty years Latinos emerged as “strategic actors in this process of socioeconomic transformation” (Darder 158). The rise of neoliberalism and so called color-blindness has marginalized the discourse on race and ethnicity and, in contrast,

13 In Latino Spin, Arlene Davila talks about Latinization of American cities, arts institutions or the field of academia. 72 has exalted Latinos for their social and political power. In the 2004 presidential elections, the Hispanic community turned out to be decisive swing voters and

Republican adherents. George W. Bush embedded into his advertising campaign strategy the identification of Latinos’ cultural values as inherently American ones:

That richness is best seen at the core of the Latino spirit. It has to do with

values, strong conservative values. A belief that family comes first. That

family helps one another. Latino parents instill in their children a strong

work ethic, faith in God, patriotism, personal responsibility, determination.

These values are my values. I live by them and I lead by them. … Every

year, Latinos add to this country’s wealth and to their own. (qtd. in Dávila

62)

Bush would see eye to eye with Yzaguirre. Their speeches render Latinos capable not only to fit into and survive in the American society, but they also highlight their upward mobility and how the values and attributes associated with the Hispanic community may be beneficial for the receiving culture. Jane the Virgin has demonstrated that

Latinos can live their Latino lives as Americans safely and without any external hostility due to their ethnic background. Any generalizations are avoided since this is still not a reality for many U.S. Latinos, but, as the show insinuates, it is a possibility.

Latinos’ position is exceptional and rather than marginalized they should be perceived as unique. There is a short documentary by Brewster et al. that provides views of Latinos on their race and ethnicities. “For me being Latino is being phenomenal”, the very last interviewee says (06:15). More and more Latinos are becoming aware of their power. I Can and I Will Productions is Gina Rodriguez’s company that was established with a vision to “help promote stories about diverse

73 cultures” (Stilson 23). Jane the Virgin is primarily a show about Latinos and its plotline concentrates on Jane, but there is another dimension to the show. In Jane the Virgin one witnesses interaction of the characters among themselves disregarding their ethnic origins. A Cuban American Rafael was married to a Czech emigrant Petra; a Latina

Jane’s love story revolves around an American guy Michael, and Michael was involved in an affair with an African-American colleague Nadine. These intertwined relations read as a cultural inclusion of ethnicities that make America existent. Jane the Virgin turned representation of Hispanic characters on prime time television upside-down. Jane

“isn’t a cop, a sex kitten, or a cook; she doesn’t accentuate her curves in skintight dresses or speak with a sultry accent. All reasons that Gina Rodriguez had to say yes to the role, which she calls the most “realistic” portrayal of Latinas on TV” (Terreno 54).

No one but God knows what the future holds for the Hispanic presence in the United

States, but maybe the words of Ilan Stavans will come true that Hispanics are

“yesterday’s victim and tomorrow’s conquistadors” (Delgado and Stefancic 34).

74

References

Primary sources

Jane the Virgin, Season 1. Prod. Jennie Snyder Urman. Perf. Gina Rodriguez. The CW

Television Network. 2014, whole season. Television.

Jane the Virgin, Season 2. Prod. Jennie Snyder Urman. Perf. Gina Rodriguez. The CW

Television Network. 2015, episodes 1-16. Television.

Secondary sources

"Conversations on Immigration: Carlos Mencia." Conversations on Immigration.

National Public Radio. NPR, 12 June 2006. Radio.

"FFF: Hispanic Heritage Month 2015." FFF: Hispanic Heritage Month 2015. U. S.

Census Bureau, 14 Sept. 2015. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.

"Prop. 187 Approved in California - Migration News | Migration Dialogue." Dec. 1994.

Web. 21 Apr. 2016. .

Adams, John Truslow. The Epic of America. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers,

2012. Print.

Alcoff, Linda. "Latinos and the Categories of Race." Visible Identities: Race, Gender,

and the Self. New York: OUP, 2006. Print.

Artz, Lee. "Telenovelas: Television Stories for Our Global Times." Perspectives on

Global Development & Technology 14.1/2 (2015): 193-226. Business Source

Complete. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.

