Latina TV

Today was a presentation about Culture and Media Culture, and for this we had to read different articles about different races, and how they are represented in culture. The first article was about the TV show Ugly Betty and Latina TV. The Ugly Betty series finale was this past April, which caused not only an end to a great show, but an end to a show with two Latinas as prominent roles. These days many of the main roles of TV shows are mainly "white people's" roles. There are shows and/or movies who have Latino or Latina/Hispanic people in it, but usually their characters are described as the stereotypical view of Latinos/as. These views are slutty, fierce, or spicy women. The ones who are able to steal the husbands away from the wives because of their looks. And Latina women are seen a lot for their bodies, because they are tan, and very curvy. One TV show that shows a Latina as a slutty role is Santana, in Glee. Santana is a cheerleader who is dating this tough "bad ass" guy, which really just means that she is having sex with him. Then there is Desperate Housewives, where there is Eva Longoria is married to a Hispanic/Latino male, but has affairs with other men when her husband isn't home. Now, this show is about women who have flings and affairs, so maybe she is a Latina/Hispanic woman in a white woman's world, doing all these things too. It could go both ways. That brings me to another topic that we talked about in class. When you see Latina/Hispanic women dating a guy, it is most likely a Hispanic/Latino man, when shown on television. But if a Hispanic/Latino male dates someone, it doesn't have to be in the same race, but can be other races. I thought that was really interesting to learn about. This is a side note, but I was born in Peru, and so I do look Latina. I have traveled to Spanish speaking countries, and many times when people see me they start talking to me in Spanish. I do understand some Spanish, but I am far from fluent, so when they find out that I don't speak Spanish they are surprised and then sometimes I feel like they are disappointed as well. I do want to learn Spanish well, and I am slowly in the process of doing so, but it was a different feeling that I had to deal with, because these could have been the people I grew up with. My mom always tells me that once I get into the "real" world that things might change for me because I am Latina. And when I was younger, I didn't understand what she meant, because I thought I was just like everyone else, with just more tan skin. But now I understand what she is saying. Because I am a Latina women, in some cases I might not have as many opportunities in places where people don't know me, because one look, and they will start making stereotypes. I think the Ugly Betty article was a great one to read because it showed how TV has started to change, but still limits certain races playing roles. Or if there are they go along with the stereotypes that the media has shown the public about those certain races.