The Mission: The Lasting Power of Latina Superheroes and Future Visibility

[CBR News]

Joseph Illidge explores the history of Latina Superheroes at Marvel, DC Comics and new publisher DMC Comics.


Full article here.

[jonny_anonymous]

Some actual non-American superheros once and awhile would be nice.

[RobinFan4880]

I've always found it curious how few Latino/Hispanic characters there are considering how large their population is relative to the total population. I'm not sure why they always seem to fail when trying to find an audience.

For female minorities, it is often even harder than males, since you have to break through two barriers rather than just 1.

Some actual non-American superheros once and awhile would be nice.

They will be coming in full force in the next decade. Especially Chinese heroes.

[juggalord]

IMO, one of the real problem with portraying Hispanic characters is that the term is itself to all encompassing.

If one were to believe the media, a Mexican is the same thing as a Colombian, a Puerto Rican, a Dominican, and a Spaniard. It's really not. We don't share the same culture, the same heritage, or the same physical traits. Even our versions of Spanish tend to differ with some significance. Mistaking one for the other might as well be like lumping the Japanese along with the Chinese & Koreans. As a 4th generation American of Puerto Rican descent, I can tell you that if you confuse me for a Dominican or Mexican, we're gonna have words. Seriously though, we're totally not the same people. That's where the problem starts.

Suppose that I ask you, "What does a Hispanic person look like?" If you had even a cursory knowledge, you'd be hard pressed to come up with a definitive answer. Even within our own groups, we vary pretty widely.

Take Puerto Rico, for example. Demographically speaking, probably 75% of the population is considered white. That sorta makes sense when you consider that the island was settled many years ago by the likes of the Germans, Irish, French, Brits, & Italians. The number of people who actually look or are actually descended from the original islanders is pretty small. You can't always tell who's Puerto Rican by looking at them. Pitbull & Carmelo Anthony don't look the same, but both have Puerto Rican roots.

There's no definitive look. George Lopez. Salma Hayek. Martin Sheen. Alexis Bledel. Joanna Garcia-Swisher. Aubrey Plaza. Louis CK. Danny Trejo. Reggie Jackson. Sammy Davis Jr. Rosario Dawson. Frankie Muniz. Jorge Garcia. Lynda Carter. We don't all fit within the same little box.

In fact, as I stated, you can't even lump us together by language. Unless you live back in the "mother land," there are a good number of us who don't even speak Spanish. I often look at people who try to converse with me in Spanish and have to say, "Sorry, dude. I've got no idea what you're saying." I was never taught it at home. It's that way with a lot of us. My mom speaks Spanish okay, but my Dad's Spanish is pretty broken. Their siblings are even worse. Not even Spanglish. Just bad Spanish.

Whenever I see a comic book Hispanic person, I have to do a massive eye roll. Comics STILL deal in some pretty heavy stereotypes. It's insulting. That's why character like Arana have a hard time doing well. They're jokes. I would have though that JoeQ or Axel Alonso would have created a more believable Hispanic hero (or villain), but they still haven't. Comics don't currently show much in the way of integration and assimilation.

FWIW, Puerto Rican's don't count as "non-American". The PR people, even the islanders, have held US citizenship for about 100 years.

[Kuwagaton]

The EiCs of Marvel don't really get into creating like that. But I see your point. Although the newer generation with MAC, Miles, Victor, and Robbie show progress.

I'm not happy that Angela Del Toro got kicked to the curb, but I think the more they release new Latin heroes, the better the chance they have of giving us something better.

[ed2962]

I've always found it curious how few Latino/Hispanic characters there are considering how large their population is relative to the total population. I'm not sure why they always seem to fail when trying to find an audience.

For female minorities, it is often even harder than males, since you have to break through two barriers rather than just 1.

They will be coming in full force in the next decade. Especially Chinese heroes.

There was that report not very long ago that stated that Latinos are actually the most under represented group in Hollywood.

[CSTowle]

IMO, one of the real problem with portraying Hispanic characters is that the term is itself to all encompassing.

If one were to believe the media, a Mexican is the same thing as a Colombian, a Puerto Rican, a Dominican, and a Spaniard. It's really not. We don't share the same culture, the same heritage, or the same physical traits. Even our versions of Spanish tend to differ with some significance. Mistaking one for the other might as well be like lumping the Japanese along with the Chinese & Koreans. As a 4th generation American of Puerto Rican descent, I can tell you that if you confuse me for a Dominican or Mexican, we're gonna have words. Seriously though, we're totally not the same people. That's where the problem starts.

