Pop Culture and the Power of Depicting Latinx People in New York City
For Latinx Heritage Month, Teen Vogue has created a series of pop-culture-related stories to highlight the complex narratives within a community that has contributed to the fabric of American culture. In this piece, writer Karla Rodriguez writes about how pop culture didn't reflect her reality in New York City when it came to the Latinx community.
After moving from Ecuador, the scariest part about my first day of school in the United States was not knowing the language. But when I walked into the classroom, I was pleasantly surprised to find other children who looked like me, who spoke like me, and understood when I talked to them in Spanish. Since they were from other regions in Latin America, they had different accents than mine, but they spoke my language. To top it off, my teacher, Ms. Diaz, was also Cuban. I quickly grasped that other Latinxs existed in my new world, and that they were intelligent, accomplished, and successful.
To acclimate to American culture and get a better grasp of English, I absorbed music, TV shows, and movies. I consumed so much Disney Channel, MTV, and Nickelodeon that it was easy for me to join in on conversations my classmates were having about pop culture. But I eventually realized that the content I voraciously watched differed from my daily reality living in New York. I became keenly aware that the place I had moved to was not accurately reflected in the movies and TV shows I watched after school. I struggled to find shows that made me feel like I wasn’t alone in my immigrant experience or that accurately represented the people I knew.
I searched for a familiar face in my favorite movies and sitcoms only to come up empty. On the rare occasion that I saw a Latina in a show or film, it seemed like the role leaned toward harmful stereotypes. It looked to me like Hollywood only wanted to represent us as maids, criminals, exotified sidekicks, or as overly sexual. Where were the fleshed-out characters that reminded me of the people around me?
Although the experiences I had at my new school showed the variety within the Latinx community in New York City, the television shows and films I watched failed to reflect the diversity that existed around me and around the world. I wondered how the people in Hollywood and behind the scenes couldn't capture what I was seeing in my everyday life.
Though I found friends who spoke my language on the first day of school, it took me years to see someone in Hollywood that made me feel like other people like us existed. The first time you see yourself represented in a movie or show is a moment that stays with you for a lifetime. For me it happened when I watched the 2005 movie Hitch. For the first time since I had been living in the U.S., I recognized a character that showed me the possibilities of what I could be: Eva Mendes played the role of Sara Melas, a tenacious gossip columnist for a New York City newspaper. She was also the love interest for the main character, Alex Hitch, played by Will Smith.
Eva is of Cuban descent, so seeing her as the leading lady in a romantic comedy, a character who was also a writer in NYC like I wanted to be, changed my life. It was the first time I saw a Latina woman with a flourishing career, a gorgeous Manhattan apartment, who had an alluring lifestyle like the women in Sex and the City. Watching her drink a martini with her best friend at a chic nightclub assured me that it was possible for women who looked like me to achieve such glamour. Eva's character made me feel like my goals and dreams could be accomplished.
During the early '00s, two of Jennifer Lopez’s roles also left a mark on me: The Wedding Planner and Maid in Manhattan. The former was a lot more relatable: She was driven, hard-working, and a go-getter. The catch? Her character was Italian. That sent a message to me that, at that time, not even one of the most famous Latinas in the world could land a role depicting a thriving and successful Latina. Meanwhile in Maid in Manhattan, her character was actually Latinx. But to me it seemed she had to play a maid who was also a single mom, perpetuating stereotypes about Latinx women, to represent her people on the big screen. There is nothing wrong with service jobs, but it’s important for young people to see an image of the heights they can reach in the future.
As I got older, I started watching series that were based in New York City, including Sex and the City, Friends, Seinfeld, and Girls. They were shows I enjoyed watching, but one thing was clear: They were inaccurate and inauthentic to my experience in the city. The lack of diversity in shows based in the world’s melting pot was so evident that it seemed as if perhaps it was done on purpose. You can’t step foot in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, or Queens and not come across Latinos. NYC has the highest number of residents who were born outside of the U.S. — the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs reported in 2019 that the city is home to 3.2 million immigrants. And according to 2018 census data, 29 percent of the city identifies as Hispanic or Latino.
Shows like Friends and Sex and the City revolved around a group of young people living their lives in Manhattan, but they rarely, if ever, included Latinx characters. They primarily focused on parts of the city that are mostly frequented by white people. As fabulous as Carrie Bradshaw was, it never made sense to me how a Latinx-less Manhattan is basically a character; the exclusion of Latinxs on the show was so evident it was almost laughable to me. Friends still feels a bit bland and there are other problems with the beloved series. It seemed like to make these shows more glamorous and attractive, a huge part of the culture of what it is really like to live in New York, surrounded by people from all cultures, had to be erased.
Latinxs are an integral part of this country and it is time for Hollywood to take notice of that. Latinx audiences purchase movie tickets at a higher rate than any other minority group, according to a report by the Motion Picture Association of America, yet we continue to be largely underrepresented in films. The MPAA also reported that Latinxs make up 18 percent of the population in the United States and buy 24 percent of movie tickets, but Latinx actors are rarely seen in the movies we love to watch. A recent study done at the University of Southern California revealed that out of the top 100 grossing films of the past 12 years, only 3 percent were led by a Latinx actor. The same holds true for television. As Gina Rodriguez reminded the world during her “73 Questions” with Vogue: “In 2016, only 5.8 percent of speaking roles were said by a Latino in film and television.”
There has been progress in recent years as the TV and film worlds have made an effort to be more inclusive. Netflix’s Someone Great was released in April, following the life of a young music writer living in NYC, played by Gina Rodriguez. Even though the character’s racial background was not directly mentioned in the movie, seeing Gina take on the role reminded me of exactly how I felt watching Hitch when I was younger. Now that I am living that life, I sometimes wonder if I would have pursued a writing career had Eva not been cast in that 2005 role.
Jharrel Jerome’s win at the Emmys for When They See Us was also necessary for Latinos living in New York. He represents the NYC that I know; he reminds me of my former classmates and friends, and of the people you see when riding the subway. The most admirable aspect of Jharrel’s quick rise to fame is how he makes his every move with his roots in mind. During his speech at the Emmys, the Dominican actor spoke about the Bronx, and while speaking to the press, he let the world know he is an Afro-Latino who hopes to open doors for others like himself. He is the future, and I’m hopeful that he and other Latinx actors continue to be an example for the next generation and show them that they deserve to feel seen, on and off the screen.
There are a large number of Latinx children and young-adult audiences who deserve to see themselves in the movies and programs they watch. It’s magic when you recognize parts of yourself and your culture portrayed onscreen and everyone should have that opportunity. It is only fair that young people living in diverse cities like NYC see their worlds accurately reflected in the media. People who are used to diversity and the rich experiences it brings shouldn’t be denied the chance to recognize a part of themselves in movies or TV characters, and neither should the rest of the world. I am more likely to tune into a show or movie where the characters make me feel seen, understood, and less alone — when our stories matter.
Related: Latinx People Helped Build the World of Comic Books — While Often Being Left Out of the Pages
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
