The Portrayal Of Hispanic Community

In addition, the media outlets covering negative aspects of immigration promote negative stereotypes about immigrants and refugees, resulting in increasing the public’s anti-immigration attitude and hindering the implementation of immigrant policy. Over the course of the past 10 to 15 years, portrayals of immigrants and refugees in many Western countries have become increasingly negative, with the immigrants and refugees described as illegitimate, illegal, terroristic, and criminal (Esses, Mdeianu, and Lawson). In this way, the media successfully stereotype the image of immigrants and refugees as threats. According to a report “The Impact of Media Stereotypes on Opinions and Attitudes Towards Latinos” prepared by National Hispanic Media Coalition,

Before getting into how the media portrays Hispanic women, there must be a clear outlook on the fact that there is very little representation of Hispanics in the US media. This has a large influence on how people in the US view Hispanics.

As I stared into my reflection, I began questioning my identity. I felt as though the world was was condemning me for not fitting society’s image of the “typical Latino”. I began to hang my head down in shame. I was apprehensive to show my culture because I would be ridiculed for not being Latino enough.

Dr. Jason Richwine discusses the Latino’s absorption and integration into the American culture. He compares the Latino nation with other countries’ immigrants that has rose out of poverty, while the Hispanics have not been rising up out of the lower class after several generations have passed. Richwine mentions that American prejudice might be influencing the Hispanic immigrants not striving. For example, he states, that “popular explanations from the

In the New York Times article “Media Feed Bias Against Latinos,” Luisita Lopez Torregrosa states in her findings that many non-Hispanics “mistakenly believe that half or more of the nation’s 50 million Hispanics are illegal immigrants,” and that they are depicted in the media “largely as maids, gardeners, dropouts, and criminals.” In response to the general public thinking that there are over 50 million illegal immigrants, Torregrosa explains that the United States actually has an estimated 10 million illegal Mexican/Central American immigrants from a 2012 study. The depiction in the media is definitely real concerning how Mexican’s are depicted in films, as the roles that the, now deceased, actress Lupe Ontiveros played in several movies, confirms. An article from The New York Times, titled “Trying to Get Beyond the Role of the Maid; Hispanic Actors Are Seen as Underrepresented, With the Exception of One Part” by housing reporter Mireya Navarro, details the roles Ontiveros had to play in the American media, which included over 150 maid roles. Ontiveros even noticed how much of a problem this is, stating that “‘It’s their continued perspective of who we are’...‘[The media doesn’t] know we’re very much a part of this country, and that we make up every part of this country.’” While this isn’t a particular negative light in criminal terms, it is still a misrepresentation of what Mexicans do for the nation. Ontiveros also mentioned that whenever she went to a

The Hispanic population is the fastest growing minority in the United States, Hispanics or Latinos are defined as a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Central American, or other Spanish speaking cultures. Hispanics, particularly Hispanic Americans are full of pride and vibrancy that you can’t help but notice. Today Hispanic groups are often perceived as immigrants, when in fact some group’s heritage can be traced back to the 1600’s in the western, southwest corner of what is now the United States, others groups such as Puerto Ricans were given American citizenship in 1917. “While immigrants used to make up the majority of U. S. Hispanic population today, almost two thirds were born in the U. S”(jec.senator).

For those that identify as Latino, the racial category of “Latino” is not an option on the U.S. census. Latinos are given a separate question that assumes all Latinos share a collective identity under the ethnic category of “hispanic origin”. Latin Americans are constructing a fluid definition of race and ethnicity against the United State’s rigid definitions of race. Much of the Latin American community would prefer to

This socially constructed identity for Latinos held the community back for decades. A prime example, Bill Dana in the show “Jose Jimenez”, was a successful Latino actor for a time. Dana’s identity was not consistent with authentic Latino culture because he is not truly even of Latino decent and, therefore, has no idea or experience of life as a Latino. Dana was stereotyping and generalizing the perceived idea of Latinos. Throughout his career, Dana wasn’t always even recognized as Latino. He was often confused for Armenian or Italian. However, he actually was meant to portray a Bolivian character. He didn’t actually portray any authentic Latino characteristics, but was simply out to preserve his acting career. In reality, Dana only reinforced false stereotypes of Latino people. Most of his success was generate from humor, or the underlying belittlement and misrepresentation of Latinos. Dana’s foolish character was seen as insulting by much of the Latino community, and, eventually, this led to the downfall of his career. Finally, a new perspective began to rise in the public eye and Spanish TV stations and newspapers such as “Hoy” took the time to connect with