Suppose that I ask you, "What does a Hispanic person look like?" If you had even a cursory knowledge, you'd be hard pressed to come up with a definitive answer. Even within our own groups, we vary pretty widely.

Take Puerto Rico, for example. Demographically speaking, probably 75% of the population is considered white. That sorta makes sense when you consider that the island was settled many years ago by the likes of the Germans, Irish, French, Brits, & Italians. The number of people who actually look or are actually descended from the original islanders is pretty small. You can't always tell who's Puerto Rican by looking at them. Pitbull & Carmelo Anthony don't look the same, but both have Puerto Rican roots.

There's no definitive look. George Lopez. Salma Hayek. Martin Sheen. Alexis Bledel. Joanna Garcia-Swisher. Aubrey Plaza. Louis CK. Danny Trejo. Reggie Jackson. Sammy Davis Jr. Rosario Dawson. Frankie Muniz. Jorge Garcia. Lynda Carter. We don't all fit within the same little box.

In fact, as I stated, you can't even lump us together by language. Unless you live back in the "mother land," there are a good number of us who don't even speak Spanish. I often look at people who try to converse with me in Spanish and have to say, "Sorry, dude. I've got no idea what you're saying." I was never taught it at home. It's that way with a lot of us. My mom speaks Spanish okay, but my Dad's Spanish is pretty broken. Their siblings are even worse. Not even Spanglish. Just bad Spanish.

Whenever I see a comic book Hispanic person, I have to do a massive eye roll. Comics STILL deal in some pretty heavy stereotypes. It's insulting. That's why character like Arana have a hard time doing well. They're jokes. I would have though that JoeQ or Axel Alonso would have created a more believable Hispanic hero (or villain), but they still haven't. Comics don't currently show much in the way of integration and assimilation.

FWIW, Puerto Rican's don't count as "non-American". The PR people, even the islanders, have held US citizenship for about 100 years.

People generalize. "White people" is a term that gets thrown around a lot, but nobody who isn't a racist truly believes a white person raised in San Francisco is going to be identical culturally to one raised in rural Alabama or one raised in Boston or one from the UK or one from Montreal/etc/etc. Then you have individual ethnic backgrounds. That said, it's convenient short-hand. You could break down Native American, African American (same regional cultural differences as whites), and especially Asian (probably the most "lumped together" group of them all given that it's about half the world's landmass and population). It's certainly not unique to any one group. So long as people aren't using those generalizations to promote harmful stereotypes and attitudes I'm fine with it.

I do think this is why emphasis on hiring diverse artists/writers is important. As well meaning as they may be, a white or black writer with a Latino character might rely on those crutches of generalization or get small details wrong where someone of the background (whether that's Mexican or PR or Dominican or what have you) would not. They're also likely to emphasize the Latino aspect, where someone growing up around mostly Latino folk would look past that and focus on the person. Even if it's just having more people of that background in the room (or over the phone/computer) to bounce ideas off of, that's a good thing.

[MarioHerald]

How many other Latina characters will help carry the load into a more inclusive future?

What about Hummingbird (Aracely Penalba)?

She has only appeared in Scarlet Spider and New Warriors, and her past is a riddle wrapped up in an enigma, put in a mystery bag inside a black box, thrown into a shadow vault in a remote location only a mute monk knows, who will reveal you the combination if you submit a password encoded in the back of an 17th Century manuscript that is deciphered only by knowing 10 ancient dead languages. And you must also battle dance him.

But seriously, we practically know nothing about her old life while the hints to it (and her and everyone's future) point to something really, really big (and really, really dark).



In respect to what juggalord is talking about, I must say I kind of agree with him: it is folly to try to have a single character embody the totality of such diverse communities - to be their "great representative in this or that media". A single voice is just not enough. And sadly, jointly to that, he is right that many efforts usually fall into the use of stereotypes or antiquated impressions/situations or overuse an single instance/pattern, mainly due a lack of knowledge, of intimacy with who you are trying to portray.

The first issue breeds missed opportunities - instances where you could had added colorful variety to your work that would have enriched it; the second leads to people automatically becoming uninterested in your work or, worse, hostile to it. They make your work feel not authentic and be rejected.


