The Negative Portrayal of Latinx Populations in Film throughout History

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November 27, 2018

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The Negative Portrayal of Latinx Populations in Film throughout History

The characterization of the Latinx community in the film industry has undergone many

changes since the 19th century. These changes have been brought about by changes people’s

perceptions as well as the population composition. The Latinx population has increased with the

majority being from Mexico1. However, the Latinx community, like any other minority group

faced exclusion in the film industry for many years. Despite the limited involvement, whenever a

member of the Latinx community appeared in the films, it was always in bad light. The Latinx

were either portrayed as drug dealers, members of the criminal gangs or prostitutes for the

females. Most of these characterizations are highly inaccurate and very offensive towards the

community. These stereotypes continued to affect the whole perception of the community as

many people took these representations to be the actual truth. This paper is going to show how

negative portrayal of the Latinx community in the film industry has negatively affected their

position in the society throughout the history.

History is littered with films that depicted Latinx in many of these stereotypes. For

example, the 1961 film titled “West Side Story” depicts a Puerto Rican gang fighting. This helps

to create the paranoia that Latinos are law breaking criminals who should be feared and be

treated as inferior people. This is very worrying considering the success of the film indicating

that the effect of the negative characterization of the Latinx might have affected a larger

population. In films like this, the existence of a white gang is considered an anomaly, while the

existence of a Latino gang is considered to be a way of life.

The negative depiction started much earlier. In early 1900s, there was the Greaser series

of films that depicted the Latinx community in the vilest picture. Some of the films in these

1
Vicki L Ruiz, “Nuestra América : Latino History as United States History,” History 39, no. December (2006): 655–
72, https://doi.org/10.2307/4486408.
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series included titles such as “Tony the Greaser” (1911), “The Greaser Revenge” (1914). The

1911 movie featured a group of Mexicans who were out to attack an American ranch. The name

greaser quickly became a synonym for Latino criminality and brutality. The term was even

incorporated in the language as a derogatory term to mean a Mexican or a lowest rank that is

only suitable for a Mexican. This goes on to show how negative portrayal in the movies could

find its way into the real world especially when popularized by the film industry.

While these negative characterizations in the film industry continued, their effects were

felt even further away from the big screens. Tyler Reny and Sylvia Manzano argue that there is

very strong evidence that entertainment media shapes stereotypes against the Latinx community.
2
. In this light, it is therefore safe to say that the effect of the film industry on the negative image

of Latinos cannot simply be overlooked. In a study carried out by Reny and Manzano,

respondents were asked to name the roles they saw Latinos play. 71% responded by saying gang

member, 64% chose gardener and 61% responded by maid. Very few could name any role

played by a Latinx as either a doctor or lawyer 3. This is related to the fact that, out of the all the

Latino characters only 11% represent high status 4.To test whether the media stereotypes affected

the opinion of Latinos, a familiarity index was carried out and the opinions of Latinos tested. Of

those who had low familiarity with the Latinx community, 47% said that the Latinos would take

their jobs while of those who have high familiarity 44% had the same opinion.

Several primary sources provide an insight into this phenomenon. Firstly, In support of

this assertion, a national survey carried out targeting over 900 non-Latino respondents. The

2
Tyler Reny and Sylvia Manzano, “The Negative Effects of Mass Media Stereotypes of Latinos and Immigrants” 14,
no. 2011 (2016), https://doi.org/10.13109/9783666300882.
3
(Reny and Manzano, 200)
4
Caroline Grell, “The Fight for Equality: The Role of Latino Stereotypes in Jane the Virgin,” Elon Journal of
Undergraduate Research in Communications 8, no. 1 (2017): 35–44, http://www.elon.edu/docs/e-
web/academics/communications/research/vol8no1/04_Caroline_Grell.pdf.
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respondents were given questions about media and entertainment content and opinions about the

Latinx community in the United States 5. The results showed that a third of non-Latinos

associated the Latinx community with “receiving welfare” and less educated. This is especially

the case because in most of the film industry is filled with examples of less educated Latinx

working as maids or other low paying menial jobs. In accordance with an earlier study, the

reverse was true. Only 5% never saw Latinos play criminal gang members, gardeners or maids.

