Latino Stereotypes

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As of today, there is an estimate of 54 million Latinos living in the United States, comprising over 18% of the population. According to Valdivia, "Latino/as are the largest single minority group in the USA and their numbers continue to grow." However, the non-Latinos reactions to this growth have not been very pleasant. The U.S. mainstream media has had an important role on influencing and molding public opinions about Latinos and immigrants in diverseness ways. It is important to understand how Americans perceive Latinos since studies reveal that part of their opinions are influenced by the media and not by having interpersonal contact with Latino/as. For example, The George Lopez Show was one of the first shows to have a predominantly Latino cast. The show displayed the real-life of a comedian challenging the Latino stereotypes in humorous ways. In one particular episode of the show, Lopez played the role of a manager of an aviation factory. In this specific scene he was not wearing his usual work attire and when a new co-manager arrived at the factory that day, she mistook him for an inferior worker and began to talk him down. According to Miguel Picker and Chyng Sun's studies, "misrepresentation and gross under-representation -- a…show more content…
In their research, non-Latinos who were exposed to positive images of Latinos said that Latinos were family oriented, hard-working people, religious and honest. On the other hand, non-Latinos who were exposed to negative images about Latinos said that Latinos were less educated, refused to learn English, have too many children and claimed that Latinos take jobs from Americans. In this research, Reny and Manzado proved that the public opinion about Latinos/as are being shaped by the content they see in the media about Latinos/as which are usually those of gang members, gardeners and

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