Latino Representation Bebe!!!!!!!

          In the earlier days of television and film, African Americans were the racial group most likely to portray domestic workers. Black housekeepers played key roles in television sitcoms such as 1950’s “Beulah” and films such as 1939’s “Gone With The Wind.” By the 1980s, however, Latinos increasingly replaced blacks as Hollywood’s domestics. The 1987 TV show “I Married Dora” was even about a man who married his Latina housekeeper to prevent her from being deported. Even megastar Jennifer Lopez played a housekeeper in 2002’s “Maid in Manhattan,” a romantic comedy reminiscent of the Cinderella fairy tale. The late actress Lupe Ontiveros estimated that she played a maid as many as 150 times on screen. In 2009, Ontoveros told National Public Radio, “I long to play a judge. I long to play a lesbian woman. I long to play a councilman, someone with some chutzpah.”

          Hollywood has a long history of portraying Hispanics and Spaniards as Latin Lovers. Men such as Antonio Banderas, Fernando Lamas, and Ricardo Montalban all starred in a number of roles that perpetuated the idea that Hispanic men are incredibly suave, sexy and skilled in the sheets. The stereotype became so popular that a film called “Latin Lovers” debuted in 1958. Ricardo Montalban and Lana Turner starred. Tired of being typecast as a Latin Lover, Fernando Lamas, father of actor Lorenzo Lamas, told the Free Lance-Star in 1958 that he wanted to redefine the term. “A Latin lover shouldn’t be a greasy character,” he said. “He doesn’t even have to be Latin. But he must be a guy who loves life, and since life includes women, his loves include women. Sometimes he gets a girl and sometimes he gets his face slapped. The most important thing is that he be a real man with problems to solve.”