![]() So, it’s no surprise that Latino actors often play Latino criminals in film. Thirty-eight percent of criminals were depicted committing fraud, thievery, murder, or having previously been in prison for reasons not made clear in the film.” Over half (61.9%) of all characters shown engaged in illegal activity were part of an organized crime group such as gang members or drug dealers. In fact, according to a study by the USC Annenberg Initiative called Latinos in Film: Erasure on Screen & Behind the Camera Across 1,200 Popular Movies: “Just under a quarter (24%) of all Latino speaking characters and 28% of top billed Latino talent were depicted as law breakers across a range of violent and non-violent crimes. ![]() Steven Bauer, Famous for Being a Latino CriminalĪnother major Latinx stereotype is that of the criminal. His son, actor Lorenzo continued the legacy as a Latino sex symbol during the ‘80s and ‘90s. The “Latin Lover” stereotype in the Lamas family didn’t end with Fernando. the Dos Equis Guy (played by Fernando’s real-life good friend, Jonathan Goldsmith). Lamas served as the inspiration for both Billy Crystal’s over-the-top character on Saturday Night Live who iconically would say “you look marvelous,” and The Most Interesting Man in the World, a.k.a. He leaned into the stereotype, perpetually playing the sexy leading man opposite actresses including Elizabeth Taylor, Lana Turner, and Esther Williams. After his death, the tradition was carried on for decades by Latinos including Gilbert Roland, Ramon Novarro, Antonio Moreno, Ricardo Montalban (who starred in a film called Latin Lovers), and Fernando Lamas.Īrgentinian actor Fernando Lamas is one of the best-known Latin Lovers of early film and television, having started his career in Argentina, and heading to Hollywood in 1951. The notion of all Latin men being gorgeous, sexy, and perpetual winners with the ladies started with the Italian actor Rudolph Valentino in the 1920s. “The Latin Lover” is one of the oldest Latinx stereotypes. Other roles Velez played (or had to play, given that Latinas weren’t given access to a wide array of roles at any point in Hollywood history), include The Mountain Girl in The Gaucho (1927), the peasant girl Jania in Stand and Deliver (1928), and Pepper in Hot Pepper (1933). While she didn’t originate the spicy Latina stereotype, she did perpetuate it, both on-screen and off (with no help from Hollywood). Although Velez dazzled on screen, it was while playing a stereotypical “ spicy Latina,” complete with a hot temper, exaggerated accent, broken English, and a sexy persona. She is known for playing Carmelita Fuentes, the protagonist of the Mexican Spitfire series of films. leave stardom to convert myself into an actress and I could only do that in Mexico.”Īnother Latina who became a big star in Old Hollywood is Mexicana Lupe Velez. Hall ( Dolores del Rio: Beauty in Light and Shade), del Rio decided to return to Mexico to be the serious actress she wanted to be, saying, “I wish to choose my own stories, my own director, and cameraman. ![]() Even after limiting her to these Latinx stereotypes, Hollywood still felt the need to push her Spanish, rather than her Mexican, roots. She also played natives and peasants, such as in What Price Glory? (1926), Ramona (1928), and Bird of Paradise (1932). Instead, Dolores was “ typecast as an exotic, sexualized ‘Latin’ lover,” the female version of Valentino. Mexican icon Dolores del Rio is credited as being “the first major female Latin American crossover star in Hollywood.” Despite being from an aristocratic family, del Rio wasn’t given glamorous roles when she first arrived in Tinseltown in 1925. Some of these actors were able to pivot into different, more nuanced portrayals, while others leaned into the type, basing their public personas on Hollywood’s limited definition of them. In an effort to document, analyze, and share Latinx film history–including the problematic trends we need to change–I’m highlighting several major Latinx stars who played Latinx stereotypes. And it’s been happening since the film industry started in 1894. Movies don’t get how varied we are as a people, don’t show the multifaceted Latinx experience. When we are in films, our roles often perpetuate long-held Latinx stereotypes, such as women only being maids, men only being criminals, and everyone not knowing how to speak English or speaking with heavy accents. We are constantly fighting to get representation on the silver screen, despite being 62.1 million strong in the U.S. ![]() Latinxs have long had a difficult relationship with Hollywood.
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