I was at LAX airport on Sunday, and they had this big display about Hispanic/Latino actors and actresses in Hollywood. This shouldn’t be a surprise. Los Angeles has a large Hispanic population, and it’s always good to display positive examples of ethnic minorities (if for no other reason than to say to potentially bigoted white folks that there’s nothing to fear).
As I was looking at it, I decided to make a list about who expected to be on display (it was set up so I couldn’t see all those on display immediately). On my mental list were Desi Arnaz, J-Lo, Martin Sheen, Jimmy Smits, Héctor Elizondo, Edward James Olmos, John Leguizamo, Michelle Rodriguez, Andy Garcia, Danny Trejo, and Eva Longoria.
I mean no disprespect by this, but my list was better than that on display in the airport. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that I missed some (I’m not a 12 year old girl, so didn’t think of Selena Gomez, I don’t watch crappy reality television, so Missed Mario Lopez, I’d never heard of his wife, so missed Courtney Mazza, and I didn’t recognise the older Hispanic actors they mentioned because I don’t know much 1960s American TV). I’m slightly embarrassed I missed Anthony Quinn, and I was surprised to learn Madeleine Stowe and Rita Heyworth is/was Hispanic.
The ones I got that the display missed were Martin Sheen, John Leguizamo and Danny Trejo. I tried to think why these actors were missed out. I could immediately see why Danny Trejo might not be included. He’s a good actor, and he’s cleaned his life up since he was a kid, but he did have “issues” in his youth which might make people risk averse. to him
The thing that irritated me was the exclusion of Martin Sheen, and I started wondering why. He’s famous enough, so was it because he had an Anglo name? No because they had Anthony Quinn and Madeleine Stowe up on display. Was it because he’d changed his name (making him less authentically Hispanic)? Well he might have been born Ramón Estévez, but Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca. Was it because he’s only half Hispanic (if there can be such a thing, his mothers name is Mary-Ann Phelan)? Hmmm I don’t like the argument, and I don’t believe they’d use it. Is it because he doesn’t speak Spanish (I have no evidence for this, but I read somewhere that J-Lo doesn’t speak much Spanish, and she was up there. It can’t be because he wasn’t born in Los Angeles either, because Selena Gomez was born in Texas, and Andy Garcia was born in Cuba.
Part of me thought “Meh, maybe they just forgot him.” till I read the sign by the picture of Jimmy Smits which said “one of the first people to play a Latino President on network television”. That sentences reads to me like gymnastics to avoid including Sheen, and that really does make me wonder why.
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