A whopping 47% also have never seen a Latino playing the role of a judge or attorney. In the

same light, only 5% do see Latinos acting the roles of doctors, lawyers or nurses of judges. This

proves that misrepresentation of Latinx in the film industry is real and not imagined as some

have suggested6.

Secondly, to help further investigate the effects of representation of Latinx in film

industry, an interactive experiment was carried out. Various treatment groups were formed to

whether different media format had effects on people’s attitudes towards Latinx community. In

the experiment, members were selected at random to each treatment group. This ensured that

each participant was only exposed to one message regarding the Latinos. Two groups received

no message at all while the control group was exempted from receiving any media at all. All

participants engaged online through video, radio or audio files. Each participant either received a

stimulus message that contained either positive or negative message or unrelated message. For

video entertainment, TV, Radio and print each participant received either a positive or negative

message.

After the experiment, the results showed that 58% of those who received video negative

messages developed negative attitudes about Latinx community. Further an even higher number

5
Matt A. Barreto, Sylvia Manzano, and Gary Segura, “The Impact of Media Stereotypes on Opinions and Attitudes
towards Latinos,” no. September (2012): 1–84, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2007.01981.x.
6
Barreto, Manzano, and Segura.
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of those who received a positive message reported positively about the Latinx community

(64%)7. This shows that portrayal in video entertainment had effects on shaping the attitudes of

non-Latinos towards Latino community.

Having established that the image of Latinx portrayed by film industry has effect on

people’s attitude, it remains to be seen how the negative attitudes towards the Latinx community

affects the community negatively. One of the effects of negative stereotype is the stereotype

threat. This is a situation where people are faced with the fear that the negative stereotype could

be confirmed. This puts the people under pressure not to fail, which ultimately leads to their

failure thus confirming the stereotype8. This puts their abilities in question and therefore they

faces discrimination when searching for jobs. Needless to say, few people would hire a Latinx

lawyer when they already think that a Latinx cannot be a lawyer from the negative stereotype.

Thus they end up taking the lower jobs, further confirming the stereotype.

While it is easier to mistake these findings with recent happenings, the debate about

immigration has been raging on for years since the 1980s9. Immigration policies have not

changed much within the past 30 years. This has been a major interest in the film industry which

has always featured Latinx immigrants, especially from Mexico. These immigrants have always

been portrayed to cross the border illegally to engage in drug trafficking, gang violence and take

low cadre job. It is therefore no surprise that there is a difference in perceptions between people

who know Latinx people compared to those who only interact with Latinx characters in movies.

However, despite the negative representation, there is hope in that positive representations help

cultivate positive attitudes of non-Latinx towards the members of the brown community.

7
Barreto, Manzano, and Segura.
8
Markus Appel, Silvana Weber, and Nicole Kronberger, “The Influence of Stereotype Threat on Immigrants: Review
and Meta-Analysis,” Frontiers in Psychology 6 (July 8, 2015): 900, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00900.
9
Banu Akdenizli et al., “A Report on the Media and the Immigration Debate,” n.d.
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Bibliography

Akdenizli, Banu, Jr. E.J. Dionne, Martin Kaplan, Tom Rosenstiel, and Roberto Suro. “A Report

on the Media and the Immigration Debate,” n.d.

Appel, Markus, Silvana Weber, and Nicole Kronberger. “The Influence of Stereotype Threat on

Immigrants: Review and Meta-Analysis.” Frontiers in Psychology 6 (July 8, 2015): 900.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00900.

Barreto, Matt A., Sylvia Manzano, and Gary Segura. “The Impact of Media Stereotypes on

Opinions and Attitudes towards Latinos,” no. September (2012): 1–84.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2007.01981.x.

Grell, Caroline. “The Fight for Equality: The Role of Latino Stereotypes in Jane the Virgin.”

Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications 8, no. 1 (2017): 35–44.

http://www.elon.edu/docs/e-

web/academics/communications/research/vol8no1/04_Caroline_Grell.pdf.

Reny, Tyler, and Sylvia Manzano. “The Negative Effects of Mass Media Stereotypes of Latinos

and Immigrants” 14, no. 2011 (2016). https://doi.org/10.13109/9783666300882.

Ruiz, Vicki L. “Nuestra América : Latino History as United States History.” History 39, no.

December (2006): 655–72. https://doi.org/10.2307/4486408.