William Shakespeare once said, "Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon." In American media the same can be said for the Latino culture. In the eyes of the media, some are born Latino, some become Latino, while others have Latino thrust upon them. Latinos in the media include, politicians, actors, activists and criminals. The vast majority of these individuals create their own personification. Their media image is formed by the causes they support, the roles they play and the words they speak. In this regard, these individuals are either "born Latino" or "achieve Latino".
In contrast, athletes are often judged before they ever speak to the media. Our perception is formed based on how these individuals are portrayed or personified by the media. For this reason, it can be said that athletes have "Latino thrust upon them". Of all the major sports, Latinos have had the greatest impact on major league baseball. Today nearly 25% of the players in the major leagues were born in Latin America (Berry, 1). As such baseball provides a unique perspective on Latinos in the media. Players rarely provide insight into their personalities rather our perception is based upon what the media wants us to believe. In this regard, baseball media artifacts enable us to see how differently Latinos were personified in the media over time. In the end it will become apparent that while their growth and achievement on the field has escalated, media perceptions have remained relatively unchanged.
Over the past century, there have been countless Hispanic players in the major leagues. Television has captured their advancement on the field and has created hundreds of media artifacts. For purpose of analysis herein, two media artifacts were selected. The first artifact was the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, FernandoNation. This 30 for 30 media artifact is particularly useful because it not only provides a depiction of Latinos at that time, but also includes several other media artifacts within the film. It focused upon facts and circumstances surrounding an exceptional Latino player from the early 1980's that had an impact on American society. The second artifact is the HBO television series Eastbound & Down. This series takes place decades later and focuses, in a humorous manner, on an American amidst a group of unexceptional Latinos in Mexico. These two artifacts were selected because they represent extreme examples of the representation of Latinos in and around baseball. As expected the documentary presents Latinos in the most realistic manner while the second artifact, a humorous series, is the most stereotypical. Nonetheless these artifacts share in the history of Latinos portrayal in American media. ESPN's 30 for 30 series focused upon three decades of sports in America. Each episode was dedicated to a year within the 30-year period. The films were intended to shed light upon people of events that changed the sports landscape. For 1981, ESPN aired the documentary FernandoNation. Cruz Angeles, an independent filmmaker that was born in Mexico City and raised in Los Angeles during the 1980’s, directed the film. In FernandoNation, Angeles does a phenomenal job of integrating the history of the struggles of Latinos in America with the success of Fernando Valenzuela in Major League Baseball (MLB). The film is compiled using historical footage of the political, economic and cultural environment along with clips from Valenzuela's playing career. Angeles integrates this footage with interviews of Latino media personalities who provide commentary on their recollection of these historical events. From a cinematic standpoint, Angeles utilizes a variety of techniques. Music is present throughout the film, however it is soft and in the background. Further, it has a melancholy sound portraying drama rather than the mariachi band music associated with Mexicans. This is consistent during periods of historical presentation of Latino struggles as well as during Valenzuela's baseball successes. In the beginning, he uses powerful black and white still frame photographs to capture the mistreatment associated with eviction and arrest for illegal immigration. In contrast, he uses color video clips for historical footage of media commentary. Subliminally this gives the viewer a feeling that this was a dark time in Latino history. Later, after Valenzuela's success and the associated favorable impact on the community occurred, the images were in color and included interviews with Hispanic children celebrating his accomplishments. The first theme provided in the artifact is the historical context. Angeles uses the backdrop of the Chicano Movement in the 1960’s and the conflict of building Dodger Stadium in the densely Latino populated area of Chavez Ravine. He shows families being evicted in order to build a stadium in the heart of booming Los Angeles. In this regard, Angeles conveys the hatred towards the Dodgers portrayed by the Latino community. The viewer receives this information through graphic images of Latinos being handcuffed and homeless Latino families. The focus of this message is localized to the Los Angeles community rather than a national focus.
Next he introduces the story of Walter O'Malley, the Dodgers owner, who has a goal of winning over the Latino community, which he has just alienated. The owners and management of the Dodgers explain how their goal was to bring a Latino player to the Dodgers. The overt message is one of reconciliation. However the subliminal message is one of exploitation and greed. O'Malley wanted to make more money by tapping to the Latino fan base. While the casual viewer may not see O'Malley's actions as conciliatory, Angeles is able to send a more basic message of capitalism. Baseball was not the only place that capitalism ruled over culture. As headlined “profit making: at the expense of our people” in the magazine, La Raza, this practice was also prevalent in the motion picture industry where Chicanos were exploited in the production of movies such as “The Magnificent Seven” (La Raza, 30). Their characters were utilized to generate profit for the white producers.
