In The Community
There’s an
iconic scene toward the end of the 2002 movie “Real Women Have Curves” that cemented the film’s status as a powerful moment for Latina representation.
Fed up with the sweltering summer heat in her sister’s East Los Angeles dress factory, 18-year-old Ana Garcia, played by actress America Ferrera, takes off her shirt. Ana’s mother, Carmen, played by Lupe Ontiveros, quickly moves to cover her daughter’s body.
“Look at you; you look awful,” Carmen says, referring to Ana’s weight.
“How dare anyone try to tell me what I should look like, or who I should be, when there’s so much more to me than just my weight,” Ana says during the exchange.
Ana’s sister and another woman working in the factory come to her defense. To Carmen’s horror, the women each start to remove their clothes to compare their perceived body flaws. By the end, they are laughing, sewing dresses in their underwear and vibing to music in a powerful display of pride in their body fat, their stretch marks and their different sizes.
Lupe Ontiveros (as Carmen Garcia) and America Ferrera (as Ana Garcia) in Real Women Have Curves (2002) directed by Patricia Cardoso (HBO)
Patricia Cardoso, director of “Real Women Have Curves,” knew it was an important story to tell. At the time, few other films had centered the stories of Latina girls and teens in the United States, she told The 19th. “Real Women Have Curves” offered a glimpse into a world that was relatable to so many: the financial considerations for a working-class family, a complicated mother-daughter relationship, a first-generation Mexican-American teen with dreams of going to college in New York City.
In the 21 years since its release, the number of Latina coming-of-age stories has increased — and so has the representation within them. There are more actresses being cast and a wider variety of viewpoints being told that reflect the complexity and humanity of a diverse population that has historically been reduced to harmful stereotypes. But both in front and behind the camera, disparities remain, Latina women in the film and television industry told The 19th.
“There’s still a lot more needed because there’s not enough representation,” Cardoso said. “I teach at the University of California, Riverside, now, and the majority of my students are first-generation college students. They have only seen themselves reflected on screen a few times growing up, and it’s usually not realistically and not dealing with the issues they face.”
One 2021 study by researchers at the University of Southern California analyzed 1,300 top-grossing films between 2007 and 2019 and found that 3.5 percent, or 45 of the movies, had Latinx leads or co-leads. Of those 45 films, 24 of them had Latina leads.
Across the 100 top-grossing films in 2019, 35 had no Latinx characters at all and 59 had no Latina characters. Ninety-five of the films had no Latinx characters with disabilities, and 98 had no LGBTQ+ Latinx characters.
The study shows both existing challenges for Latinx representation, and how the numbers have improved somewhat over the years.
Like Cardoso, for filmmaker Aurora Guerrero it was difficult to think of many movies or television shows 25 or 30 years ago that depicted the adolescence of U.S. Latinas. Mainly, there was “Selena,” the 1997 movie starring Jennifer Lopez about the life and rising fame of Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla.
The year 2002 brought “Real Women Have Curves” and the Disney Channel original movie “Gotta Kick It Up!,” both starring America Ferrera. The latter tells the story of a dance team at an under-resourced middle school in Southern California. The movie has received some criticism for the absence or Afro-Latinas and for repeating a common White savior narrative in Hollywood, with a non-Latinx teacher stepping in to save the school dance team.
Still, “Gotta Kick It Up!” remains a treasured nostalgic re-watch for many Latina millennials. In different ways, “Real Women Have Curves” and “Gotta Kick It Up!” showed layers to the Latina teen experience. There were nerdy bookworm characters in addition to the rebellious cool girl. Some faced high expectations from their families or experienced anxieties navigating a White-dominated society.
For years, Latina characters have been hypersexualized, portrayed as loud and vain or as very strict and religious, without much nuance. Those portrayals can affect how the world treats Latinas and how Latina girls see themselves. Research indicates that seeing negative stereotypes or portrayals of women and girl characters in entertainment has harmful effects on mental health and body image.
Seeing more varied examples of Latinas as children and adults can help young Latinas understand they are not alone in their experiences, said Rosa Parra, a film critic who writes for The Daily Chela, a Chicano and Hispanic news website. Certain characters can also help young girls envision what their lives could be like in a particular career or at a particular college, Parra said.
Addressing stereotypes is a balancing act because some stereotypes develop from a seed of truth, she added.
“Do I have a tia or cousins who are very religious? Absolutely. And yes, I know people who can be loud and obnoxious sometimes. But it’s about showing a range of personalities and lives,” she said. “We’re such a diverse group of people. We have different shapes, sizes, skin tones, hairstyles, cultures and languages. It is unfair to just paint all of us as a monolith.”
