Today, a lot of our misconceptions and beliefs are shaped by our consumption of the media. The media sculpts our political beliefs and influences our decisions about what we find entertaining. However, are we always aware of what the media is feeding children through their favorite TV shows and how these representations impact them? What children see on the TV screen can have a large impact on how they see the world especially if they are from a minority family. Unpublished research done by Mahzarin Banaji, a renowned Harvard University psychologist, brain researcher, and racism and physical prejudice expert suggests that children develop the ideas for racial preferences as early as three years old which then becomes more concrete as they grow older. The lack of representation of people like them could cause a child to feel alone, distant, or as though they are constantly the“other” that never really fits in. When it comes to the representations of Latinx individuals in children's TV shows and movies, is this form of media reinforcing Latinx stereotypes? Should we worry about these potential stereotype threats and their impact on children or are we just overreacting?

Based on three TV shows (Handy Manny, Elena of Avalor, and Stuck in the Middle) and four movies (Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Star Wars, The Emperor’s New Groove, and Coco) produced by the Disney company, which is one of the largest media conglomerate, we will explore the representation of their Latinx characters. As Margarita Avelia states in Marta Caminero-Santangelo’s article “On Latinidad,” when it comes to Latinx representation in the media it is important to highlight the diversity and complexity of this group: “Just tell them who we are and that we are not all alike.” Taking into account this need, we will analyze how developed or underdeveloped these characters are in the selected productions, their depths and complexities, and how they are portrayed in comparison to the other characters. Our hypothesis claims  that the Latinx characters in recent Disney TV shows are more developed than in the film productions, but they still lack the necessary representation and development to equate them to other non minority characters.

¹Latinx is the new inclusive term used to describe people with a mixed of Latin and North American heritage.