JOUR 4250: Latinx/Hispanic Representations in Mass Media

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This week, our class covered Latinx/Hispanic representations in mass media and how they inaccurately and harmfully portray people with Latin American and Spanish heritage. In Texas, the state where my college and journalism class are located, Hispanic and Latino Americans make up 40.2% of the population while white Americans make up about 39.8%, just barely outnumbering them (texastribune.org). Their cultural traditions are a huge part of the South’s architecture, culture, and cuisine, yet they are still discriminated against on a daily basis. The mistreatment of Hispanic and Latino Americans is especially important now, when the deportation of innocent people is being supported by clueless, uneducated Americans who have been influenced by false media portrayals. More often than not, in both the news and in entertainment, Hispanic and Latino individuals are unfairly stereotyped as criminals and as aggressive or hypersexual. Breaking down these stereotypes is the first step into truly understanding Latinx and Hispanic cultures and people and portraying them both accurately and respectfully in film and news media.

When you think of Latino or Hispanic characters, who comes to mind? Is it more accurate portrayals such as Tori Vega from Victorious (2010–2013) or Jaime Reyes of the superhero movie Blue Beetle (2023), or more stereotyped characters such as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett from Modern Family (2009–2020) or Gus Fring from Breaking Bad (2008–2013)? In film and news media, portrayals of Hispanic and Latino Americans typically adhere to specific stereotypes: dumb, overly sexual, aggressive, or a drug dealer. Sometimes, they’re shown as all four. Latino and Hispanic men are often the villains of the story and when they aren’t, they’re the dumb sidekick to the white main character. Think of western movies such as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966)— is Tuco’s character really a flattering or accurate portrayal of a Mexican character? Latina and Hispanic women in mass media are often wildly oversexualized and, similarly to the men, are shown as unintelligent. When a Hispanic or Latina woman isn’t attractive enough to be sexualized, she is typically a housemaid or caretaker. This stereotype can be seen in the character Consuela from Family Guy (1999-) — the whole bit surrounding her character is that she is an old housemaid who speaks broken English.

Oftentimes when a Mexican or Latinx character is shown on screen, their culture is emphasized not to be respected, but instead to be ridiculed. They are made fun of for their language, for their culture, and treated as inferior to the white characters. Stereotypes such as these have become so normalized in media that many viewers don’t see the issue with racist representations. However, good portrayals do exist; in fact, one of the most popular cartoons from when I was a child is Dora the Explorer (2000–2014), a show about a young Latina girl named Dora who goes on adventures and teaches the audience simple Spanish words as she goes. Teaching children from a young age about Hispanic and Latinx culture and showing them Hispanic and Latinx characters will help normalize seeing people of different races and ethnic backgrounds. Media such as Dora the Explorer, Maya and Miguel (2004–2007), Coco (2017), and Encanto (2021) normalize having Latinx and Hispanic main characters and teach other children that not everyone looks like them, and that’s okay — what truly matters in the end is that we understand one another and celebrate our differences instead of using them as a reason to be divided.