The arrival of Fernando Valenzuela was more than anyone could have hoped for. He satisfied the owner’s need for a Latino player, but also gave the Hispanic community a symbol of hope. Valenzuela was a rags-to-riches story in America, and his accomplishments on the field, coupled with his amicable personality, made him a media darling. However, his stardom and inability to speak English kept him out of the public eye when he was not on the field.
Unfortunately, Valenzuela was not free from the stereotypes that were cast upon Latinos. Within the documentary, Angeles periodically shows the racial intolerances of the media, fans, and baseball businessmen in regards to Valenzuela and other Chicanos. After earning the MLB league minimum in his first season, Fernando Valenzuela entered contract negotiations with the Dodgers to seek reasonable compensation for the success he brought to the organization. However, amidst a potential strike of the 1981 MLB season, his contract negotiations led the media to put forth headlines identifying Valenzuela as a greedy bandito.
While Angeles does not continuously portray the challenges facing Latino baseball players throughout the entire documentary, he does expose the widespread casual racism that shaped Valenzuela’s journey to the major leagues. To showcase this, Angeles shows a clip of Johnny Carson joking that the MLB season may be on strike, Reggie Jackson is in the market for a new gardener. Likewise, during an appearance at a White House luncheon with Reagan and the current Mexican president, a television reporter explained Valenzuela as “this country’s most sought after guest worker”. During Valenzuela’s first season with the Dodgers, manager Tommy LaSorda was often seen poking fun at Valenzuela by often answering interview questions posed at Valenzuela in a humorous manner, neglecting the use of a translator.
The stereotypes associated with Mexicans have persisted for decades. Dating back to the early 1900s, and specifically the origins of Hollywood, films such as “Broncho Billy and the Greaser” and “Tony the Greaser” pioneered the establishment of a standardized representation of Mexicans in popular media. This phenomenon is known as the burden of representation, a marvel in which one character, or trait, is applied to an entire group. In these groundbreaking “greaser” films, Mexican males were depicted as lazy, untrustworthy bandits that served the purpose of being antagonistic counterparts to white, American protagonists. Valenzuela was attributed with some of these characteristics in images and posters. Ironically, some of the material presented was in the form of promotional advertising for the Dodgers. While other negative images were presented during his contract disputes.
Angeles touches upon the challenges faced by Latinos with regard to immigration. Valenzuela benefited from migrating to the US during a time of tolerance. During Valenzuela’s era, different visas corresponded to different player benefits. For example, potential elite players destined for the MLB were rewarded with O-1 and P-1 Visas, which allow the foreign players to stay in the United States as long as they are playing baseball (Bodey et al., 58). However, as the 1980's progressed this acceptance waned. As unemployment rose, tolerance declined for the thousands of illegal immigrants who were "stealing" jobs from Americans. Angeles provides political footage of Ronald Reagan and Walter Cronkite delivering the message along with clips of immigrants in Los Angeles being handcuffed. Valenzuela was not free from such focus. Prior to the 1983, amidst a contract dispute, he withheld his services from the Dodgers. He was told if he didn't play, he would be subject to deportation. The dispute was resolved shortly thereafter. While it may seem that Valenzuela was greedy and had multiple contract disputes, this was attributable to his rapid rise to stardom rather than greed.
