I get annoyed by the Latino characters created in some popular movies. It must be so insulting, as a Latino actor, to play these characters.
A few movies that come to mind are “Tom and Jerry the Movie” and “The Watch.”
In “Tom and Jerry the Movie” I did not completely understand why Michael Peña would choose to play such a buffoon. To increase Latino representation? What about the quality of representation ? I wonder what the mental calculus was for him. He had been the main character in other, more serious films and TV shows, such as “Cesar Chavez” and “Narcos: Mexico.” Did he want to create something kids could see, like the “Spy Kids” director, Robert Rodriguez? At least Robert Rodriguez was in control of the representation- it was positive. I felt kind of seen, as a mixed kid, to have these kids with a Latino dad and an American mom portrayed in the movie. I am not sure of the positive impact of Michael Peña’s character in “Tom and Jerry the Movie” though.
He is this hotel manager at a fancy NYC hotel who is very by the book, and kind of a stickler. He talks about “clawing himself to the top… of middle management.” He says he went to Cornell, and insists that it is an Ivy, as if people have doubted that it was in the past. I don’t like what I see when I look at that character. He has to name drop his accomplishments in order to have credibility. As a viewer, you are supposed to dislike him because he doubted the blonde main character, who faked her resume, but has ‘think on your feet’ abilities that should make you overlook how she is unqualified for a position at the hotel. She is the heroine that will save the hotel from the disaster, that is Tom and Jerry. Disclaimer, I didn’t finish watching the movie. It is weird in a lot of other ways. Still, I couldn’t really shake my discomfort at this Latino character. I just kept wondering why the actor would take this role. I just hate what it portrays. Is he supposed to somehow be unworthy of that position? He seemed to have had a great education, top mentors in the field, and have worked hard. I think the character speaks more to the white discomfort with diversity in “their” spaces. I mean, from what I saw, he was fired, and then it seemed like he turned into the villain. What does this say about how Latino strivers are viewed in these spaces? Or worse, what does it tell people to think about them?
Then in, “The Watch” I just didn’t like how the Latino characters were martyred and one dimensional. Ben Stiller’s character is a manager at a Costco. At the start, the movie shows his relationship with a Latino security guard there, who tells him that he just got his citizenship. After, the Latino security guard is mysteriously and brutally murdered in the Costco, and Stiller’s character is devastated and inspired to form a neighborhood watch with other white characters. The cops who doubt the neighborhood watch are a funny SNL alum guy and his tokenized Latino partner, who barely has any lines. It seems like the Latino cop character only exists to later be killed by aliens, and to make the other white cop sad. Also, the vacancy, allows for one of the white characters in the neighborhood watch to become the cop’s new partner (after a “hero’s journey” of failing the 3 tests to be a cop, joining the neighborhood watch, and helping to save the town from aliens). I won’t get into the other problems with that neighborhood watch character (there are a lot), but suffice it to say, that in these two ways, the Latino character was just a foil for the main white characters. Why do we tolerate this?
It gets old to martyr characters of color, as a part of a white main character’s “journey.” This is rampant in movies.
