Representation in the media
In popular use, Hispanic and Latino are often mistakenly given racial values, usually non-white and mixed race, such as half-caste or mulatto, in spite of the racial diversity of Hispanic and Latino Americans. Hispanics commonly draw ancestry from European, Native American, and or African populations in different proportions; some Hispanics are largely of European ancestry, and some are predominantly of Native Central or South American Indian origin, or African origins, but a large number of Hispanics are descended from an admixture of two, three or more origins. Paradoxically, it is common for them to be stereotyped as being exclusively non-white due merely to their Spanish-speaking country of origin, regardless of whether their ancestry is European or not.Judith Ortiz Cofer notes that appellation varies according to geographical location, observing that in Puerto Rico she is considered white, but in the United States she is considered a "brown person."
On the other hand, since the early days of the movie industry in the U.S., when White Hispanic actors are given roles, they are frequently cast in non-Hispanic white roles. Hispanic and Latino Americans began to appear in the US movie industry in the 1910s, and the leading players among them "were generally light skinned and Caucasian".
Myrtle Gonzalez was one such American actress in the silent film era; she starred in at least 78 motion pictures from 1913 to 1917. Anita Page was an American actress of Salvadoran descent who reached stardom in 1928, during the last years of the silent film. Page was referred to as "a blond, blue-eyed Latin" and "the girl with the most beautiful face in Hollywood".
Even today, because Americans associate Hispanic origin with brown skin, Hollywood typically casts Hispanics with conventionally Caucasian features as non-Hispanic white — as in the case of Cameron Díaz, Emilio Estevez, and Charlie Sheen. Most Americans may not be aware that the actress who played "all-American" Gilmore Girl Lorelai Leigh "Rory" Gilmore — Alexis Bledel — is Hispanic, with a mother from Mexico and father from Argentina. The White Hispanics who are perceived as Hispanic by Americans usually possess a typical Southern European pigmentation, with olive skin, dark hair, and dark eyes, as the majority of white Hispanics and Latinos are.
The U.S. Hispanic media and the Latin American media are commonly represented by White Hispanic and Latino Americans and White Latin Americans (very often blond and blue-eyed or green-eyed, who resemble Northern Europeans more than the typical white Hispanic and Latino Americans and white Latin Americans of Southern European pigmentation), particularly in telenovelas (soap operas). There tends to be an under-representation of non-white Hispanic and Latino Americans and non-white Latin Americans, amid claims that telenovelas, in particular, do not fully reflect the racial diversity of Hispanic and Latino Americans. For example, in the 2005 U.S. Hispanic telenovela Olvidarte Jamas, white, blond, and blue-eyed Venezuelan American actress Sonya Smith portrayed Luisa Dominguez who is a poor mestiza woman; the actress had to wear a black wig to hide her obvious Caucasian appearance. Sonya Smith, however, was the first Hispanic actor to portray a Hispanic without stereotypical perception (portrayed as blond and blue-eyed Hispanic, not a Hispanic mestiza nor mulatta nor white Hispanic of Southern European/Mediterranean appearance) in a Hollywood film Hunted by Night, an English-language movie with an all-Hispanic cast.
Marriage trends
A study of married, Hispanic, male householders revealed that U.S.-born Hispanic Whites often marry a non-Hispanic partner, although 66% still marry a Hispanic White partner. In comparison, 88% of foreign-born Hispanic White males married Hispanic White wives. Regarding U.S.-born people only, White women of non-Hispanic origin are many times more likely to marry Hispanic men of Some other race than are Hispanic White women, as 19% of native-born Hispanic Some other race householders are married to non-Hispanic White wives, compared to 2% who are married to Hispanic White wives. Hispanics who identify as "White" are roughly 1.5 times as likely to marry non-Hispanic Whites as Hispanics who do not. (Trends for Hispanic wives marrying non-Hispanic White husbands are not shown on this table.)