HISPANICS: CHANGING OVER THE YEARS
Modern television is experiencing
an epidemic that pertains to how and when Hispanics are represented.
Over the years the ways in which Hispanics have been viewed has changed.
The purpose of this paper is to
address how the representation of Hispanic males has changed from the
television programs of the past to the television shows of the present.
The artifacts of analysis are the television shows The Real McCoys and
NYPD Blue, as this paper will answer the question: “Does modern television
reify or refute the stereotypic nature of how Hispanic males were perceived
in the past?”
Hispanic representation in the
media is an important subject because the Hispanic minority group represents
29.7 million Americans and accounts for eleven percent of the U.S. population
(Reed 1). Amazingly, Hispanic appearances on television shows have been
decreasing as the Hispanic population itself has been increasing in numbers
(Olivarez 429). Between 1950 and 1980 the percentages of Hispanic
characters on television dropped from the already low three percent to
an even lower one percent (429). The Real McCoys and NYPD Blue are both
shows that represented Hispanic males in a regular, ongoing role.
Through an analysis of how Hispanics are represented, I will illustrate
how male Hispanics are portrayed on The Real McCoys and NYPD Blue.
The Real McCoys debuted
on ABC on October 3, 1957 and was the creation of writers Irving and Norman
Pincus (The Real McCoys). The half-hour comedy was the first rural-comedy
of the time, coming before such shows as Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies
(The Real McCoys). The show, which lasted for five seasons on ABC
and one season on CBS, was about a West Virginian family that relocated
from the Appalachian region to the sunny region of California (The Real
McCoys). The cast included a montage of white actors and one Hispanic
actor on the show, Pepino Garcia, who was played by Tony Martinez (The
Real McCoys).
The police drama NYPD Blue has been another successful program
for the ABC network, debuting on September 21 of 1993 (ABC TV’s NYPD Blue).
Co-created by Steven Bochco and David Milch, the series is a depiction
of how men and women deal with both their professional lives and their
private lives (NYPD Blue On Line). The detectives on the show cover
a large degree of all the minority groups: the Latinos, the African Americans,
the Jewish, and the Hispanics. The main Hispanic character on the
show, Officer James Martinez, is a naïve addition to the precinct
that views police work as beneficial and fulfilling (Kytasaari).
Although The Real
McCoys and NYPD Blue are programs that aired almost 35 years apart, the
use of Hispanic characters on the show was an important decision to make.
Tony Martinez’ character acted in an overly stereotypical role as he portrayed
Pepino, the farm hand on The Real McCoys (The Real McCoys). Speaking
in an overly emphasized Spanish accent, Pepino was conceived to be stereotypical
migrant farm worker (Barone 14), and although Pepino lived with the McCoy
family, his screen time was limited. When watching episodes, I found
that the Hispanic character was not featured in each episode, and even
when he was he was featured in a minimal amount. In “The Ghostbreakers,"
the episode is about how one of the main characters, Little Luke, has to
go into a haunted house, Pepino is asked if he believes in ghosts.
Pepino replies to the question “no,” but when it is asked of him to go
to the haunted house he cowers and gives a less than educated explanation
as to why he does, in fact, believe in ghosts but chooses not to (A291).
Also, the character of Pepino is treated as if he were a member of the
McCoy family in one regard but in another regard there is the feeling that
he is an outsider.
Nicholas Turturro’s character,
Officer James Martinez, is a hard working police officer who earned his
detective’s gold shield in only a short period of time, on the show NYPD
Blue (NYPD Blue On Line 1). Although his character was weak in the
episodes I watched, Turturro’s character must be strong because he is only
one of the three remaining original cast members (Kytasaari 1). In
the episode “Tempest in a C-Cup,” Martinez is assigned to help another
fellow officer solve a murder (A293). The suspect, a Hispanic named
Robert La Sardo, is portrayed as the stereotypical “street thug” (Niemann,
349). The case is one of Martinez’ first and when Kelly, played by
David Caruso, gets La Sardo to confess to the murder, Martinez questions
how Kelly got the confession (A293). This in no way stereotypes Martinez,
but shows that he has emotions in considering that Kelly could have beat
the suspect to get the confession. Martinez’ representation on the
show is one that is not that of a stereotype, but one that is of a successful
police officer. Although many police dramas have come along, NYPD
Blue in no way carries underlying themes that would suggest that the writers
are and were ever being stereotypical.
Stereotypical representations
of males of Hispanic origin have come and gone when comparing programs
from the past to programs of the present. The view of Hispanics as
either villains or farm workers have come to a stop in recent years due
to Hispanic Americans being upset at their portrayal. Although the
theme of putting Hispanics in the roles of criminals is rising, there is
also a rise of having Hispanics as officers of the law and law abiding
citizens.
With the characters of Pepino Garcia and James
Martinez, the spectrum with which the two could be compared is far too
different. Although both are Hispanic males, Pepino is representative
of how Hispanics were viewed in the past, with a stereotypical nature.
Martinez, on the other hand, is a character that is not aggressive, nor
does not carry any of the other stereotypical qualities that society has
viewed Hispanics in. Martinez is a character who can suppress his
stereotypical “Hispanic” emotions and act just as other man do whether
those men be black or white. The knowledge I received from watching
these shows, The Real McCoys first and then NYPD Blue second, is that I
could see a definite change in the mannerisms and speech of the characters
in question. Upon full review I have come to the conclusion that
the stereotypical nature in which Hispanic males were represented have
succumbed to what is politically correct in today’s society. Although
The Real McCoys displayed stereotypes in some aspect, after forty years
of television the outlook on how Hispanics “should” act is not seen today,
but rather how Hispanics actually “do” act is seen.
Work Cited
ABC TV’s NYPD Blue. <http://abc.go.com/primetime/nypd_blue/info/nypd_info.html>
April 3, 2000.
Barone, Michael. “In the Media.” Hispanic. Jan/Feb 1998: 14.
Kytasaari, Dennis. NYPD Blue: an episode guide.
<http://www.epguides.com//NYPDBlue/
> April 3, 2000.
Niemann, Yolanda Flores; et al. “Effects of Physical Context on Stereotyping
Mexican American
Males.” Hispanic Journal
of Behavioral Sciences Aug. 1998: 349.
NYPD Blue On Line. <http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/nypd.txt.html>
April 3, 2000.
NYPD Blue. “Tempest in a C-Cup.” Videocassette A293.
Oliverez, Olivia. “Representation of U.S. Latino Culture.” Journal
of Communication
Inquiry 433-438, 1994.
The Real McCoys. “Ghostbreaker.” Videocassette A291.
The Real McCoys. <http://www.country.com/tnn/program/realmccoys/program-real-
mccoys.html> April 3, 2000.
Reed, John and Robert Ramirez. The Hispanic Population in the United
States: March 1997.
<http://www.census.gov/prod/3/98pubs/p20-511.pdf>
April 3, 2000.
