Latinidad and masculinidad in Hollywood scripts

We examined representations of Latinidad and masculinidad in a set of crime and independent films. Findings show that crime films emphasized marginality and suggested Latinos' inadequate cultural stock. They focused on violence and created notions of Latino inferiority based on class-specific presumptions of power, masculinity and success. The narratives suggest that Latinos lack the assertiveness and brilliance of the tough white gangster of the 1930s and 1940s. The deviant Latino is rather emotional and succumbs to his own vulnerabilities. He possesses an unfit masculinity which is linked to the presumed backwardness of his own ethnic community. The independent films reproduced some elements of these stereotypes, but one, Girlfight, situated Latinos in the context of racism, assimilation and multiculturalism. They offered a different narrative and a new Latino subject, one that somewhat destabilizes the coherence of racist and patriarchal messages found in the crime movies examined in this paper.