Stereotypes In 'The Myth Of The Latin Women'

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For many years, popular US media and films such as West Side Story, Evita, La Bamba, and many more have included Latina women as lead roles. However, the portrayal of the Latinas in these movies is seen as sexy and stupid women. Though these stereotypes are only meant to get a laugh from the US film watchers to see the Latina maid try to speak English with a heavy accent, the stereotypes are insulting and don’t represent the Latina women or culture accurately. In her memoir, “The Myth of the Latin Women,” writer Judith Ortiz Cofer analyzes many presumptions that her white audience might have about Latinas and argues that the stereotypes exist but they are inaccurate. In order to convey the affects on Latinas, Cofer recalls numerous personal …show more content…
As mentioned before, the man in London “spotted [Cofer] and as if struck by inspiration” broke into a song from West Side Story (876). Cofer argues, “ you can leave the Island, master the English language, and travel as far as you can, but if you are a Latina, especially one like me who so obviously belongs to Rita Moreno’s gene pool, the Island travels with you” (876). This argument is important because it illustrates the fact that people will still judge others based on their appearance, regardless of their actual status or character because of how US media has depicted these women. Likewise, Cofer addresses the occasion in which the man at the hotel used the stereotype of multiple US films and shouted “‘Evita!” and began to sing “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” and “a ditty to the tune of ‘La Bamba’” (879, 880). All of these examples point out the undermining of Latina women in US films and media, which gives the white American audience a negative or worse image of Latinas and they assume that all Latinas are the same in reality as they are seen in US
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