75

Avila-Saavedra, Guillermo. "Ethnic Otherness versus Cultural Assimilation: U.S.

Latino Comedians and the Politics of Identity." Mass Communication & Society

14.3 (2011): 271-91. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.

Ballvé, Marcelo. "The Battle for Latino Media." NACLA Report on the Americas 37.4

(2004): 20-5. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.

Barreto, Matt A., Sylvia Manzano, and Gary Segura. The Impact of Media Stereotypes

on Opinions and Attitudes towards Latinos. 1-81. Rep. National Hispanic Media

Coalition, Sept. 2012. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.

Bielby, Denise D., and C. Lee Harrington. "Opening America? The Telenovela-ization

of U.S. Soap Operas." Television & New Media 6.4 (2005): 383-99. Film &

Television Literature Index with Full Text. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.

Bolaffi, Guido. Dictionary of Race, Ethnicity and Culture. London: SAGE, 2003.

culture/SAGE.xml>

Brewster, Joe, Blair Foster, and Michèle Stephenson. "A Conversation with Latinos on

Race." The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Feb. 2016. Web video.

01 Mar. 2016.

Cabán, Pedro A. "From Challenge to Absorption: The Changing Face of Latina and

Latino Studies." Centro Journal 15.2 (2003): 126-45. Academic Search

Complete. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.

Calderon, Jose. "'Hispanic' and 'Latino': The Viability of Categories for Panethnic

Unity." Latin American Perspectives 19.4 (1992): 37-44. JSTOR Journals. Web.

14 Oct. 2015.

Chavez, Linda. Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation.

New York: BasicBooks, 1991. Print.

76

Chuang, Angie, and Robin Chin Roemer. "Beyond the Positive–Negative Paradigm of

Latino/Latina News-Media Representations: DREAM Act Exemplars,

Stereotypical Selection, and American Otherness." Journalism 16.8 (2015):

1045-61. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.

Cullen, Jim. The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation.

New York: OUP, 2004. Print.

Darder, Antonia, and Rodolfo D. Torres. "Latina/O Formations in the United States:

Laboring Classes, Migration, and Identities." Ethnicities 15.2 (2015): 157-64.

Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

Dávila, Arlene M. Latino Spin: Public Image and the Whitewashing of Race. New

York: NYUP, 2008. Print.

Delgado, Richard, and Jean Stefancic. The Latin/a Condition: A Critical Reader. New

York: NYUP, 1998. Print.

EFE. "Eva Longoria: U.S. Television Needs Richer Perspective on Diversity."

Www.efe.com. Agencia EFE, 23 Jan. 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.

Espín, Oliva M. “Cultural and Historical Influences on Sexuality in Hispanic/Latin

Women.” Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology. Comp. Margaret L. Andersen

and Patricia Hill Collins. Belmont: Wadsworth Pub., 1992. Print.

Feeney, Nolan. "Happy Accident. Gina Rodriguez may be the biggest miracle in Jane

the Virgin." Time 184.15 (2014): 62-3. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Mar.

2016.

Forbes, Jack D. "The Hispanic Spin: Party Politics and Governmental Manipulation of

Ethnic Identity." Latin American Perspectives 19.4 (1992): 59-78. JSTOR

Journals. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.

77

Friedlander, Whitney. "‘Jane the Virgin’ Narrator Anthony Mendez Woos His

Fans." Variety. 09 June 2015. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

Gates, Sara. "Impact Of Latino Stereotypes: Latin Americans Viewed Most Negatively

in Immigrant Comparison Study." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com,

28 Jul. 2014. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.

Golash-Boza, Tanya, and William Darity. "Latino Racial Choices: The Effects of Skin

Colour and Discrimination on Latinos' and Latinas' Racial Self-Identifications."

Ethnic & Racial Studies 31.5 (2008): 899-934. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web.

2 Oct. 2015.

Gonzalez, David. "What's the Problem with 'Hispanic'? Just Ask a 'Latino'" The New

York Times. The New York Times, 14 Nov. 1992. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.

