Hispanics in Hollywood: More Roles, but More of the Same

“….This summer she is at work on a book about the way the mainstream marketing machine has presented its Latino and Latina stars, starting with Dolores Del Rio in the 1920s, up to such actors as Benicio del Toro and Rosario Dawson in 2005.Dawson is, of course, not strictly Hispanic but of mixed Latina, African American and other heritages. The ethnically ambiguous and their growing prevalence in mainstream films is another of Beltra(n’s research interests. She is beginning to explore the meaning of mixed-race actors in Hollywood and the increasing emphasis on multicultural heritage in contemporary publicity. While her research at this point does not extend to studying audiences, she has noted that the idea of “mixed” heritage often does not compute with most audiences.”Focus groups show that audiences tend to see actors like Dawson, Vin Diesel and Halle Berry as belonging either to one race or another, but not to both,” says Beltran. Her article on multicultural actors appears in the spring 2005 issue of Cinema Journal….”[ SOURCE