Topic Three! - Stereotypes work both ways...

Guillermo Gomez Lopez did a lot with the idea of "crossing borders", whether it was in a literal sense, or simply crossing over into a new and unknown comfort zone. We have discussed many of the stereotypes that arise from non-Hispanics/Latinos, for those in the U.S. but what stereotypes do those coming to the states bring with them? Many Latino and Hispanic countries supply their own stigmas to race and gender and recently studies have been done on the effects of their integration of the American South.

In a study done by the Ford Foundation, which can be found here, researchers have found that many immigrants from Latin or Hispanic countries of origin, are bringing along with them stigmas against black or African American residents.

“Given the increasing number of Latino immigrants in the South and the possibility that over time their numbers might rival or even surpass black Americans in the region, if large portions of Latino immigrants maintain negative attitudes of black Americans, where will this leave blacks?” the researchers wrote. “Will blacks find that they must not only make demands on whites for continued progress, but also mount a fight on another front against Latinos?”

The idea of the survey was to research Immigrants integration into the South since it is a fairly large and new demographic to the south. The study found that "58.9 percent of Latino immigrants -- most Latinos in Durham are from Mexico -- feel that few or almost no blacks are hard-working. About one-third, or 32.5 percent, of Latino immigrants reported they feel few or almost no blacks are easy to get along with. More than half of the Latino immigrants, or 56.9 percent, feel that few or almost no blacks could be trusted.

The survey showed that blacks view Latinos much more favorably than Latinos view blacks. About 72 percent of blacks feel most or almost all Latinos are hard-working, and 42.8 percent say most or almost all Latinos are easy to get along with. About one-third, or 32.6 percent, of blacks feel few or no Latinos could be trusted."



The full article can be found here

What effect will this negative stereotype or prejudice from the Latino-Americans in the South have on the African American citizens, since they are historically still battling prejudice from Caucasian citizens? Will this fairly new demographic of Latino/Hispanic immigrants that, according to the Ford Foundations findings bring with them less than productive views of African Americans, mean that African Americans will have a new hurdle to overcome in the south? Why do you think it is that not only in the U.S. but also abroad, people retain stigmas about those who have darker skin? This is true in many countries around the world including the U.K. and India. How have we not moved past these social stigmas as a society?

Topic Two! - Perpetuation of Stereotypes in film and beyond

In researching articles about Latino/Hispanic stereotypes I came across this very interesting article titled "Recent Latino Stereotypes in Children's Animation: Happy Feet and Beyond" by Kristy Acevedo, on Associated Content. The article can be found here. The article speaks of movies and shows that have tried to incorporate these cultures into mainstream media but have have succeeded in perpetuating some common stereotypes. One example of this comes from Dora the Explorer, in which she commonly reprimands a recurring character for stealing, as if the target audience would be inclined to steal.

An example of this (a comical parody) common scene is here:


Even the way characters are represented physically in these cartoons can be questionable. Here are some excerpts from the creators of Dora:

And when it came to sketching the way Dora looked, the creative team made sure she wasn't stereotypically Latina.

"Short hair," (Producer Chris) Gifford says. "Not long, flowing hair. A little more tomboyish; a girl who was more interested in adventure and exploring than someone who thought a lot about what she looked like."

When Dora was presented to Nickelodeon's consumer-products group, Gifford says, the marketers were skeptical at first.
"There was a big concern about [the character] not being a good consumer-product property," he says.


Movies such as Happy Feet also seem to utilize the "Mexican stereotype" by employing Robin Williams to play a penguin with a heavy and comical Mexican accent. This seemingly innocent movie finds itself grouping the "gangs" of the penguins together by ethnicity. The article questions whether or not such an influence on children will teach them that segregation is natural and appropriate, or quite literally "birds of a feather flock together".

Is this commonly occurring stereotype in film and cartoons perpetuating these ideas or are they simply trying to be honest to demographics and trying to show differences in cultures and society? Are these characters (whether intentional or not) okaying segregation or are they trying to educate children about cultures different to theirs that they may not experience in everyday life?

Topic one!

EthnicMajority.com makes the statement that "Who we see, hear, and read on television, radio, newspapers, and in movies has a great deal of influence on shaping the attitudes of all Americans. How African, Hispanic (Latino), and Asian Americans are portrayed in these mediums often stereotypes and reinforces negative images of each ethnic group."

