Latina Actresses take the lead in an eclectic array of Characters.

In regards to Latinas taking the lead, there’s a lot going on with Latina actresses in major films which I think is a wonderful thing. here is our list of Latina actresses in major films, not independent films and not television.

A lot of people really liked Ariana Rivas’s character Jenny Garcia, the one who gets kidnapped. It is ethnic specific that is a Latino family in the film in, the Chuck Dixon book it’s a white family. A Working Man is the best example I have seen of an ethnicity swap that works.

It’s kind of unclear what ethnicity Snow White is but it’s clear she not the fair skinned princess of the classic Disney tale. Yhe storyline a very weird connection to her being born during snow during a snowstorm and that you could see her mother was a bit tanner than the dad but it was kind of just not really defined. The movie didn’t work for a lot of people.

From Screen Rant “She promised that Anaïs would be an antagonist, but O’Connor also insisted that she would be an exceptionally intelligent and “mysterious” character. Check out their responses below:

Daniella Pineda: Pretty fun. I’m in my villain stage now of my career, which I didn’t think would ever happen. It’s a part that I’ve never gotten to play. Why did [the director] think I was a villain? We had a couple of auditions, and at first this audition came and went. I taped it, and I was like, “Damn, I thought I did something pretty good before.” And then my agent called me at 10 o’clock at night and said, “Hey, Gavin wants you. Just don’t f–k it up.” Then I had my next audition, and I was scared to death. I was like, “Man, if I get this, this is going to be fun.” I’ll also say she’s a villain, but it’s definitely a complex character.“

From Mexico, Gonzalez heads this sci-fi flick that some people are saying is pretty good.

Ballerina stars Ana de Armas, she plays I believe a Russian girl if I’m not mistaken. She’s definitely not playing a Cuban.

I don’t know if it’s if they’re make making their that character a Latina specific character we’ll see.

Avatar: Fire and Ash stars Zoe Salana. She’s definitely not playing Latina.

There are three films this year that Jenn Ortega has coming out. Death of a Unicorn which is out right now, it’s made about 10 million. It’s an okay to decent film. It really didn’t capture the the audience that they thought it would. Hurry up Tomorrow and later this year Klara and Sons.

The Room of Fail

i want to make something very clear that it I’m a full advocate for this. It’s a great achievement in regards to these ladies, so different from each other in varied roles that are being released by major studios. This is a big breakthrough that one day will be more commonplace, it’s already becoming commonplace. Its also important to bring up the idea of audience and box office failure. There has to be room for these new stars, these new movies, these new stories and new directors, there has to be room for them to fail. I know it sounds crazy but hear me out. In television they would allow a show to go for a few seasons, two seasons, three seasons to find its audience and become a success. Up until then numbers wise it was a failure doesn’t mean that the show was bad it just didn’t find an audience until season 3 or whatever X-files is that example. Now you have to have these stars, new artists, new directors that need to have that room to fail . So that being said Zegler is going to have a tougher time becoming a success in a Hollywood film moving forward. Its probably is going to be a few years at the very least because I don’t see uh a lot of movie productions that she’s in in fact I don’t think there’s any.

Those Days are Over

Lets go back to Isabel Merced. Like I said, she plays Hawkgirl and then in television the Last of Us the new season. She’s very American, I think her grandparents are that generation came from Latin America. In fact I think she changed her last name from Moner to Isabel Merced in honor of her grandmother. So she’s just basically very American which is fine you know claiming her Latino identity. Back in the day it would be the opposite you’d play down your ethnicity, you didn’t want to be considered “latino,” you don’t want to be pigeonholed, stereotyped so you would change your name. Casting or Producers in meetings would ask “oh where you from?” “I’m from here,” Then by doing that right you’re considered for more roles than not just a you know the Latina Spitfire. This would happen more often than not. Those days are over.

Representation at the cost of Presentation is Garbage

Liberal people in Hollywood always talk about “representation matters,” which I cannot stand because representation at the cost of presentation is garbage. I am not going to like a a Latino role because it’s Latino and it’s a stereotype and it is a terrible film. I’ll spotlight it but no one gets a barrio pass just for because it’s “Latino.” Presentation is even more important what do I mean by that? How is the character written? What’s the story? What’s going on? Those must take precedent, storytelling first. Ethnicity should be an add-on. Again, A Working Man is a great example this. College level kid gets kidnapped maybe about to be sex trafficked. Stadium comes to the rescue. Fantastic you add in ethnicity which means some endearing moments and you have a winner. It’s an added element to the story but if you go the other way around, where you’re telling a story and it’s all about the definition of their identity it is boring.

Recent Academy, Award-winning actress Zoe Salana, who has had an illustrious career, won for Emilia Perez. EP is the ultimate example of an agenda driven story based on identity at the cost of Latino stereotypes. More specially Mexicans and the drug cartels. We’ve got to burned through this awful cult of “representation matters.” Gimme story, character and dialogue that’s what I’m talking about. Some of the movies mentioned above with these Latinas looked to achieve these, other not so much. We have taken the major leads in major films and I think it’s wonderful, but to attain long term success we must create stories where presentation trumps representation. At the same time we must given the grace to fail, only then can we succeed with moving going audiences.