More exploitative Latinx depictions often flatten a character into a single trope without adding more depth, Guerrero said. She worked on the set of “Real Women Have Curves” as an assistant to Cardoso while working on her own groundbreaking feature film.
Ten years after “Real Women Have Curves,” Guerrero’s “Mosquita y Mari” premiered. The 2012 film follows two Chicana teens in Los Angeles as they deal with school and family, in addition to their romantic feelings for each other.
Guerrero builds the connection between the two teen girls through subtle glances and touches that capture the butterflies, the confusion and the fear that many LGBTQ+ teens experience with a same-sex crush. Guerrero said she was tired and angry about the continued lack of queer Latinx stories in film and television.
“I wasn’t afraid to do it. I felt it was necessary, and I was empowered to do it,” Guerrero said. “The only thing that scared me was the question of whether I was going to be able to get funding for it.”
Initially, that fear was a reality as Guerrero struggled to get the money she needed. Ultimately, her team crowdfunded an $80,000 production budget, and “Mosquita y Mari” was released to critical acclaim.
Venecia Troncoso and Fenessa Pineda in “Mosquita y Mari” (2012) directed by Aurora Guerrero (THE FILM COLLABORATIVE)
Today both “Real Women Have Curves” and “Mosquita y Mari” are celebrated for breaking barriers of Latina storytelling in film; however, Cardoso’s and Guerrero’s struggles did not end after these successes. Following their respective films, they both faced years of rejection and struggled to find other opportunities as directors and filmmakers. Cardoso said she couldn’t get work as a director for 15 years after 2002. For Guerrero, she continued to face hurdles nearly three years after 2012.
In both cases, Black filmmaker Ava DuVernay offered a lifeline, by bringing them on to direct episodes of her Oprah Winfrey-backed show “Queen Sugar.” The support from DuVernay helped them to maintain steady work in television, they said, but it also highlights an ongoing problem for Latinx storytellers. “Not a lot of people have that ability. Not a lot of people have Ava to be their bridge. You know, she can’t hire everybody,” Guerrero said.
Over the past couple of decades, new projects have emerged elevating different Latinx perspectives, including the shows “Gentefied” and the reboot of “One Day at a Time,” and movies like Marvel’s Spider-Verse series and DC Universe’s “Blue Beetle,” which both focus on male characters. Blockbuster movies focused on young Latinas are still harder to find, with 2019’s “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” and this year’s “Spy Kids: Armageddon” as notable exceptions.
Creating more pathways for a larger variety of Latinx people to have a role in film and television creation will allow more authentic storytelling and coming-of-age films that young people can relate to.
“So many women of color, so many Latina women get passed over for an opportunity to direct,” Guerrero said. “So there are these barriers that are very difficult to get past when people don’t take the time to really see you, to really consider you and let you compete with your talent.”
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Around the world, being able to speak multiple languages is usually considered a plus – a skill that connects different cultures and perspectives. But for many Latinos in the U.S., this 'advantage' has sometimes been a double-edged sword.
Throughout the latter part of the 20th century, the phenomenon of being "byelingual" arose. This term refers to people who know two languages (in this case, English and Spanish), but often struggle with elements from both. It's not just about forgetting a word here or there; it's about juggling two cultural identities and sometimes feeling like you don’t fully belong to either.
Back in the day, especially during the '80s and '90s, many Latino parents had a tough choice to make: Either teach their kids Spanish to help keep them rooted to their heritage or focus on English so they could fit better in the U.S., and even be a smaller target for racism and racist English-only policies. For many socio-political reasons, including immigration reforms and a charged racial climate post the Civil Rights era, many immigrant parents chose not to teach their children their native tongue.
This choice, although made with the children's best interests at heart, often stemmed from a fear of ostracization and a desire to shield their kids from the pervasive racism of the time.
Fast forward to now, and there's a twist. Many first and second-generation Latinos find themselves estranged from a significant part of their heritage. As a result, many face criticism, even from people in their own community, for not mastering Spanish. They're caught in a sort of linguistic limbo. And there's even a cheeky, and often malicious term for it: "no sabo.”
@orangesheepsam #nosabo #nosabokid #parati #foryoupage #fypシ #mexicantiktok #mixedgirl #growuphispanic #momsoftiktok #daughtersoftiktok
On the surface, it might seem like the term is harmless slang or a joke, but words have weight. Calling someone a “no sabo kid” is often used to make them feel ashamed for not having perfect Spanish or not knowing Spanish at all. That’s a skill they might have had no control over learning in the first place, so it’s cruel to point it out that way. It’s also divisive, creating an "us vs. them" in our own community, and making some feel left out or 'less than.' At its core, it's a form of gatekeeping, telling people they aren't "Latino enough" based on language alone.
