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• 1 media/stuck-in-the-middle.jpg 2017-12-03T22:28:39-08:00 Stuck in the Middle 16 plain 2018-01-04T18:26:53-08:00

          
  On February 14, 2016 Disney Channel started airing Stuck in the Middle following Harley Díaz (played by rising young Latinx star Jenna Ortega) the middle child of seven children in her Latinx Family. The show highlights Harley’s abilities as a clever STEM oriented young inventor who comes up with creative solutions to solve her family’s problems. This is breaking down barriers for young Latinx girls by reminding them that they are smart, unique, creative and have the ability to do anything they put their mind to. The show also demonstrates that Harley’s family is similar to a lot of big and busy families in America, which combats the stereotypical “other” narrative. Rather than trying too hard to create an authentic Latinx identity (like Elena of Avalor), the show reinforces the importance of family within the Latinx community and because the Díaz family is so large there are multiple personalities that viewers can relate to. Stuck in the Middle is actually Disney’s second show centered around a Latinx family. Aired from October 12, 2007 to January 6, 2012 Wizards of Waverly Place became Disney’s first show starring a Latinx family. The show followed Alex Russo (played by Selena Gomez) and the rest of the Russo Family of Wizards as they tried to balance their normal lives with their life of wizardry.

   

  It is evident that Disney has made an effort to diversify the casts of their TV shows by focusing them around the lives of characters that identify as minorities. Some of these shows include Andi Mack centered around the life of an Asian American middle schooler, Raven’s Home featuring an African American Family, KC Undercover also featuring an African American family, and now Stuck in the Middle starring a Latinx family. Now instead of a few minority characters playing the sidekick or underdeveloped background characters (for example: Esteban the bell boy in The Sweet Life of Zack and Cody, or Teddy’s friend Ivy in Good Luck Charlie, ect…), minority characters are starting to take center stage. Hopefully this trend of diversity continues to spread throughout future works as opposed to Disney settling on a couple of token minority characters that check off a box on their to do list.

  Since the days of Wizards of Waverly Place, with Stuck in the Middle as an extension to the show Disney has asked the actors playing the Díaz children to share about their Latinx heritage in the promotional video featured below.

   

   

  By interviewing the Latinx children from the Stuck in the Middle cast, viewers are able to see that there is more than one story that makes up the Latinx identity. From the video alone viewers learn about the some of the different combinations of Jewish, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Mexican, and American heritage belonging to some of the cast members. The video also highlights how the children have been able to embrace the multiple dimensions of their identities and their pride in being able to share their stories with the world. Just as the main character Harley Diaz discovers, it is understandable -and even culturally relevant--  for Latinx children to feel “stuck in the middle” of their identity, because they are the glue that keeps their family and the Latinx culture together as it grows and changes.