Latino homophobia still exists and continues to be a problem in today’s society. The Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community is growing stronger because more people are coming out to rebel against the systems of society. Since the systems of society are based on cultural norms, the homophobia should be addressed because the LGBTQ community face different forms of violence and as a result new generations will be coming to be accepting them as normal individuals. In the film Quinceañera (2006), it shows controversial issues that Latinos are known to displease including teen pregnancy, being gay, and not conforming to the family’s religion. Carlos, one of the movie’s main characters, has been dishonored and kicked out …show more content…
Ivon’s rebellious personality caused so many problems with her family. Her mother, Lydia, blamed her for her father’s alcoholism, leading to his death that has nothing to do with her being lesbian or different. This apparent hatred has made the mother to be embarrassed of Ivon and calls her various horrendous names, “How do you think I feel? Es una vergüenza” (Gaspar 66). She does not visit her hometown of El Paso, Texas just to avoid her mother. Lydia simply resents Ivon because she wants to create a family with two women as parents. Irene, Ivon’s sister, even tried to defend her sister and was violently hit for disobeying and disrespecting her mother’s wishes. Lydia still lives in a society of heteronormatively that doesn’t allow the LGBTQ community to be together peacefully. She wants Ivon to be religious, follow the cultural norms, and be heterosexual. Ivon tackled violence in her childhood from her mother constantly because she didn’t fit as a normal Latina girl. Clearly everyone is different and the resentment from her mother caused Ivon to become more independent as a person. Ivon is a very successful professor in a University in Los Angeles, but going through all the neglect, rejection, and physical abuse was just a part of the process. It is discriminating for people of the LGBTQ community to be judged …show more content…
The first people introduced are a couple, Agustin and Marcelo, that has been well established in Chicago, Illinois. Marcelo explained his struggle of being both gay and staying catholic because as a kid he prayed to god for a miracle to change him to be “normal”. Marcelo has accepted himself and continues to practice the religion even though Catholicism prohibits being gay. Another man named David described being teased in his school career for kissing another boy in the third grade because of his sexuality. He moved to New York City to get away from his childhood and to finally be happy in a place where he isn’t judged. This homophobia from young kids instigates violence in school that is learned from parents and from the community of others. The last person introduced in the film was a man who transitioned to be a woman that was rejected by her family and had to move out of her home for coming home with hair extensions. This form of violence caused Gabriela to abuse drugs and alcohol to deal with the pain of rejection. These three examples show how people have overcome the cultural normality, but have experienced all sorts of different
Afterwards, in the 1990s films portraying Latinos would take a somehow new direction, one of the most famous filmmakers would be Gregory Navas, he directed the movie My Family/Mi Familia, a film that portrays the lives of a Mexican-American family and the difficulty that the couple faced in order to establish in the U.S. “by passing as immigrants and all the struggle to integrate their family in another country” (Peña Acuña, 2010). The film let the audience see a potential reality that most immigrants went through when they first moved to the United States and how the system worked differently and the way immigrants had to adapt not only to the system, but also to the language and culture.
Sandra Cisneros “Never Marry a Mexican” and Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are stories that reflect on the cultures in which the characters grew up in. In Never Marry, Clemencia, the narrator, reflects on her past sexual relations as well as her childhood. She speaks of her parents’ marriage and then transitions into her relationship with college professor and his son. In Oscar Wao, Yunior, the narrator, gives a second-hand retelling of Oscar’s experiences in New Jersey growing up as well as in the Dominican Republic. A person’s identity is largely influenced by their culture, this is especially the case in Hispanic cultures. The social constraints that these cultures place on social class, sexuality, and gender norms can be very detrimental to a person’s self-esteem.
I disagree with Nicolas Barquin's statement that the "evolution [of Latino portrayal in films] as being [improved] is pseudo-hypocrisy because as ideologies and views on race have advanced, representation through the film medium has remained consistent in the discrimination of Latin@s in film. " Although it is true that the Anglo producer's depictions of Latinos have for the most part remained discriminatory, Latino portrayals have given the American audience more realistic portrayals to work with. Film depictions have come a long way since the early days of using white men to play Latino roles. As the years went by, and a greater understanding of Latino culture emerged, film representations of assimilation became a lot more realistic. The cultural gap between Julio Desnoyers and today?s portrayals of Latinos such as New York Undercover?s Agent Torrez is extremely wide.