Graber, Doris A. Mass Media and American Politics. 7th ed. Washington, D.C.: CQP,

2006. Print.

Gutman, Matt, and Sarah Hodd. "As American Soap Operas Bust, Telenovelas Boom in

US." ABC News. ABC News Network, 16 Aug. 2012. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.

Hanson, Ralph E. Mass Communication: Living in a Media World. 3rd ed. Washington,

D.C.: CQP, 2011. Print.

Hill, Libby. "The Many Faces of Single Motherhood on Jane the Virgin." Vulture. 10

May 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

Holloway, Carson. "Who Are We?: Samuel Huntington and the Problem of American

Identity." Perspectives on Political Science 40.2 (2011): 106-14. Academic

Search Complete. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

Humes, Karen R., Nicholas A. Jones, and Roberto R. Ramirez. "Overview of Race and

Hispanic Origin: 2010." U.S. Census Bureau. 1 Mar. 2011. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.

78

Mastro, Dana E., and E. Behm-Morawitz. "Latino Representation on Primetime

Television." Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 82.1 (2005): 110-30.

Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

Medina, Mercedes and Barrón, Leticia. “La telenovela en el mundo/Television Soap

Operas on a Global Scale“. Palabra Clave 13.1 (2010): 77-97. SciELO

Colombia. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.

Negrón-Muntaner, Frances, Chelsea Abbas, Luis Figueroa, and Samuel Robson. The

Latino Media Gap: A Report on the State of Latinos in U.S. Media. Rep. The

Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University, 18 June

2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.

Planas, Roque. "18 Major Moments In Hispanic History That All Americans Need To

Know." The Huffington Post. 17 Sept. 2015. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.

Ponti, Martín. "Telenovelas: The Televisual Construction of a Latino Identity".

Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, June 11-14, 2009. 8p. Web.

14 Oct. 2015

Portes, Alejandro, and Rubén G. Rumbaut. The Immigrant America: A Portrait.

Berkeley: U of California P, 1990. Print.

Rios, Diana I. "U.S. Latino Audiences of “Telenovelas”." Journal of Latinos and

Education 2.1 (2003): 59-65. Taylor & Francis Group. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.

Rivera, Geraldo. The Great Progression: How Hispanics Will Lead America to a New

Era of Prosperity. 1st ed. New York: Celebra, 2009. Print.

Rivero, Yeidy M. "Erasing Blackness: The Media Construction of 'Race' in Mi Familia,

the First Puerto Rican Situation Comedy with a Black Family." Television: The

Critical View. Ed. Horace Newcomb. 7th ed. New York: OUP, 2007. 207-22.

Print.

79

Rumbaut, Rubén G., and Alejandro Portes, eds. Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in

America. Berkeley: U of California P, 2001. Print.

Sandoval, Juan, and Gloria Ortiz. "Towards An Analytic Pan-Latino Concept."

Conference Papers -- American Sociological Association (2006). 29p.

SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

Shorris, Earl. Latinos: A Biography of the People. 1st pub. New York: Norton, 2001.

Print.

Stanley, Alessandra. "‘Jane the Virgin’ Ends a Strong First Season." The New York

Times. 10 May 2015. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.

Steel, Emily. "How Is U.S. TV Changing? Ask Jane." The New York Times. 10 May

2015. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.

Stilson, Janet. "Woman on the Verge."Adweek 56.11 (2015): 20-3. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.

beginning-163609>

Straubhaar, Joseph. "Telenovelas in Brazil: From Traveling Scripts to a Genre and

Proto-Format both National and Transnational". Global Television Formats:

Understanding Television across Borders. Eds. Tasha G. Oren and Sharon

Shahaf. 1st pub. New York: Routledge, 2012. Print.

Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo M, and Mariela M Páez. Latinos: Remaking America.

Berkeley: U of California P, 2002. Print.

Takaki, Ronald T. From Different Shores: Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity in

America. 2nd ed. New York: OUP, 1994. Print.

Telenovela. Prod. Eva Longoria. The NBC. 2015. Television.