Yet CSTowle is right in saying in that hiring or involving people who live or are part of these communities can help greatly in these works by broadening the horizon and supplying lots of juicy, opportune details. And for that, you sometimes need to play with categories, even though it would be good to remind that you are the one making the labels and assigning (or prejudging) value to them.

And so, we come to the same: What is Latino (or Black, or Asian, or White, Southerner, etc)? The answer won't be the same depending who you ask.

Joseph Phillip Illidge's list is in certain way, a reflection of this process. A show of evolution in approaches and styles and treatment. It hasn't been perfect, it hasn't been progressive without ups-and-downs. It will never be. But we can get always get better. Until the world moves past us once again.

There are white hispanics who only speak Spanish. There are brown-skinned, English-only latinos. There are first, second, third, mixed generations and people who don't consider themselves but a tourist with an extended stay or who come and go. Double-nationalities, double-culture, bilingual, double-race, double-ancestry, double-family (or triple, foursome, etc). Lots of interlinked stories that all need voices. Preferably, a great plurality of them.

[neonrideraryeh]

Yeah, the article misses Hummingbird. She's super awesome and needs to be at the forefront. She's was the happy talkative hero before Ms Marvel, not to mention way cooler. But maybe the public can only have one of those at a time.

Also the article says Yolanda is still dead, but she's in the current Earth 2 series alive. Although most likely overshadowed by Batman/Superman stuff unfortunately.

and yeah true that @ Juggalord and CS Towle; diversity is even more diverse and specific than many people and even diversity campaigners make it out to be. People lump in a lot of stuff together. People are like "there's too many white people"... Americans yeah, but what about a German or maybe a Polish character? They are culturally very different... This whole thing is being given labels of "one or the other" but it's far more complex than that. And yeah Mexico, South America, etc is all a huge bunch of places. It's not just one group. But I'm sure somebody who doesn't know that could get confused at seeing a white Hispanic individual in a comic book.

I'm currently on a language and cultures module for my university degree for a few months. Maybe I'll learn even more stuff about this :P

[osideous]

you missed the fact that Ava Ayala is active on the New Avengers roster right now for Marvel. How do you forget that?

[TimSG]

At least Al Ewing is giving Latina heroes prominant roles (Ava Ayala in New Avengers, America Chavez in Ultimates).

[The_Greatest_Username]

I miss Angela del Toro. She was the coolest White Tiger.

[Badou]

Wow, an article talking about diversity and isn't about black or gay characters. That in itself is incredibly rare. It seems like those are the only two groups people care about when they bring up diversity.

[ortho]

I'm surprised Echo wasn't mentioned, considering she was mentioned in a previous article. I'd also like to add Sofia Mantega (aka Wind Dancer and Renascence) from New X-men / New Warriors.

Neither has been treated all that well though. Echo is still (possibly?) dead and Sofia hadn't been seen since the end of the previous New Warriors run.

On the other hand, Anya Corazon is currently featured in Web Warriors, so maybe she can help lift the burden from America's shoulders.

I hate to say it, but I feel like when people talk about "more diversity", that nearly almost always mean "more blacks", "more women", and "more homosexuals". Asians and especially Hispanic/Latinos usually aren't even considered.

[Reality]

I'm surprised Echo wasn't mentioned, considering she was mentioned in a previous article. I'd also like to add Sofia Mantega (aka Wind Dancer and Renascence) from New X-men / New Warriors.

Neither has been treated all that well though. Echo is still (possibly?) dead and Sofia hadn't been seen since the end of the previous New Warriors run.

On the other hand, Anya Corazon is currently featured in Web Warriors, so maybe she can help lift the burden from America's shoulders.

I hate to say it, but I feel like when people talk about "more diversity", that nearly almost always mean "more blacks", "more women", and "more homosexuals". Asians and especially Hispanic/Latinos usually aren't even considered.

Echo is Native American, not latina. My head canon is that Moon Knight just thought that she was dead because he's crazy. As for Spider-Girl- they've stopped mentioning her in any promotional material or even solicits for that book in favor of Spider-Gwen. I think they just don't know what to do with her.

And there aren't really more categories in sex and sexuality than men/women and straight/gay beyond bi/asexual/trans. So that only really applies to ethnicity, ofwhich there are an extremely high number, so you're right. It's common for Americans to substitute "black" for "diversity", likely due to the civil rights movement making that minority the poster child for all minorities in America. It gets annoying when there's a whole world of peoples out there.