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• 1 2017-12-06T10:32:20-08:00 Latinos in Star Wars 33 Analyzing the role of the major Latinx characters in Star Wars since Disney bought the movie franchise plain 2017-12-22T20:30:15-08:00
  
  In 2012, Disney purchased Lucasfilm (the owner of Star Wars) which has gone onto become one of its most lucrative subsidiaries. Compared to other Disney movie franchises, Star Wars has proven to be fairly friendly and inclusive to Latinx characters in the movies that have been released since 2015 (though representation in other subsidiaries is scarce, so this is not the greatest feat). However, within these movies it is important to note that this inclusion is within science fiction movies set in space, where there is more gray area in terms of the ethnicity of these characters because there is no Latin America or United States in a “galaxy far, far away.”

      Despite the discrepancy of the characters’ ethnicity in the world of the movies, the two prominent roles for Latinos (both are men) in Star Wars have proven to be historic. First, in The Force Awakens (2015), Oscar Isaac, Guatemalan-American actor, portrays a lead character, Poe Dameron. Though, like all Latinx Star Wars characters, there is uncertainty to his ethnicity, Isaac noted in an interview that Poe was born on Yavin IV, which is a planet filmed in Guatemala. This hints that Poe Dameron’s character has Latinx roots. It is also notable that Poe is portrayed as a hero in the movie and (because it’s set in space), there are no stereotypes invoked, which are evident in other Disney movies.
  

      An even more historic moment for Latinx representation was in Rogue One (2016) with Cassian Andor, portrayed by Mexican actor Diego Luna. In the movie, Luna retains his accent, which not only hints at his Latinx roots in the movie itself, but was never mocked or ridiculed or played for laughs in the movie. This portrayal was a high point of inclusion for Latinx viewers, particularly those who are native Spanish speakers and have an accent as well, and was a great example of the exclusion of various Latinos- native speakers, English speakers- breaking down within Disney’s biggest movies.

  
       Victor Landa, of News Taco, explains the context of Luna’s accent and why it is an important breakthrough for inclusion within Hollywood, which is often quite exclusive to minorities:

  "He played the part with a Mexican accent because that’s how he speaks English. So the story isn’t really about Luna’s accent... the accent just was. Just as U.S. Latinos just are, part of the fabric of U.S. life and culture.

  So on one level I feel pride that an actor with a Mexican accent played a part in a major U.S. motion picture with no need to explain his accent in the plotline – it just is."

  
      However, there are still story issues related to both Poe and Cassian. First, in the original script of The Force Awakens, Poe was supposed to die (while every other major character lived- except *spoiler* Han Solo), and in the final cut of the movie, he is absent from most of the movie. Though he destroys StarKiller Base, he has no real significant character arc or change, mostly being characterized as “the best pilot in the Resistance.” Even though Poe is a hero, he is not allowed the same growth and change as other characters. The other two main heroes, Rey (a white woman) and Finn (a black man) both participate in most of the action, and they have change within their characters. For example, Finn evolves from a brainwashed stormtrooper of the First Order to a compassionate hero who fights for the Resistance. Rey starts off as a lonely scavenger and overcomes loss and sadness of being abandoned to become a brave Jedi. (It is notable that in The Last Jedi (2017), which has not premiered prior to this analysis, it has been indicated that Poe will have a larger role and he will have significant character change.)

      In Rogue One (similarly to The Force Awakens), the lead is a white woman, Jyn Erso, and Cassian is the second lead. Despite Cassian’s overall function in the story as the second main character, he is given far less characterization than Jyn. While the movie delves into Jyn’s background and relationship with her father, much of Cassian’s background is left a mystery, save for a throw away line in which he says that he’s been associated with the Rebellion since the age of six. Cassian, like Poe, is also defined mostly through one character trait, which in Cassian’s case is that he is a morally ambiguous soldier for the Rebellion. Save for one scene when he decides not to kill someone, his moral ambiguity is not given much attention. Despite being a great example of representation, his character is not as developed as the white character.

      
  
  Another problem is that the human Latinx characters in Disney’s Star Wars are both men, specifically men with relatively light skin. This excludes Latina women and Latinx people of other genders, who are already underrepresented in Hollywood, and though Luna and Isaac's characters are certainly historic, on their own, they do not represent the diversity of Latinx people. In The Force Awakens, Lupita Nyong’o , an Academy Award-winning Mexican-Kenyan actress, portrays a CGI alien, Maz Kanata. She is the only woman of color in the main cast and portrays one of the three prominent aliens. There are no women of color in Rogue One. This instance of covering up an Afro-Latina actress with CGI or makeup is not an isolated incident within Disney’s subsidiaries.
  

  It is critical to portray Latinx characters in the same manner as one would a white protagonist: having a story arc and character change, surviving past one movie, having significant screen-time, being explicitly Latinx, and not having their skin covered up. These are all restraints that most non-Latinx white characters typically do not have, but for Latinx characters, these conditions to being a character are obvious in the few that are present. These “conditions” reinforce an idea of “otherness” in Latinx children and it alienates them from the story. While it is certainly possible to relate to characters of different races or ethnicities than one’s own, there is no doubt that for children of color, it is something remarkable to see heroes that look like them- a luxury that non-minority children have in the myriad heroes they grow up with that do look like them. Unfortunately, though there is some representation, there is none for Latina girls and it’s doubtful that there will ever be a minority- let alone a Latinx- protagonist or even a character who doesn’t fall victim to any of the conditions in any foreseeable Star Wars- or other Disney- movies.