Regina Vázquez (Switched at Birth), Santana López (Glee), and Carla Espinosa (Scrubs)—a few examples of some the best written Latina characters of the last ten years. These women are strong, resilient, sassy, and independent—yet, they are all flawed in their portrayal of Latina women. Regina Vazquez, though a good mother and strong woman is portrayed as disenfranchised. In comparison to her Caucasian counterparts, who have full time, successful jobs, and a put together nuclear family, Regina is portrayed as the classic “struggling Latina.” She is a single mom, the father of her child is absent, and she’s living in a “bad” neighborhood. Santana Lopez, despite having one of the best voices on Glee and some of the best plots during the show’s run, is a hyper-sexualized woman, and often her ethnicity is used as an excuse to make her hot-headed and short tempered (the classic “fiery Latina”). Lastly, Carla Espinosa, who is an accomplished nurse, good wife, and a great mother. Yet, while she is an excellent health care provider, she is just a nurse, while her female counterpart on the show, a doctor, is Caucasian.
“I think Latinas are usually portrayed as really sexy and loud,” says Amy Colon, a Puerto Rican woman and alum of Florida State University. “Then sometimes as the house wifey: cleaning, cooking, etc.”
It seems that Latinas can only be portrayed in the media in a limited number of ways. Either struggling single moms, overly sexualized vixens, hot-headed firecrackers, or subservient service workers. Additionally, there’s the whole issue of the “Latina look”—an abstract and nonexistent concept created by Western media.
Foremost, it seems that Latinas can never measure up to their Caucasian counterparts. In Weeds, when Nancy was once a happy homemaker with a successful husband and a nuclear family, all of the Latinas around her are maids. In Glee, when the majority of the McKinely High students get into college, Santana Lopez goes off chasing a dream to be famous, and tells her mother that she has no interest in college. Then there’s the slutty Latina—the media’s absolute favorite. A quick Google Image search of the word “Latina” can let one know very quickly exactly what Western Culture thinks of them.
It goes without saying that there is an intense sexual connotation associated with Latina culture. And when a Latina is promiscuous, it’s not like when a Caucasian girl is promiscuous. According to Jack Thomas, a writer for Tu Vez, “When white women are prostitutes, they are usually the ‘hooker with a heart of gold’ like in Pretty Woman. When a Latina is a whore, she’s just a slut.”
And, almost every Latina is almost guaranteed to be portrayed as an easily angered woman.
“I feel like Latinas are mis-portrayed, for the most part, in media,” says Celeste Crain, sophomore psychology student at Florida State University, and of Cuban and Spanish descent. “Very stereotypical representations, [like] ‘the chonga’ look, or very crazy, and always [displayed] almost as vixens. Yeah, Latinas are beautiful, but all women are beautiful and Latinas deserve to be portrayed as respectable, hardworking, successful women.”
Most notably, there is the “Latina look.”
There is no such thing as the Latina look. One more time: There is no such thing as the Latina look. Latin/Hispanic culture is so wildly diverse and colorful, trying to pinpoint and classify a single Latina look is not only impossible, but highly exclusive and incorrect. There are dark skinned Latinas, light skinned Latinas, and black Latinas; Latinas with round eyes, slant eyes, blue eyes, and brown eyes; Latinas with big curly hair, thin straight hair, and wispy waves; Latinas can be voluptuous, with a lot of junk in the trunk, or thin and lanky. From Evita Peron to Frida Khalo to Celia Cruz to Michelle Bachelet, there is no cookie cutter Latina, and so the media’s portrayal of an olive skinned, dark haired, curvy woman as the general “template” look for a Latina character needs to be stopped.
“The media makes it seem like all Latina women are two extremes: very sexual and sensual, or flying off the handle and cursing in Spanish,” says Florida State University alum, Andrea Zuluaga, a Colombian woman. “It’s just looks and attitude, Media doesn’t portray the Latina [woman] for who she really is: family oriented, ambitious, and intelligent.”
In short, Latinas are not maids, not angry, not fetishes, not whores, and not uniform. Latin/Hispanic culture is beautiful, respectable, diverse, and wildly vivid—just like any other culture—thusly; it should be treated as such.