Selma Hayek is the first Mexican actress in Hollywood to be
nominated as best actress. This is enormous in the Hispanic community because
Hispanics are not known to be a successful ethnic group. Selma is not only an
actress but is also a director and producer. She has participated in the 55
total movies and multiple shows. She started in Mexico doing soap operas. This
made her famous in Mexico. She then moved to Los Angeles California in 1991 to
study acting. She then was given a starring role in Antonio Banderas in 1995. When
Hayek came to the United States she didn’t speak English fluently. She learned English
here in the United States with her thick Mexican accent.
Selma Hayek is a Mexican American woman who has inspired the
Hispanic community. She came here without being knowledgeable with the English language.
Nothing held her back with what many Hispanics have trouble with when they
first deport here. She has proven to the American community that she is a hard
working Latina. People who stereotype should take this to account and see that
Hispanics can do successful things. Such as, acting and become professional in
the professional world.
For the amount of time that she has here in the United
States she has done so much in such little time. When she first came here she
was offered an opportunity to be part of the movie Antonio Banderas. Not many people get this type of opportunity.
Que viva is a show produced by Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez and Jaime King who were born in Puerto Rico. The focus of the show is to find Latin talent across the world. Despite all the stereotypes their mission is to reveal the talent of the Latin culture. Hispanics have multiple talents that have never been acknowledged which is why they’re goal is to bring their talent to the United States. They want to expose the diversities of talents that every Latin country has. They are not basing the completion in a specific talent group but it differs in talent whether it’s singing dancing or playing some type of instrument.
The contestants will be brought from their countries to
Hollywood California to compete against each other. This television show is
televised in Univision on Saturdays. Univision is a Spanish channel that televises
shows, news, movies etc. This show is an amazing way to prove that the stereotype
of Latinos is exactly what the word itself means. Latinos have a diversity of
talents. This show is not only a show to see who has the best talent but to reveal to the world what Latinos are capable of achieving. The Judges will be exploring 21countries
across the globe. Only those who have talent in what they do will have the privilege
to come and compete here in the United States It’s time to reveal the talents
in the Hispanic “world.” This show will determine who has the best talent and
each contestant will represent their country.
Speedy Gonzales is an animated caricature of a mouse in the Warner Brother Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He is portrayed as "The Fastest Mouse in all Mexico" with his major traits being the ability to run extremely fast and speaking with an exaggerated Mexican accent.
Speedy Gonzales has stirred much controversy but the real question comes from the disparity between Latinos in this country. Viewers in Mexico love Speedy and what he stands for. They triumph this cartoon as a hero to the Mexican people. But there are other implications with Speedy’s depiction that can also be taken offensively, such as the stereotype that all Mexicans wear sombreros, have an accent, have lazy relatives, and are always up against white people.
Can Latinos have a hero in the media without some of the basic racial notions of what it means to be Latino? The question then comes to who is most important to please, Latinos or non-Latinos? Maybe, any image in the media, in our society, will draw on some stereotypes regardless.
Reference: 1. FoxNews, . "Speedy Gonzales Caged by Cartoon Network." FoxNews.com. (2002): n. page. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,48872,00.html>. 2. Toonopedia, . "Speedy Gonzales." Don Markstein's Toonopedia™. n. page. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <http://www.toonopedia.com/speedyg.htm>.
The stereotype regarding Hispanic actors or actress in movies or TV series is present by some unnecessary expression. For example, in a movie (see the video), a women (Jennifer Lupe) go to the information desk and say “Excuse me?”, the lady in the information desk who is answering a phone, yell to her and say:” You need to wait!!”, her attitude is extremely bad. This scene makes the audiences feel that, if the woman is a white, she probably won’t be treated in this way.
The other unnecessary expression in movies and TV series includes, Hispanic actress or TV series speak English with thick accent, they play the role of gang members, they are workers in the lowest social level (eg, plumber, porter) or start working under 16. Even Hispanic kids are portrayed under stereotype in movies. Boys are often portrayed as hoodies who don’t pay attention to study and always break the school rule, while girls get pregnant in early age.
In contrast, white people often play a “good” role, like boss or rich kids, people with good education or high moral. White boss get angry when they see Hispanic people work inefficiently and yell to them, or fool with them because they think Hispanic are stupid. Usually, white people play a role of educator who tech Hispanic people what’s social norm.
Those expressions that happen in movies or TV series commonly are unnecessary because, they are telling the audience about Hispanic in a negative way, and make people feel that all of Hispanics are “bad”. More important, why those people who disciplines or yells at Hispanic are usually white in movies or TV series? Why they can’t also be Hispanic or other ethnicities? As a whole, media has given white people too much chance to express their scorn to Hispanics.
Over the years, in the movie
industry directors seem to put Hispanics as the main focus when it comes to
gangsters. There are many movies that involve different ethnicities when it
comes to gangsters in movie scenes but Hispanics are the main focus. Movie
directors use low riders, white muscle shirts, and loose pants to portray the
typical Mexican gangster tradition. Every gangster in this movie clip has
tattoos and shaved scalps. Some have normal sized hair but still have that
loose attire.
