Hispanics in TV shows?

Ricky Ricardo in I Love Lucy.

Mr. Roarke in Fantasy Island.

The goofy sidekick character in Chuck

Betty in Ugly Betty

The fat guy on Lost

Commander Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica

The guy in Heroes who painted pictures which predicted the future.

I think there are a lot of Hispanics in TV shows.

* * *

And I know that people are going to name a lot more characters played by Hispanic actors in the comments, but the most interesting are roles in which you never even knew the guy was Hispanic.

For example, I watched the entire re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, and I never realized that Commander Adama was played by a Hispanic actor.

And when I was a kid watching Fantasy Island, I never thought of Mr. Roarke as being a different race than me.

Cameron Diaz was never on a TV series, but the first time I saw her in a movie, I had no idea I was watching a Hispanic actress.

There are a bunch of Hispanic characters in one of my favorite shows, Dexter, but they play people with Cuban accents and they realistically represent the actual diversity of Miami. They belong in the show, but it's not as interesting as discovering that Commander Adama is Hispanic.

Comments

[Macengr]

You forgot Lt. Castillo in Miami Vice who knew martial arts and was the toughest character on the show.

[Mark]

Don't forget Speedy Gonzales and the Frito Bandito.

[Lucky Jim]

Along with Mr Roarke, his sidekick Tattoo.

[Anonymous]

CNN reporting zimmerman got about 200k in donations already

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/27/justice/florida-zimmerman-money/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

[sampai]

Psych. James Roday is what the MSM would now call a white Hispanic. Psych also features the only leading black character on basic cable.

Plus it's an amazing show.

[Frank Stein]

Anonymous @ 12:27

I saw that story this morning, through a Yahoo news feed. What was their headline?

Trayvon's killer gets 200k in donations

No bias there.

[Half Canadian]

A lot of the crime dramas have a Hispanic detective (or criminal).
Then there is Dora the Explorer and her cousin's show "Go Diego Go".

[Peter]

Ricky Ricardo pre-dated the concept of Hispanics as a separate race.

[Georgia Resident]

That's probably because they were mostly white Hispanics, as opposed to mestizos.

[alonzo portfolio]

Can someone refresh my recollection? I once saw a movie called "The Limey," and there was a bar scene where a hispanic thug at a pool table made some funny comments about blacks, I think.

[Tanizaki]

"For example, I watched the entire re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, and I never realized that Commander Adama was played by a Hispanic actor."

You had never seen a movie or tv show (such as Miami Vice) with Edward James Olmos in it? I spent the entire run of the new BSG wondering when he was going to teach the cadets calculus.

[Camlost]

Hispanics are quite happy identifying with white characters in entertainment and don't clamor for any set-asides that they don't earn on their own (unlike blacks who expect you to inject movies with rarities like the happy black 2-parent family or the accomplished black scientist).

All Hispanics ask is for you to throw them an occasional bone like "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" which was wildly popular with Mexicans despite the feigned waycissm allegations of the mainstream press.

[Joe Schmoe]

Hispanics aren't a seperate race. They are like Italians, or Arabs. They're not like blacks.

Illegal aliens who come here are culturally Mexican and Latino, but George Zimmerman is what their kids become after a generation or two. A generation or two from now, you'll see lots of Hispanic middle managers creating PowerPoint presentations in cubicles and listening to podcasts of motivational speakers.

I don't know whether assimilation will continue beyond that. There still aren't many hardcore Irish or Italians in the upper reaches of US society; people like Scalia are the exception, not the norm.

But Hispanics are clearly going to assimilate into the lower middle class, and eventually the middle class. They are not going to become part of the underclass. George Zimmerman is what most Hispanics will look and act like in 20 years -- he's got brown skin, and he's a little ethnic, but he's culturally white.

[Steve]

Spanish Europeans conquer South America through war and genocide. Their descendants claim they are an oppressed "race". Bizarre.

[Unbearably Sane]

The prosecutors say he should "turn over" all the money to the government, since his bail was set in part on his ability to pay. The usual idiots are claiming that Zimmerman must have lied when he claimed to be indigent.

Since the web site was only just shut down, it ought to be obvious that this money was donated *while* Zimmerman was in jail and thus he couldn't have known how much was in it. Surely even these bozos don't believe that prisoners get free unlimited wi-fi. I guess the obvious isn't obvious to people who've joined a lynch mob.

On topic: Yes, there have always been a fair number of Hispanic people on TV. They don't seem to whine as much. They do stuff, instead of waiting for "outreach." Traditionally, many insisted that their children speak only English in order to assimilate better.

Could there be a lesson in there somewhere? Nah, racism is the only reason why black people ever fail.

[Doug1]

Joe Schmoe--

Hispanics aren't a seperate race. They are like Italians, or Arabs. They're not like blacks.