Terrero, Nina. "Not Your Average Jane." Entertainment Weekly 1334 (2014): 54. Film

& Television Literature Index with Full Text. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

80

Tunstall, Jeremy. The Media Were American: U.S. Mass Media in Decline. New York:

OUP, 2008. Print.

Valentino, Nicholas A., Ted Brader, and Ashley E. Jardina. "Immigration Opposition

among U.S. Whites: General Ethnocentrism or Media Priming of Attitudes about

Latinos?" Political Psychology 34.2 (2013): 149-66. Business Source Complete.

Web. 2 Oct. 2015.

Vargas, Nicholas. "Latina/O Whitening? Which Latina/os Self-Classify as White and

Report Being Perceived as White by Other Americans?" Du Bois Review 12.1

(2015): 119-36. Scopus®. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.

Vasquez, Jessica M. "The Whitening Hypothesis Challenged: Biculturalism in Latino

and Non-Hispanic White Intermarriage." Sociological Forum 29.2 (2014): 386-

407. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.

Waterston, Alisse. "Are Latinos Becoming "White" Folk? And What That Still Says

About Race in America." Transforming Anthropology 14.2 (2006): 133-50.

ProQuest. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

Wieselman, Jarett. "The Woman behind the Most Timely Show on

Television." BuzzFeed. 22 Jan. 2016. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.

81

Appendix 1: A brief history timeline

“History is what happened, not what we wish had happened or

what a theory says should have happened.” Thomas Sowell

1609: Santa Fe founded in New Mexico – the first Latinos in the continental

United States

1836: Texas gained non-independence from Mexico

1845: The United States annexed Texas

1848: The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo made Mexicans Mexican-

Americans

1898: Puerto Rico became a possession of the United States

1900 - 1930: The first large wave of Mexican immigrants

1914 – 1918: Bracero workers

1917: The Jones Act granted citizenship status to the Puerto Ricans

1924: National Origins Act did not include Latin American countries

1929: LULAC = League of United Latin American Citizens

1942: The Bracero Program

1945: Culture and language of the Mexican Americans protected by the 14th

Amendment

1946: Mendez v. Westminster: a decision that desegregated Mexicans in

California’s schools; paved the way for Brown v. Board of Education

1950s: Industrial needs caused movement of the Mexican Americans to the

West and the Puerto Ricans to New York

82

1960s: The first wave of Cuban immigrants: white, middle or upper class

Late 1960s: Dominican immigrants; not seen as refugees – many came illegally

1965: The Immigration Act ended quotas on immigration from South and

Central America

1965 – 1973: The second wave of the Cubans, many of bourgeoisie background

1979 – 1992: The Salvadorans escaping from a bloody civil war

1980s: The Haitians fleeing unfavorable conditions, their boats were turned

back

1980s: The third wave of the Cubans: “Marielitos” of the working class

1986: IRCA to manage undocumented immigrants – amnesty by law

2009: Bilingual revival of the West Side Story

83

Appendix 2: Latino shows list

1951 – 1957: I Love Lucy – an American sitcom with Desi Arnaz in the leading role

of Ricky Ricardo, a Cuban American singer and bandleader

1953: Mi esposo favorito – the first sitcom in Cuba; an unauthorized

adaptation of I Love Lucy

1974 – 1978: Chico and the Man – the first U.S. series set in Mexican-American

neighborhood about a young Chicano, played by the Puerto Rican

actor Freddie Prinze, looking for a job in a Los Angeles barrio

1975 – 1980: ¿Qué Pasa, USA? – America’s first bilingual sitcom; a story about a

Cuban American family in Miami

2002 - 2004: American Family – a drama series with predominantly a Latino cast;

about a Latino family in Los Angeles

2006 - 2010: Ugly Betty – a remake of the Colombian telenovela, follows the life of

a Mexican American woman

2009 – pres.: Modern Family with Sofia Vergara in one of the leading roles

2013 – 2015: Devious Maids – based on a Mexican series, a show with female

Hispanic leads

2014 – pres.: Jane the Virgin – a story about a young Latina living in a three-

generation Hispanic family

2015 – 2016: Telenovela – starring Eva Longoria as a telenovela star who does not

speak Spanish

84

Appendix 3: Print screens

Picture 1 Reference to Spanish occupation. The CW Network.