The video clips are movies of where
Hispanics are being portrayed as the “tough” gangsters. Such as, Training Day (2001), Blood in Blood out (1993), and
Napoleon Dynamite (2004) are movies in the industry that influence this type of
stereotypical idea. Training day is about a white male that is trained by
Denzel Washington. Washington is a corrupt Nark who dislikes his partner
because he’s a corrupt cop. He wants to keep the violence out of South Central
LA while Washington doesn’t. He then leaves him in a house full of gangsters
who are Hispanics so that they can kill him. The movie not only involves a
dominate ethnicity but also includes others such as African Americans. Though,
the main focus is when he is left alone with Mexican gangsters
Blood in Blood out is about
Hispanic young adults who live in East L.A. and are influenced into gangs. The
main character in this movie is a young man whom is called “Miclo.” His cousins
are in a small gang that soon becomes enormous. Miclo goes to prison for
killing a member of a rival gang. His Gang grows when he goes to prison. He
receives power when he’s in prison because he becomes one of the leaders of his
gang. His closest cousin then becomes a cop and tries to prevent him from
expanding the gang and committing more crimes but fails.
Napoleon dynamite is also a movie
in which the directors portray Hispanic gangsters as being “tough.” This movie
is about a high school student who is considered a “loser.” Napoleons best
friend Pedro runs for student council president. Pedro has cousins who are
gangsters and are considered to be “cool” because they are threatening to other
students and have "sweet hookups." It is clearly shown that Mexican families
are overseen as having gangsters as family members. The city and school is predominantly
white and Pedro is the Mexican in the school with that “type” of family.
The Hispanic population has the
highest rate of high school dropouts because of this Hispanics are overseen as
people who aren’t capable of achieving challenging goals. They are not expected
to pass thought-provoking courses. This video clip is about a movie called “Stand
and Deliver” this movie was inspired by Jaime Escalante. He was a well-known
calculus teacher who taught in Garfield High school California. He first taught
basic math 1A then wanted to teach calculus. His co-workers laughed and told
him the students couldn’t handle calculus.These videos show an excerpt of students who took the AP Calculus exam
In Garfield high school and are accused of cheating on the exam. Investigators
from the school board said they all committed the same mistake. The school
board then began an investigation. They were told to retake the exam if they
wanted their scores to be credited. So they did and proved the school board and
staff wrong.
The professor Jaime Escalante then
wanted the scores reinstated by the school board. No one’s ability of learning
should be questioned without testing their abilities. Every student should have
the same rights as other students. Just because Hispanics have low testing
scores and have the highest high school drop outs doesn’t necessarily mean that
they are incapable of mastering scholastic skills. Students across the United
States are capable of achieving anything if they set their mind to it. Just
like these students in Jaime Escalante’s class. Every student in his class
passed the AP exam and over the year the scores increased.
Barack Obama, our president, gave a speech Tuesday January 24 2012 addressingimportant topics of our interest such as the economy and education.Maria Elena Salinas, an important Latina reporter from Univision had the chance to interview president Obama after his speech and asked him for more personal questions affecting the Latino community. One of the major issues is unemployment. More than 11% of people are unemployed and many are Latinos like the construction workers. Obama mention that the reason for many construction workers to be unemployed is because people are losing their homes and there is no one in need of their services but that is why he wants to help people refinance their homes so more contruction workers can get jobs. He also wants to help the small businesses because he knows a lot of Latinos start with their own small business. He wants to be fair, and help America as a whole, but like he told Maria Elena he needs the congress to pass the laws too. Rich people have to pay the reasonable amount of taxes for their incomes, and not less than what the workers of the rich pay. Those who go against Obama for the presidency, go against what Obama believes in. Republicans do not want to allow citizenship to those Latinos who grew up in the Unites States. They do not want a health care reform and they want to get rid of the Dream Act. Maria Elena asked president Obama what had happened to the Immigration Reform he had promise when he entered the presidency. She informed him of the statistics when it came to Latinos believing on him and he responded that even thought there had been 1.2 million deportations during his presidency he cannot ignore congress. He has to take them into consideration, and if they do not vote for it he cannot do much about it, but move the attention of the congress into another subject such as violence instead of deporting the Latinos.
Maria Elena Salinas and Univision are part of the daily Latinos life. Along with fellow workers, Maria Elena search for what Latinos are interested. They want to have us Latinos the best possible way inform of situations that can affect us. Univision, its’ news and its’ reporters do not only inform us about violent Latinos, but also about Latinos triumphs and resources that will help Latinos succeed. Information like this one should be given to all Americans and not only Latinos, so they all know that Latinos are not those typical gang memberswho rob America, but hard working people who live situations like any other American.
Selma Hayek is a Mexican American woman who has inspired the
Hispanic community. She came here without being knowledgeable with the English language.
Nothing held her back with what many Hispanics have trouble with when they
first deport here. She has proven to the American community that she is a hard
working Latina. People who stereotype should take this to account and see that
Hispanics can do successful things. Such as, acting and become professional in
the professional world.
