One thing I want to accomplish w/ this web blog is to publicize media portrayals of Latino people so I will post reviews of movies that deal with us.

It seems every few years Hollywood rediscovers Mexican-Chicano people and they make a movie about us.  Usually one blockbuster film every 10 years or so.   Remember "Boulevarde Nights" "Stand and Deliver" "My Family" "American me" "Tortilla Soup" etc.?


Now with the media revolution, there are plenty of straight to DVD movies being made that say they portray the Latino experience. Man of these movies are low buck expoitation films but for fun I will include them in my wrathful reviews. So big and small films will be critiqued.

I have found it helpful to think about what we are not when describing who we are. No matter what you individually think we are, you must understand the mainstream world does not look at us as individuals but as a part of a much larger group. 
As an educated Chicano I speak fluent English and, without a moustache, many non Latino people (and too many Latino people) don't think I am a Chicano. Yet it sure bothers me the way Latino people are portrayed in Hollywood etc.

I have an unfinished book dealing with this subject.
"Dogs, Horses and Mexicans: Hollywood's Portrayals of the Latino" This book deals with how Mexicans are depicted in American movies.  The book started off looking at cowboy moives but it has grown to include some other crime dramas, coming of age films etc. Watch for it in late 2009!