Hello Everyone!

Me eating breakfast

My name is Leslie J. de la Rosa, I am a student at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas and my blog will focus on finding Mexican stereotypes in old films, new films, any films! I come from a very Mexican household and even my hometown is predominantly, by predominantly I mean 95%, Mexican-American. That’s what you get when you live so close to the Mexican border, and by close I basically mean my back yard. Yes, of course, we have some of the typical Mexican things for example tacos, sombreros, and salsa. But those by no means should be generalized to the entire Mexican-American population. How many times have you seen a film where the Latino character has a bushy mustache and a festive sombrero? Or how many times haven’t you seen a Mexican character as the cook, maid, or custodial worker? And to add on top of all of that when haven’t you seen a Mexican character played by a Puerto Rican, Cuban, or Chilean, all but an actual Mexican?  These are all typical Mexican stereotypes that I am devoted to finding in all these popular films. In the process of finding these stereotypes I would like to take the time to review and critic the film. Of course, I would also be taking the stereotypes into consideration as I review the films. So be warned the more stereotypes the movie has the lower the critic. I wish I didn’t have to be so harsh, but the injustices have to stop somewhere.

A bitten breakfast taco

While on my hunt I can bet that I will find at least one Mexican stereotype in each and every movie I watch that includes any Latinos. But my list doesn’t have to stop there, this phenomenon is not limited to just movies but TV shows are affected as well. Off the top of my head I can think of at least two TV shows that prove my point. For example, has anyone watched an episode from The Secret Life of the American Teenager, the one Latina character, Adrian, is portrayed as the high school slut as is common of Latina women American shows.

I would also like to categorize my findings by era. I would like to watch at least five movies from each decade, and see the progression of these stereotypes. Do they increase over time or do they decrease? If so, what would be the factors that contributed to these changes?

I would love for this blog to be a free and open blog to discuss ideas. I of course would love to hear some of the findings that you make regarding this topic. It would be interesting to see how many stereotypes we find and in how many movies we find them.

This topic has interested me since I was a little girl and I could not even begin to comprehend some of the jokes being made of my people. I am sure that these categorizations do not only affect the Latino community, for the same happens with most non-Caucasian ethnicities.  So, now that you know what my blog is about American films be warned, the Spotter is on the lookout.