Title: Latino Portrayals In The Media
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Content: Although Latinos are a minority community not all Latinos like each other or share the same values. As a result it is more difficult for Latinos to come together to fight the created labels and false cultural propaganda that work against them. One way in which Latinos have started to fight against false perceptions created by the media is through creating their own documentaries. 13 From Dr. Benamou’s presentation she showed that through the past fifty years Latino documentaries have included the issues of border control, farm work, feminism, media activism, gay and lesbian documentaries, and globalization. These documentaries were created in an effort to educate, be used as self reflection, and create opportunities where there were none. In Lilian Jimenez’s article examining Puerto Rican Cinema in New York she refers to Puerto Rican video and filmmakers as “ ‘picking up the gun’ in defense of civil and human rights in the United States after the Civil Rights movement”. 14 Puerto Ricans also looked at their own takeover and entrance into the video and filmmaking industry as an affirmation of their own history and place in the United States. This affirmation is important because not all Latinos are immigrants. Many are second, third generation and beyond Americans who are wholly assimilated and have rights and rightly insist on asserting their rights. The history and continued emergence of documentation and Latino filmmaking will help to counter the decline and negative stereotypes of Latinos in the media.