Being different, people will always judge me and they will miss out on my abilities and uniqueness. I am not the average Hispanic female society believes there is. The number of stereotypes towards Hispanics has increased through politics and current events. Which leads to society automatically assuming Latinos are less than they actually are. Being Hispanic, there will always be assumptions about you and people criticizing you about everything you do.

“Latinos come from a diverse social, economic and geographic background”, consequently there is no a homogeneous stereotype of a Latino. However the data available show up

A recent study debunks the stereotype that the influx of immigrants is harmful to our country and that immigrants are bringing problems to the United States. The study looked at teens, both native-born and immigrants. While about half the teens were Hispanic, the study also included participants from other ethnic backgrounds. One-fifth were non-Hispanic white, and another one-fifth were Asian.

As immigration has moved from urban areas, it is important to find what attitudes are held towards newcomers to the smaller towns and the Midwest and across the nation. One study that looked at this issue was conducted in rural Pennsylvania. In this study, the researchers wanted to gauge the majority population’s level of receptivity toward immigrants. They found that with respect to Latino immigrants, the long-term resident community members often assumed they were undocumented, uneducated, and uninterested in integrating into the wider society (Prins and Toso 2012:456). These findings were mirrored by quantitative surveys of Ohio registered voters (Timberlake and Williams 2012). This study sought to measure stereotypes of immigrants from Latin America, Europe, The Middle East, and Asia. Of the four groups, the Latinos were rated the lowest in every category by the respondents. As such they were rated more violent, poorer, less intelligent, and more dependent on government services than the other three groups

Often times, the way that these women are portrayed are stereotypical and distorted and “the effects of these distorted images can be influential, particularly in relation to ethnic minorities when viewers have limited contact with certain groups and television is the sole source of these. In this way, the world created by the media becomes the reality of its viewers.” (Rubie-Davies, 180) A study was done and found that “exposure to television news reports of Latinos committing crimes predicted negative attitudes toward Latinos.” (Rubie-Davies, 177) The way that Hispanic/Latino women are portrayed “influences how the minority group is viewed by others as well as how its members view themselves. These stereotypes are often a reflection of the dominant group’s perception of minorities and an inaccurate portrayal of the actual characteristics of the members of these minority groups can be the result.” (Rubie-Davies, 180) Violence against these women are not only done by racial and ethnic groups other than their own, but also by Hispanic/Latino men. In television, “hispanics mostly appear in community announcements (Bang & Reece, 2003) and frequently appear in large groups taking background roles. Their lack of portrayal in major roles as with other minority groups suggests to those watching their powerlessness and unimportance in society (Morgan & Shanahan, 2010).” (Rubie-Davies, 181) When

This photo is a representation of the various stereotypes surrounding Latinos, and the way Hollywood exploits them for entertainment. The various Latinos in the spotlight all have different labels on them, all a representation of the ways people judge Latinos, based upon false stereotypes. The gunman or cop, the woman with an attractive accent, even the illegal immigrant, Hollywood has used these stereotypes to their advantage, thus influencing the way Latinos are seen in America. The people in the crowd symbolize all of America; every person who sees, and believes, the lies Hollywood tells them, and the idea that all Latinos can be sorted into a couple of categories, that they are simply people. Americans trust in the media, in what they

The data collected from this study and numerous cases of media use suggest that even if the stereotypes towards society can be positive and have good associations, the tendency of humans to perceive theses cultural differences as barriers and negative perception is significantly powerful. This situation can also be correlated with a major focus on mass media to portray the Latino culture with a focus on the social problems derived from the illegal and undocumented immigrants. It is reasonable to state that just one side of the panorama is being portrayed, which has led to a distortion of knowledge. The first challenge for breaking stereotypes consist that mass media need compromise to show a reality from both sides of the scenery.