As showed in the film, Latino American often misrepresented and underrepresented both in front of and under the camera. American Hispanic often portrayed as lazy, unintelligent, greasy and criminal. Hispanic women often pictured comfortable sexuality as prostitution in film production; while Hispanic actors limit to criminal characters such as drug dealers, gangster, and provide the power for the white American. Audiences have less interaction with Latino in their real world might be easily framed by media images regarding the race and ethnicity. The lack of Hispanic history and culture understanding allows these media portrayals to change and form unfavorable behavior and attitude against Latino communities.
Latino portrayals in the media of theatre and movies have had negative affects for the Latino community but there are roles that are slowly becoming positive for their community. Not only have Latinos been portrayed negatively through stereotypes but they have also been ignored from American Media. When Latinos are actually present in different forms of media a very consistent type of Latino is portrayed. The words Hispanic and Latino already come with an image of that specific person who has dark features and an accent. When it comes to stereotyping Latinos in the media whether it be Hollywood or Broadway they tend to translate everything negatively through the roles they play. The audiences’ lack of understanding different Latino cultures allows the media to manipulate and reinforce myths on Latino communities. Rita Moreno from the film West Side Story had to overcome many stereotypes in order to achieve her fame. "Before 'West Side Story,' I was always offered the stereotypical Latina roles. The Conchitas and Lolita’s in westerns. I was always barefoot. It was humiliating, embarrassing stuff. But I did it because there was nothing else. After 'West Side Story,' it was pretty much the same thing. A lot of gang stories”
Delgado, Richard and Stefancic Jean. “The Shape of the Latino Group: Who Are We and What
Grande introduces to the audience various characters that cross Juana 's path to either alter or assist her on her journey to find her father. Through those individuals, Grande offers a strong comparison of female characters who follow the norms, versus those that challenge gender roles that
Gay begins her article by first mentioning how her parents took her on an unexpected trip which educated her for the future. Since Gay was a child when she witnessed all the poverty and uncleanliness of the
Montoya, Margret E. "Masks and Identify," and "Masks and Resistance," in The Latino/a Condition: A Critical Reader New York: New York University Press, 1998.
“The Latino male is the bogeyman of the Pioneer Valley" (page 35). In my personal views, I am neutral in the debate of whether the standard Latino male has been dealt a negative hand in the past and present stereotypes. However, those who believe that ...
To help me understand and analyze a different culture, I watched the film Selena. The film tells the life story of the famous singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. Not only does it just tell personal stories from her life, it also gives insight to the Mexican-American culture. Her whole life she lived in the United States, specifically in Texas, but was Hispanic and because of that both her and her family faced more struggles than white singers on the climb to her success. Even though the film is a story about a specific person, it brought understanding into the culture in which she lived. Keeping in mind that these ideas that I drew about the Mexican-American culture is very broad and do not apply to every single person in the culture, there were very obvious differences in their culture and the one that I belong. Mexican-American culture identifies with their family rather than individualized or spiritual identities and the culture has gone through significant changes because of discrimination and the changing demographics of the United States.
Moreover, she feels that the "U.S society is gendered and racialized: it expects certain behavior from women, certain bearings from men, certain comportment from queer mujeres, certain demeanor from queer hombres, certain conduct from disabled, and so on"(65 Anzaldua).
Latinos face a lot of discrimination when they come to the united stated or they try to assimilate to the American culture. Most immigrants have to deal with the police investigating them because they think they are all drug dealers or are in some type of illegal organization. They also have to deal with people calling them names because of their skin color. Americans also accuse Hispanics of stealing their jobs (Ramos, 53). They also face seeing racist graffiti on homes or wall of a building and they have to face hate crimes (Plunkett, 15). They sometimes get excluded from white communities (Plunkett, 39). Latinos are also blamed for serious problems the country faces (Ramos, 195). There are reasons for Americans to discriminate Latinos and reasons why they shouldn’t discriminate them.
Baker, Jean M. How Homophobia Hurts Children: Nurturing Diversity at Home, at School, and in the Community. New York: Harrington Park, 2002. Print.
When one hears the words “LGBT” and “Homosexuality” it often conjures up a mental picture of people fighting for their rights, which were unjustly taken away or even the social emergence of gay culture in the world in the 1980s and the discovery of AIDS. However, many people do not know that the history of LGBT people stretches as far back in humanity’s history, and continues in this day and age. Nevertheless, the LGBT community today faces much discrimination and adversity. Many think the problem lies within society itself, and often enough that may be the case. Society holds preconceptions and prejudice of the LGBT community, though not always due to actual hatred of the LGBT community, but rather through lack of knowledge and poor media portrayal.