Picture 2 Jane spelling "calm" instead of "calma". The CW Network.

85

Picture 3 A coin from a catholic high school. The CW Network.

Picture 4 Reactions to Jane not having sex. The CW Network.

86

Picture 5 Xiomara on deportation. The CW Network.

Picture 6 All four generations together. The CW Network.

87

Picture 7 Jane and Mary the Virgin. The CW Network.

Picture 8 Jane with the flower. The CW Network.

88

Résumé

The thesis draws attention to the fastest growing Latino minority in the United

States and their images in media. More particularly, it focuses on their depiction in a recent Latino-themed show Jane the Virgin, perceived by the leading star as the most

“realistic” portrayal of Latinas on television (Terreno 54). The main argument of the thesis is that Jane the Virgin (re)presents the Hispanic community in a more positive light than one would expect, thus running counter to negative stereotypes that tend to prevail over and are associated with Latinos. To defend this claim, it analyzes both genre and content of the show.

Research on the genres of telenovela, sitcom and comedy, features of which are all found in Jane the Virgin, yields considerable results. It demonstrates that modification of the telenovela format is the first significant step in attempts to portrait

Latinos more realistically. Comedic tone of the program makes the point and allows the exposure of stereotypes and their subsequent acceptance by audiences. Given this, content-based analysis takes on even more salience. It scrutinizes those aspects of

Latinos’ lives that they encounter on daily bases and are regarded as valuable sources for observations on stereotypes and how those are being combated. The issues at play vary from the usage of English and Spanish language, educational achievements, occupation or a strong family tradition to the role of religion, the presence of a grandmother in a Hispanic household or the question of illegal immigration. A close examination of these areas reveals that views of Latinos on television as impoverished, poorly educated, social benefits abusers or criminals are becoming passé and a new trend of Hispanics who are characterized in a non-stereotypical manner seems to be on rise.

89

Resumé

Práce upozorňuje na nejrychleji rostoucí latinskou menšinu ve Spojených státech a její obraz v médiích. Přesněji řečeno, zaměřuje se na zobrazení Latinoameričanů v nedávné show s latinskou tématikou Jane the Virgin, kterou hlavní hvězda vnímá jako nejrealističtější zobrazení Latinoameričanů v televizní podobě. Hlavní argument práce je, že Jane the Virgin představuje hispánskou komunitu v přívětivějším světle než by

člověk očekával, na rozdíl od negativních stereotypů, které mají tendenci převládat a jsou spojeny s latinskoamerickými občany. Na obranu tohoto tvrzení analyzuje práce oboje: žánr i obsahovou stránku tohoto seriálu.

Výzkum zaměřený na žánry telenovela, situační komedie a komedie, z nichž od každého něco se nachází v seriálu Jane the Virgin, dává značné výsledky. Dokazuje, že změna formátu telenovely je prvním významným krokem v pokusech zobrazit tyto

Latinské menšiny více realisticky. Ukázkově to prokazuje komediální tón programu, který umožňuje odhalení stereotypů a jejich následné přijetí ze strany publika.

Vzhledem k tomu nabývá obsahová analýza ještě větší význačnosti. Ta zkoumá ty aspekty života těchto menšin, se kterými se denně setkávají a jsou považovány za cenné zdroje pro pozorování stereotypů a toho, jak je s nimi bojováno. Problémy, o které se jedná, jsou různé, např. použití jazyků angličtiny a španělštiny, výška dosaženého vzdělání, povolání, silná rodinné tradice, role náboženství, přítomnost babičky v hispánské domácnosti nebo otázkou nelegálního přistěhovalectví. Bližší zkoumání těchto oblastí odhaluje, že obraz Latinoameričanů v televizi jako chudé, slabo vzdělané lidé či jedince zneužívající sociální dávky nebo páchající zločin se stává pasé a nový trend Hispánců, kteří jsou charakterizovaný nestereotypním způsobem se zdá být na vzestupu.

90