That depends on how much white vs. Amerindian they have in them. Amerindians are a separate race from whites. Most of the illegal Mexican and Central American immigrants we’re getting these days are very heavily or even entirely Amerindian.

I regard most Cubans as white. Vincente Fox is white.

I’d more think of Hispanics as not a different race than Euro whites if they did better in school. In fact they have a higher high school drop out rate than blacks do (though it’s close).

[ATC]

Univision continues to pursue its strong financial interests in holding back assimilation.

Its current Sunday night reality show "Nuestra Belleza Latina" (Our Latin Beauty) is at once a Heartiste dream and a Reconquista nightmare.

Open to young U.S. Hispanic women, the girls are humiliated on camera and booted off the show if their Spanish is not fluent.

The point, obviously, is to make an example of them to encourage the others...otherwise they could just quietly eliminate them from contention in the pre-auditions.

Unlike Tyra Banks' Top Model series where the contestants can show independence and strength and the nudity is tasteful, the Univision show often has the girls making buffoons of themselves and strutting around in bikinis just for the heck of it.

The Univision show is hosted by a slightly older woman who's obviously royally ticked off that these girls are hotter than she is and therefore acts like she wishes ALL of them could lose.

In the NYTimes, Univision Networks' president Cesar Conde bragged about putting the lucky winner to work in sweatshop conditions.

“'We’re still Spanish-language television,' Mr. Conde joked. 'You win and then we make you put in 100-hour weeks.'”

It's not clear what the NYTimes reporterette (not Catherine Rampell! stop drooling, HS) considers the "joke" to be, but the good thing is that getting hot chicks to dance to your tune for pennies is totally cool if you play the "Spanish" card!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/business/media/telenovelas-popularity-brings-business-to-florida.html?pagewanted=all

[Firepower]

Odd, but you never see many German characters - unless, of course, it's about a racist stereotype.

Poles either.

[ibejeph]

@Joe Schmo, as a hispanic, I agree completely.

Anyone afraid of hispanic gangs or the Reconqu-whatever need only talk to the average brown person to realize those fears are overblown.

[Jehu]

There are lots of people in the US who are basically white people who happen to have Spanish surnames who are classified as Hispanic for purposes of AA and other goodies.
Severing this group from the gravy train ought to be a major priority of the Republicans. Nobody lighter than Zimmerman ought to be getting any AA/diversity bennies... (Of course nobody else ought to either, but that's a battle for later that will be made easier by winning the first one).

[Kiwiguy]

Erik Estrada on CHiPs.

Michelle Rodriguez in various police or armed forces roles.

[Unbearably Sane]

I'm not sure about that, @Jehu. Leaving bennies only for blacks will just tie the idea to them more tightly. Slavery! Repercussions of slavery! Ghetto! And, of course, racism.

Giving bennies to people who clearly don't need them -- Asians, later-generation Hispanic people, etc. -- highlights the absurdity of doing it at all. The complaints of blacks are undermined by the success of other races.

[latte island]

Anyone remember the Danny Thomas Show? Danny Thomas was a white Lebanese (Christian), in the same apolitical, non-threatening way Desi Arnaz was Hispanic. There was a funny ethnic character, Uncle Tonoose (sp.?) who was a real Arab from the old country. Imagine a show like that nowadays. I suppose for me and the people who watched at the time, Danny Thomas was just a different kind of Jew.

[Peter A]

Ricardo Montalban is the same race as you. As some people here have pointed out "hispanic" is a meaningless term for HBD purposes. Anyone who speaks
Spanish is labeled "hispanic" whether white, black, Amerindian, mixed or even Asian or Jewish descent. Ricardo Montalban is an oppressed minority in the same way that Charlize Theron is an African-American.

[Duncan Idaho]

I literally have no idea where the impression that the Irish have not entered the upper reaches of leadership in America. A random search of corporate CEO's over the last 20 years would indicate otherwise. Clue: not all Irish Americans have Gaelic surnames. At least 1/3 of Irish Catholic Americans have completely English surnames and a large percentage have heavily anglicized surnames.

The notion that an ethnicity can still produce a business executive and a street thug (Although guys like Whitey Bulger are a little long in the tooth) seems to create a cognitive dissonance in people.

[The Undiscovered Jew]

"The notion that an ethnicity can still produce a business executive and a street thug (Although guys like Whitey Bulger are a little long in the tooth) seems to create a cognitive dissonance in people."

White men in general have very high intelligence, behavioral, and personality variance compared to other races.

[anonymous]

"I regard most Cubans as white. Vincente Fox is white." - Doug1

Not in Cuba. Ive also been to Mexico and its hard to say. Mexicans have a full spectrum. George Lopez used to do DNA testing on Jessica Alba was whiter than Larry David.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT1ZAd4rLXE

"Nobody lighter than Zimmerman ought to be getting any AA/diversity bennies... (Of course nobody else ought to either, but that's a battle for later that will be made easier by winning the first one)." - Jehu

I'm going to tell my children to check an AA box. What are they going to do -- give them a DNA test? Like you said, no one should be getting it anyway.