Here is a video from CNN detailing the population growth of Hispanics in the U.S. and their impact on the political spectrum:






Here are some statistics about Latino/a's portrayal in the media:

*Latino-related stories make up less than 1% of all the stories that appear on network newscasts, even though Latinos make up more than 13% of the U.S. population.

*Crime, terrorism, poverty and welfare, and illegal immigration accounted for 66% of all network stories about Latinos in 2001.

*The arrest of suspected terrorist Jose Padilla, for allegedly plotting to detonate a "dirty bomb", occupied a central role in the coverage of Latinos in 2001, with 21 network stories or 18% of all stories that aired on Latinos.

*The number of Latino-related crime and youth gang stories in 2002 was grossly excessive when compared to statistics on crimes involving Latinos.

*Illegal immigration continues to be an important focus of network news coverage of Latinos.


(Serafín Méndez-Méndez; Diane Alverio (December, 2003). "Network Brownout 2003: The Portrayal of Latinos in Network Television News, 2002". National Association of Hispanic Journalists. http://www.nahj.org/NAHJbrownoutreport03.pdf. Retrieved on 2009-04-19.

It is obvious that media portrayal of Hispanics in the U.S. is unbalanced but what could be a possible cause for this portrayal? Do you think it is an obvious attempt to report against or fail to cover stories relating to those of Hispanic decent, or are these "non-news stories" (stories not relating to crime or illegal acts) being reported on Spanish speaking broadcasts and not in English? Where is this mis, or even non-representation rooted?

Welcome to the Temple of Confessions Blogspot!

This Blog is based on the Temple of Confessions performance piece by Guillermo Gomez Pena. Above are various Hispanic and Latino/a situations and stereotypes. I encourage you to be honest and state your opinions in order to complete a mini-social experiment of sorts. Your postings and comments would be greatly appreciated as I would like to see what other think of the topics and articles that I have found regarding these issues.

First, I would like to get the ball rolling with a little bio on Guillermo Gomez Pena and his history and ideals:

Guillermo Gomez Pena was born in Mexico City and moved to the United States in 1978 where he became an important performance artist, writer, activist and an educator. He has pioneered multiple media, including performance art, experimental radio, video, performance photography and installation art. His eight books include essays, experimental poetry and chronicles in both English, Spanish and Spanglish.



Most of his artistic and intellectual work concerns the interface between North and South (Mexico and the U.S.), border culture and the politics of the brown body. His original interdisciplinary arts projects and books explore borders, physical, cultural and otherwise, between his two countries and between the mainstream U.S. and the various Latino cultures: the U.S.-Mexico border itself, immigration, cross-cultural and hybrid identities, and the confrontation and misunderstandings between cultures, languages and races. His artwork and literature also explore the politics of language, the side effects of globalization, "extreme culture" and new technologies from a Latino perspective[1].

Gómez-Peña is regarded as a pioneer in US Latino and Latin American performance art. Some of his legendary performance art pieces include Border Brujo (1988-89), The Couple in the Cage (1992-93), The Cruci-fiction project (1994), The Temple of Confessions (1995-96), The Mexterminator Project (1997-99), The Living Museum of Fetishized Identities (1999-2002) and the Mapa/Corpo series (2004-2008) His performances often involve audience participation, elaborate costuming and environments, interactive technologies and other collaborators, including Roberto Sifuentes, James Luna, Violeta Luna, Coco Fusco[2], Michelle Ceballos, Maria Estrada, Emma Tramposch, Antonio Turok, and Demián Flores.



Through his unique organization, the San Francisco-based La Pocha Nostra, Gómez-Peña has intensely focused on the notion of collaboration across national borders, race, gender and generations as an act of citizen diplomacy and as a means to create transnational communities of rebel artists. La Pocha Nostra runs an extremely popular intensive performance workshop. Every year it takes place in a different country. This year (2009), there was a winter school in Tucson (January) and a summer school in Evora, Portugal (August). He is currently working with Canadian theorist Laura Levin in a book of “conversations across the border” (Seagull Press, 2009) and with Roberto Sifuentes in a book about their performance pedagogy (Routledge, 2010). Gomez-Peña is a special guest in the upcoming Havana Biennale (2009).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Gomez_Pena

His main and personal website, which is very interesting and informative, can be found here:

www.pochanostra.com/