It is important to note that celebrities are oftentimes treated in a contradictory manner compared to their racialized companions. In other words, Fernando Valenzuela’s appearance reproduced the common stereotype of Latinos, however his widespread fame and popularity, due to his dominance in the MLB, served to undermine the perceived behaviors of Latinos such as laziness. Fernando was viewed in a manner different than the common stereotype, which is also seen in the works of Edward James Olmos. Olmos similarly defied the predominant stereotype of Latinos by being portrayed in his films as a character whose characteristics would be considered more Americanized, thus paving the path toward his American Dream (Noriega, 101). One other area that I found particularly interesting was the means by which audiences followed his success. Initially we see white businessmen at the games. Later in the film we see white families watching the games on television and Latinos huddled around a radio. In the end we see how Valenzuela actually changed the culture and Latinos came to the stadium. This can be viewed as successful integration into the Los Angeles community or the fruition of O'Malley's greedy vision. Valenzuela had success in the major leagues for over a decade. From a pure baseball standpoint, he will be remembered for his accomplishments. These include Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards in his rookie season. In Los Angeles, he will be forever revered as the guy who helped deliver a World Series championship in 1981. However, to the Latino community and culture he was much more than that. As poet Luis Rodriguez pointed out in the documentary, Valenzuela gave Latinos a sense of pride and in turn made it feel “like a Mexican could be as good as anybody.” Valenzuela accomplished all this with a severely limited ability to speak the English language. From an artifact standpoint, this film raises several curiosities. Obviously, the film was presented on a sports channel and designed to appeal to that audience. For that reason the filmmaker needed to strike a balance between entertaining and educating. Angeles does provide subtle messages relating to American greed, the inequality in wealth between Los Angeles whites and Latinos and the intolerances Latinos faced. Had this film been created for the History Channel, would the messages been different? Would it be possible for Angeles to create a parallel documentary for a Latino audience? How much of the material originally gathered by Angeles was censored for ESPN's purposes? Clearly, we will never know. Nonetheless, Angeles succeeds in both educating and entertaining.
In the case of Eastbound & Down, producers Ben Best and Jody Hill portray, and dramatically over-exaggerate, a number of dominant Latino stereotypes, all within a brief eight episode second season. The purpose of bringing in this artifact is for its stark difference in the portrayal of Latinos in and around baseball. The HBO series headlines actor Danny McBride taking on the persona of Kenny Powers, a formerly dominant American MLB pitcher. Kenny finds himself out of baseball primarily due to an almost nonexistent work ethic, poor sportsmanship, and the tendency to excessively showboat in hopes of regaining his fading popularity. Although the series is intended to be a raunchy comedy, the show depicts Latinos, specifically Mexicans, in an extremely negative light. Each episode contains a plethora of reproduced stereotypes of Latinos.
Early in the semester, during one of the first recitations, the class entered a discussion centered on the dominant stereotypes of Latinos portrayed in popular media. The class proposed that Latinos are commonly depicted as darker skinned figures holding heavy accents that are normally illustrated in the “lazy peon” mold, typically donning dirty clothes and cowboy hats. Other proposed stereotypes focused upon Latino border crossing and the prevalence of undocumented illegal immigrants in American society, thus perpetuating a growing fear that illegals are stealing US jobs. In addition to their undocumented status, Latinos are often portrayed conducting criminal activity, and more specifically partaking in the illegal drug trade.
The season two premiere of Eastbound & Down depicts almost all of the stereotypes mentioned above within a mere five-minute introduction. Kenny quickly befriends a man named Hector, an underground cockfighting ringleader that speaks with a heavy accent and dons a cowboy hat. The next scene shows Kenny’s chicken win a cockfighting bout. Upon confronting his opponent, a stubby Mexican whose only possession is a donkey, Kenny becomes enraged when he finds out his opponent is dead broke. Upon selling his opponent’s donkey, Kenny takes his winnings o the local bar and naturally finds the town drug smuggler, which Kenny befriends and celebrates by testing out some of the smuggler’s products.
Most of the stereotypes portrayed greatly exaggerate the actual perceptions of Latinos by American citizens. While cockfighting is prominent in many Spanish-speaking countries, the directors clearly scripted Kenny entering the arena of cockfighting to show the perceived distinction between what American’s and Mexican’s, respectively, view as entertainment. A second episode highlights a team mascot that dons a sombrero and a thick mustache, further emphasizing the dominant images regarding Mexicans in American mainstream media. In other instances Kenny dresses up as a member of a mariachi band, rides a donkey during the game or mocks their language using "Spanglish". In each case, Kenny acts in a superior fashion to his Latino counterparts.
Every episode contains cinematography that embellishes the dominant Mexican images. In regards to the soundtrack, when Kenny is shown adapting to Mexican culture, songs such as “Il Triello” by Ennoio Morricone, a song popularized in Clint Eastwood’s western classic “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” and Vincente Fernández’s “Volver Volver” are played. When Kenny is partaking in illegal activities, the background music often features hardcore latino rap, such as the song “El Cabron” by Cartel de Santa”. In fact, the term “el cabron” translates to “the bastard” or “asshole”. During the scene featuring that song, Kenny shown riding around on his moped at night after a long night of drinking with his underground gang. In contrast, during scenes when Kenny is reveling in his Americanized persona, songs such as “I am a Real American” by Rick Derringer and “Still the Same” by Bob Seger are played.
