NBC Just Can't Quit Same Old Hispanics

Can We Have One Segment Without Gloria or Dora or Shakira?

Posted by Laura Martinez on 06.18.09 @ 04:04 PM

Laura Martinez

Unsurprisingly, the series featured a five-minute-plus segment with NBC's Kerry Sanders, who greeted viewers by sipping a delicious cafe con leche and making sure to tell us his favorite ice-cream flavor is dulce de leche (all this in a heavily accented Spanglish, which made for some entertaining morning TV). That's nice. But will mainstream media ever get past the likes of Gloria Estefan, Dora the Explorer, Shakira and "West Side Story" to illustrate how Hispanics are "changing the face of America," like, for the millionth time?

Or, as one writer of the up-and-coming blog Guanabee put it this week: "Latinos have impacted pop culture, specifically in the realms of media and entertainment -- because Latinos in the realm of science, literature, and politics won't likely be discovered 'til next year." Or, as yet another Hispanic blogger wrote upon watching the segment: "Hispanics are from Mars, everybody else is from Earth."

The segment also included a brief discussion after one of the presenters expressed her shock upon discovering that Gustavo Santaolalla's Oscar-winning music for "Brokeback Mountain" was actually not salsa -- and other "insights" of the like. ("You really never know who is Hispanic, and who isn't, these days.")

To be sure, the series has also touched on some interesting issues, including bilingual education, immigration and the divide ripping through mixed-status families, striking a healthy balance among the salsa lessons and fish-and-avocado taco recipes.

What I found most refreshing about the whole thing, though, was that U.S. Hispanics (and not necessarily those featured on Kerry Sanders' segment) are making themselves heard with their own sardonic voices, on their own blogs and websites and in their own terms, disturbing a little the once unbreakable and unidirectional media landscape.

Now, that is what I find revolutionary.

7 Comments

  By KateHeardMuseum | Phoenix, AZ June 18, 2009 05:26:08 pm:

This piece really lacks a creative journalistic angle...it would have been nice if the person who was conducting the interviews was actually Hispanic, or at least had done some "below the surface" research. I feel like this was written by some 6th graders, who could also easily list the references mentioned.
The Hispanic population in America is growing? This is such old news.

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  By cmonster | Brooklyn, NY June 18, 2009 06:33:06 pm:

And they opened the segment with a shot of Ricky Ricardo!!! Bonus points for all time Latino cliche. Also, did you notice that when they interviewed the University of Miami woman she's sitting in room full of bongos? Apparently, if you're Latino, it's a requirement to have a room full of bongos. I keep them in the back. With my fruit hat.

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  By robertocastanede | rosendale, NY June 18, 2009 06:47:33 pm:

I feel duped. I'm a Hispanic scholar and there ain't no bongos in my office!

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  By Judy | New York, NY June 19, 2009 05:41:49 pm:

I am the blogger who made the Mars/Earth comment. I thank Laura for calling to attention the condescending, and willfully ignorant tone that the mainstream media uses when talking about Hispanics, whose sole contribution to this country seems to be salsa, whether it's the music or the pico de gallo.
I have been working in Hispanic advertising for almost fifteen years and I find it appalling that the discourse has not really changed, even when the demographics, the voting power and the Hispanic impact on every aspect of life in America have increased dramatically.

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  By killerkev | DALLAS, TX June 21, 2009 10:54:32 pm:

Why is it that when the conversation comes to Latinos in America, the focus, culturally, is not specifically on Mexicans who represent the majority of the Latino population in the U.S? We never get in depth discussions on stars from the Norteno genre, Hispanic hip hop (Cypress Hill, or Ozomatli) Tejano, Banda etc. or about Hollywood stars who are U.S. born and of Mexican descent. The truth is people like Gloria Estefan, and Ricky Martin are from Caribbean islands, Cuba, and Puerto Rico respectively. Shakira is from Columbia! Although Afro-Caribbean Hispanics are large in number they are not the largest percentage.

So if the people at NBC really were really smart and did their research, they would have made the story more appealing and relevant to the majority of Hispanics in this country, those of Mexican origin.

Kevin Walker
CultureLab
Dallas, TX

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  By JackJones | Chicago, IL June 22, 2009 02:52:55 pm:

Kevin, I wonder how much racism—or to be polite, exclusivity—is behind the decision. Or maybe it's simply cultural cluelessness.

One thing to consider: NBC was likely not targeting a Latino audience. Rather, they were probably attempting to show White folks all the amazing Latinos in the USA. And that being the case, the goal was achieved by highlighting all the media darlings who have crossed over into pop culture. It's inherently lazy journalism too.

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  By mannyg62 | Miami Beach, FL June 26, 2009 09:58:08 am:

In general, I give kudos to NBC for improving on their NBC News series on Hispanics of a few months ago. But it's still amazing that they don't tap into their human and research resources at Telemundo. It's a sign of how dense they can be sometimes.

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