But here's the thing: Being Latino isn't just about speaking Spanish. At the heart of this issue lies the complex nature of Latino and Latine identity in the U.S. The expectation that every Latino should be fluent in Spanish ignores the vast cultural, linguistic, and racial diversity of Latin America. While Spanish remains the dominant language, many indigenous languages, including Quechua, Mayan, and countless others, are spoken throughout the continent. The rich history of these languages and their speakers is a testament to the variety within the Latine identity.
Some of our icons, like Selena Quintanilla, weren't fluent Spanish speakers, but they wore their Latino badge with pride. It goes to show that speaking a language is just one piece of the puzzle. People are starting to understand that, both inside and outside of the Latino community, but there’s still work to be done in shifting the narrative around the “no sabo” term.
As reported by NBC News, “no sabo” kids are doing some of that work–they’re fighting the label by reclaiming it. Young Latinos in the U.S. are pushing back against the idea that speaking perfect Spanish is necessary to be authentically Latino. They’re using TikTok to share their experiences through funny and relatable content, with the hashtag #nosabo garnering millions of views.
@saianana Like mother like daughter? #peliroja❤️👩🏻🦰 #nosabokid #growinguphispanic #latina #latinotiktok #mexicanamerican #spanish #learningspanish #ifykyk #parati #paratipage #fypシ゚viral
There are even initiatives like the “Yo Sabo” card game and the “Spanish Sin Pena” (“Spanish Without Shame”) program, which aim at helping Latinos reconnect with Spanish in a way that’s fun and non-judgmental. This new wave of Latinos argues that cultural identity is multifaceted and can’t be reduced to how well you speak a language. They’re also creating safe spaces for each other and highlighting the importance of supportive environments for language learning.
As the world evolves and cultures continue to intertwine, we need to rethink what it means to belong. Your connection to your heritage is a deeply personal and multifaceted thing that should not be criticized. And gatekeeping language only limits the richness of cultural exchange.
While the path to understanding and redefining what it means to be Latine might still be under construction, one thing is clear: It's time to leave divisive terms like "no sabo" behind. Everyone has their own way of connecting with their culture, and that's worth celebrating.
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Today there are many labels I proudly use during introductions. I am a first-gen Guatemalteca-Mexicana college student. Identity is one of the things we use to define ourselves and we cling to it- it’s our orgullo. Latino culture is orgullo. I, along with many others, understand what the experience is like when we’re told we don’t look as if we have the privilege of feeling the pride that is our culture.
I never questioned the cultural experiences or events I followed my parents to as a kid, I found my comfort in the grande backyard fiestas, Noche Buena celebrations, endless (and sleepless) quinceañeras. I felt spoiled being the kid that had tamales and champurrado for breakfast before school. My mom’s outrage at novelas was mine as well. To put it simply, all I knew was being Latina meant I had warmth, comfort, and celebration surrounding me.
When I got to middle school, I began to comprehend how my identity was both used as an insult and simultaneously disregarded. I witnessed people I cared about deal with microaggressions for their language barrier, yet on my end, I would be told things that left me confused:
“you don’t look Latina,” “you’re acting white,” ”you don’t look like someone who would speak Spanish.”
I felt conflicted, should I be thankful I’m seen as what the “norm” is? Does being called white mean I’m being seen as educated? Why am I so insulted but strangely relieved? Who the hell decided being Latina came with a template anyways?
Reflecting back, I realize that subconsciously I was associating not being seen as a minority with a sense of safety and acceptance. This eventually manifested into believing I was just a white-washed Latina. I looked in the mirror and believed this was the way I was supposed to present myself as. I pushed away where I found my comfort and leaned into the identity others were essentially defining for me. I pushed away what was my orgullo. By the way, no thanks to the mandatory school surveys where I had to mark “Other” or “White” alongside “Hispanic/Latino”.
Down the line, I learned what the term “Eurocentric” meant. It put into perspective how the views and beauty standards of today came to be, how it shaped the expectation of what “educated” and “not a minority” looks like. At the end of the day, this is an outdated mindset that shouldn’t carry weight or value today. I began to look towards strong badass Latinas who never hesitated to correct anyone trying to doubt their identity.
There was a power in hearing someone say the words “No, I am Latina.”
It’s freeing when you’re the one taking charge of what defines your Latinidad. It runs a lot deeper than appearance, Spanish fluency, or stereotypes. It’s generations worth of cultura and experiences to carry. I’m still strengthening my connection to my roots today, and when I think of the diverse women who confidently take pride in their identity, it pushes me to tap into my orgullo even more.
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