Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Who Exactly Is Living La Vida Loca: The Legal And Political Consequences Of Latino-Latina Ethnic And Racial Stereotypes In Film And Other Media, Ediberto Román

Faculty Publications

This piece, however, will not simply expose the insidious stereotypes of Latinas and Latinos. It will undertake the more involved task of drawing a nexus between the societal prejudice which leads to the stereotyping and the legal and political consequences that result from it. Specifically, I argue that these media images, myths, metaphors, and stereotypes play a critical role in establishing society's vision of Latinas and Latinos. In other words, these stereotypes serve to reinforce both the characterizations of Latinas and Latinos from the perspectives of both the dominant and the dominated. These stereotypes, in turn, foster and perpetuate two …