Hispanics in Hollywood: A Celebration of 100 Years in Film and Television

Bravo Mr. Reyes for such a deeply researched, sensitively written, book blooming with photographs of Hispanics in Hollywood celebrated over 100 years. Indeed, this was needed many years ago, especially in my start as a high school teacher in a predominantly Latino/Latina high school for 28 years. Zoot Suit was culturally affirming for East Los Angeles. The unique style and political statements opened up new worlds of research re Latino/a film. And look at the power of Teatro Campesino, and its earlier form in La Carpa, in making political statements regarding exploitation of the Mexican worker. And now, in your book, we get to look back at the contributions made in earlier times we did not know of, and contemporary times. The world of prejudice and stereotyping is So complex and being examined now in organizations such as Facing History and Ourselves,and college texts that reveal an array of a variety of cultures in America, especially of the tension between adapting and keeping two cultural worlds within and without. Alas, there are intracultural prejudices too. Sometimes more established Latinos/as make fun of the recently arrived as wetbacks. In Jewish society, those who were in the US longer than the recently arrived Jews--called them "greenhorns". I loved so much of this book and have given it five stars. I also liked the preface tremendously. I too had the experience of watching films for content and style, and pausing for the film to permeate me as long as it could. At that time, I was particularly interested in the psychological depth, and the unique style of filming of the unconscious as well as the conscious world in Fellini, Truffaut, Bergman, and many others perhaps forgotten now, and of course Bunuel. I was lucky to see and read "The Boom". "The Boom" exploded with new styles as Mexican and Latin American writers were celebrated for literary, artistic,and cinematic innovations, such as "Magical Realism, that weaves around history and political realities. Now, I would like to gently approach one line (what writer doesn't have one or many) that troubled me. You mention that "Most" of early Hollywood was controlled by Eastern European Jews. This is not really true in light of all cultures who contributed to Hollywood's start, and it itself is a stereotype that a number of books are now discussing. This belief about Jews dominating the film world actually fueled more anti-semitism than already existed severely in this country, where most Jewish immigrants were severely poor. You question why these "predominantly" Jewish promoters did not discuss their own culture. First of all--in diaspora, there were the German Jews who were more assimilated in Germany, and hence probably could have the skills and education denied Jews in Poland and Russia, and alas, Mediterranean Jews were often denied the right (many self taught while enduring backbreaking work only allowed them.) And yet, they did forge a cultural works such as Yiddish thea

Is a great book...it tells you mostly all about the hispanic efforts throughout the year and it give you plenty of history. Anibal O. Lleras

By JONATHAN KIRSCH, Special to The LA Times "...An illuminating and entertaining survey of films and television programs in which Latino actors, settings or themes figure prominently, "Hispanics in Hollywood" is full of such surprises. Anthony Quinn, perhaps best known as Zorba the Greek, is only one of many actors whose Mexican origins were once concealed, and there are many others whose Latino roots have only recently come to public attention, ranging from Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Cansino) to John Gavin (born John Anthony Golenar) to Raquel Welch (born Raquel Tejada). And it was a young Emilio Estevez who boldly reclaimed his own Latino family history and thus revealed to the world that the real name of his father, Charlie Sheen, is Ramon More often Latino actors found themselves in an awkward dilemma in Hollywood, as the authors of "Hispanics in Hollywood" point out--if their Latino identities were not concealed, they were put to use in depicting stereotyped Latino characters: "maids, slum dwellers, drug addicts and gang members," co-author Luis Reyes reminds us, or "cruel dictators, mustachioed bandits and beautiful señoritas." Only in the last couple of decades have Latino actors and directors enjoyed the opportunity to tell stories about their own heritage in a more open, honest and affirming voice in movies such as "Zoot Suit," "La Bamba," "Stand and Deliver," "Selena" and "A Walk in the Clouds." Reyes, a movie publicist who is also a chronicler of Hollywood's Latin American heritage, describes the book as "an attempt to show the way Hollywood has depicted Hispanic Americans and Latin America, while also pointing out the contributions to Hollywood movies and television made by unsung Hispanic Americans as well as those more famous." Thus, his book can be approached as a serious effort to ponder the issues of race and ethnicity in American pop culture and, at the same time, as one of those useful reference works that can be pulled down from the shelf when puzzling over some old and obscure movie on cable.