[AC]

"White men in general have very high intelligence, behavioral, and personality variance compared to other races."

Partly because "white" today covers disparate groups like Nords, Meds, Mideasterners, etc.

If we use "black" to cover many disparate groups like West African Bantus, East Africans, pygmies, North Africans, etc., then there's plenty of variation within that category as well.

[jigger statz]

I always thought Marlo Thomas was a babe; I wish she'd posed for Penthouse.

[nebbish]

Anonymous @ 1:07,

The DNA testing company used by George Lopez' show had inadequate reference populations and employed a relatively small number of genetic markers. Larry David has no recent non-Ashkenazi ancestors, which means on a test with a wider array of reference populations and more markers, he would likely fall somewhere between South Europeans and Northern Middle Easterners on a principal component chart. Being of recent East European Jewish immigrant extraction, he almost certainly does not have actual Native American ancestry. That is an artefact of the inadequate reference populations.

Jessica Alba very likely has more European-origin alleles than Larry David, but her non-European origin ancestry (predominantly Native American for her; for other Hispanics tested, there might be more sub-Saharan depending on country) is genetically much more distant from Europeans than are Middle Easterners.

[The Undiscovered Jew]

"Partly because "white" today covers disparate groups like Nords, Meds, Mideasterners, etc.

If we use "black" to cover many disparate groups like West African Bantus, East Africans, pygmies, North Africans, etc., then there's plenty of variation within that category as well."

No, this is wrong. There's great trait variance within white people, even when only analyzing European subgroups.

Take a skinny, introverted, ethnically English software developer with a 155 IQ working for BAE Systems and compare him to an ethnically English soccer hooligan with a 95 IQ. The personality differences between the two are amazing; amazing to the point where if you gave videos of the two to an alien explorer you'd have trouble convincing the alien that the programmer and soccer hooligan were the same species, let alone the same ethnic group.

But is there this much variance among the other major population groups? How many blacks are there who are very shy and introverted? How many East Asians are very extrovert? With white men, there is considerable trait variance.

[anonymous]

"I always thought Marlo Thomas was a babe; I wish she'd posed for Penthouse."

I agree. Phil Donahue? What a waste.

[Atoz]

That ugly bastard Olmos would probably have a conniption if you called him White. He HATES Whites. He never wastes an opportunity to say something bad about Whites.

Check this stuff out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08VCkyG_C2s

http://blog.beetstreet.org/?p=547

[AC]

"Take a skinny, introverted, ethnically English software developer with a 155 IQ working for BAE Systems and compare him to an ethnically English soccer hooligan with a 95 IQ. The personality differences between the two are amazing; amazing to the point where if you gave videos of the two to an alien explorer you'd have trouble convincing the alien that the programmer and soccer hooligan were the same species, let alone the same ethnic group."

I don't get what you're trying to say here. Are you suggesting that if you took a nerdy black software developer and compared him to a black thug, they wouldn't have large personality differences?

[Sheila Tone]

Dude, you didn't instantly recognize that actor was played by Edward James Olmos? You never knew he was Hispanic?

I think EJO looks and speaks obviously Hispanic, but then again you might not be as sensitized to this being from the East Coast.

I'm more likely to mistakenly identify non-Hispanics as Hispanic. I assumed the actor who played the cop Matt Parkman on "Heroes" was Hispanic, but turns out he's a Jewish white guy. My husband still thinks it's funny that when I first saw him, I pegged him as a Mexican-American realtor (he is neither).

[Sheila Tone]

Adam Goldberg and Jake Gylenhaal, I was wrong about them too.

[The Undiscovered Jew]

"I don't get what you're trying to say here. Are you suggesting that if you took a nerdy black software developer and compared him to a black thug, they wouldn't have large personality differences?"

I'm saying Europeans, on average, have higher personality trait difference than other races.

And what percent of the British black population consists of introverted black computer nerds who got their position solely based on ability are there anyway? Compare that percentage of the English population who are introverted English computer programmers.

[AC]

"I'm saying Europeans, on average, have higher personality trait difference than other races."

I know you're saying that. But pointing to an English programmer and hooligan doesn't prove this. Unless you show that a black programmer and thug don't have any personality differences or something.

"And what percent of the British black population consists of introverted black computer nerds who got their position solely based on ability are there anyway? Compare that percentage of the English population who are introverted English computer programmers."

This just tells us that black average IQ is lower than that of the English. It doesn't tell us about personality variation among blacks.

[J.L.]

Charlie Sheen (Estevez, that is).

Catherine Bach (aka Daisy Duke)is half Mexican.

Also, I agree with everyone who has pointed out that "Hispanic" or "Latino" are cultural/linguistic designations, not racial. People in this category can be white, native american, black, or any mix of the above... some Asians even (i.e. Alberto Fujimori).