Portrayal of Latinos in Film Essay - 529 Words

From the late 1800s to the 1960s, Puerto Ricans began to rise to recognition as a dominating influence, creating chaos in American society. This comment is based on the immigration of Puerto Ricans to America, and the problems it caused. Most of it began in the 1980s, when a great influx of Puerto Ricans flooded urban American cities in large numbers, creating chaos in the White House. This immigration happened to coincide with the downfall of inner cities as well as the youth, who began to show delinquent behavior paralleled by the decline in the inner citys stable structure. A general social decay was in the works, and a distressed Ronald Reagan staged one of the most endurable campaign stops against Carter in front of†¦show more content†¦From there on movies shifted from their portrayals of Latino males as Latin lovers to urban banditos. Films changed from problems involving women, sex, and love to delinquency, drugs, and gang fights. Movies such as West Side Story, Scarface, and Fort Apache, the Bronx, all use Latinos as scapegoats to focus the problems of society to the immigration of Puerto Ricans to the U.S. West Side Story shows Latinos as invaders of Anglo-American territory, which is the U.S. They use metaphors to show how the movement of Puerto Ricans into the inner cities corresponds to the immigration of Latinos into the United States. The United States becomes the site of urban, ethnic, and racial problems (Sandoval, in Rodriquez 167). Puerto Ricans were seen as cockroaches, which reproduce without control and infects the territory(Sandoval 171). In Fort Apache, the Bronx, the police are used as metaphors for how whites are generally the savior of Latinos. They save them from the perils that street life brings upon them, and the police station is seen as the only safe place in the Bronx where people can go and be protected. This image is run into the ground in films, and another example of this white hope idea is Dangerous Minds, a film where a white teacher basically finds her calling in teaching urban delinquents who have no future until she arrives and tries to save them fromShow MoreRelatedGendered Medi The Influence Of Media On Views Of Gender, By Julia T. Wood1405 Words   |  6 Pageswomen should be equally represented. Portrayals of Latinas Latinas have been misrepresented in television for years, and not only are they misrepresented but they are barely seen portraying major characters. The Latino Media Gap conducted by Negrà ³n-Muntaner along with Chelsea Abbas, Luis Figueroa, and Samuel Robson examines Latino’s inclusion in the mainstream media to have an inclusive media landscape. 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