Typecasting is another tool used by television producers with the intent of capitalizing on the popularity of a particular actor to be cast in similar roles in other projects. As such, producers Ben Best and Jody Hill cast Efrem Ramirez, popularly known as Napoleon’s humorous Mexican companion ‘Pedro’ in the film Napoleon Dynamite, to play a similar role as Kenny Powers’ neighbor during Kenny’s time living in a barrio in Copales, Mexico. Prior to speaking a word in Eastbound & Down the audience already has an impression of what to expect from Ramirez’s character. Since producers tend to typecast actors based on their appearance and country of origin with specific roles in mind, Best and Hill clearly used Ramirez’s persona to appeal to a wider demographic. The producers effectively break down potential cultural anxieties by using humorous character that has previously starred in a role of this nature. This is not dissimilar to the article by Molina-Guzman. In her article “Maid in Hollywood”, she explains that humor has been used in media sources to erase cultural and racial anxieties (Molina-Guzmán, 155).
For HBO, this series would be considered a success. It ran for four seasons and continues to have a following through online viewership. The producers achieved their objectives by creating a series that made a farce of Latino culture. Once again baseball was the backdrop for the interaction between Latinos and Americans. The series touched upon the issues facing Latinos such as immigration, but does not take a political stand. However, the series does show that Americans, and their perceptions of Latinos associated with baseball had not changed in decades.
FernandoNation and Eastbound & Down were created nearly 30 years apart. Further, one was a sports documentary and the other was a comedic series. Nonetheless we see similarities in the characteristics attributed to Latino men. Best and Hill have no hesitation in perpetuating these negative images in an overt fashion. In contrast, Angeles succeeds in downplaying this negativity. These similarities may be the result of media messages that had been conveyed for nearly a century.
This is ironic because during the past 20 years, the percentage of Latinos in baseball has doubled. Also, the awareness of a Latino presence is more prevalent in the media today. However, statistics show that their demographic is still vastly underrepresented in mainstream media channels. In fact, of all primetime television characters in 2001, only 2% were Latino (Molina-Guzman, 151). In class, television programs such as Chico and the Man and Will & Grace were analyzed. In 1974, the program Chico and the Man made a major breakthrough by casting Puerto Rican (Hungarican) actor, Freddie Prinze, as one of the leads for a primetime television series on NBC. However, Chico’s image in the show does not escape his stereotypical typecast as a dirty, unintelligent immigrant (Beltran, 87). In the same vein, actress Shelley Morrisson became popular for her role as Rosario, a Latina maid in the hit television series Will & Grace (Molina-Guzmán, 157). Even after a gap of 35 years between the premieres of Chico and the Man and Eastbound & Down, Latino representation has been static.
From time to time this seemingly unchanging pattern is challenged. Some alternative artifacts feature an assimilation narrative, such as Bordertown and the aforementioned reference to Edward James Olmos in American Me. However, in these films the Latino protagonist needs to become more Americanized as a means of achieving the American Dream. This differs from baseball in that Fernando Valenzuela and countless other Latinos have achieved their dreams without compromising their latinidad.
Over the past decade, media has transcended boundaries. Lynn Stephen discussed this in her article “Transborder Lives”. The Internet has made it easier for Latinos to be separated from their families (Stephen, 279). This has clearly made it easier for young baseball players to come to America. This was not the case for Fernando Valenzuela, who indicated the hardest part about playing baseball in America was being separated from his family.
One of the beautiful things about sports is that it often transcends physical and cultural boundaries. A perfect example is the Olympics where people of all nations come together to compete and put their differences aside. Within the confines of the baseball diamond, a similar phenomenon has occurred. Members of all nationalities are free to achieve their dreams without the interference of the media. For Fernando Valenzuela and the hundreds of Latino players that followed him, the baseball field has provided the ability to pursue their dreams. Unfortunately, when they step off the playing field their dreams can often be shattered by perceptions that have remained unchanged for decades.

Bibliography

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