Abstract
In Latinas and Latinos on TV, Isabel Molina-Guzmán defines the 2007–2016 period, which includes the 2008 US Presidential campaign, President Barack Obama’s 8-year term, the 2016 Presidential campaign, and subsequent election of Donald Trump, as the post-racial TV era. She argues that this period has relied on a color-blind philosophy in television production that has worked alongside neoliberal legal and political discourses that see race-conscious policies as a threat to the free marketplace of ideas and competition in the United States’ democratic capitalist society.
Molina-Guzmán uses Kristen Warner’s scholarship on multicultural casting to examine how post-racial network TV sitcoms’ incorporation of Latina/o characters is largely tied to colorblind rather than color-conscious production and casting. Drawing on textual and industrial analysis, she uses case studies to argue that the reliance of post-racial TV sitcoms on ‘hipster racism’ (Esposito, 2009) or ‘equal opportunity offending’ (Squires, 2014) implies that producers believe ‘that audiences are living in a moment when the popular and commonsense belief is that representations of ethnic, racial, and gender differences no longer carry social or political consequences and are therefore fair comedic game’ (p. 13).
Additionally, building on past research on Latina/o stereotypes in film and television by Charles Ramírez Berg (2000) and Mary Beltrán (2008), Molina-Guzmán analyses how popular sitcom characters including Modern Family’s Gloria Delgado Pritchett (Sofia Vergara) can be viewed as continuations of past ‘types’ such as the Latina spitfire or Latina clown, while also breaking new ground due to the inclusion of progressive attributes that contribute to more complex Latina/o characters.
Chapter one is a case study of Scrubs (2001–2010) as a precursor to the post-racial era due to its multicultural cast and single cam production elements. Focusing her analysis on the Latina-supporting character Carla Espinosa (Judy Reyes), Molina-Guzmán points to diversity in the writers room, as well as the actor’s own authorship in her performance, as aspects that allow the show to challenge whiteness. She notes that Reyes’ development is not reliant on typical Hollywood stereotypes, nor is her body sexualised. The casting of a Dominican actress in the role further works to ‘unsettle audience cognitive expectations about ethnic and minority characters’ (p. 35). Carla’s role as an informal manager of the medical interns complicates expectations of characters of color-white characters relationships.
Chapter two interrogates both The Office (2005–2013) and Modern Family (2009–), noting how both have relied on hipster racism and racial cringe humor in their writing. Noting the lack of a laugh track in these sitcoms, Molina-Guzmán argues that the audience must actively work to decode the comedy, which produces open rather than closed interpretations (p. 57). In other words, while progressive readings might underscore the socially inappropriate words or actions of straight white male characters like The Office’s Michael Scott (Steve Carell) or Modern Family’s Jay Prichett (Ed O’Neill), this requires an exclusive interpretation which does not envisage that certain audiences might think that the humor implies that laughing at a minority character’s discomfort is acceptable or relatable.
By contrast, an in-depth textual reading of Sofia Vergara’s Gloria Delgado Pritchett in Modern Family, taken forward into chapter three, ‘Reading Against the Post-Racial TV Latina’, reveals a character who complicates the Latina spitfire trope her character is modeled on, particularly when, in season 4, the birth of her son allows her to perform the complex emotions of ongoing motherhood. Vergara’s performance of Latina motherhood and the depiction of her as a formerly undocumented immigrant speak to the real-life experiences of some Latina/os in the United States. These character qualities, thus, help combat the stereotypical elements of Gloria, such as her exaggerated accent and the racialised sexualisation of her body.
In a brief conclusion, Molina-Guzmán points to slowly growing new opportunities for Latinas in broadcast comedies, citing examples of shows, such as Superstore (2015–) and Jane the Virgin (2014–), that have offered a diverse range of Latina representation. She reminds us that it is important to remember that diversity on-screen does not equal diversity behind the screen and the number of Latina/os showrunners, writers, and directors continues to be inconsequential in broadcast television production. Further, it is Latinas, rather than Latinos, who operate as ‘intercultural interlocutors in US popular culture’ (p. 103) because they have continued to be seen as less threatening and less commercially challenging to sell to US audiences.
Ultimately, Molina-Guzmán’s insights into sitcoms of the post-racial era are significant because they invite a conversation with broader Television Studies scholarship, such as Michael Newman and Elena Levine’s (2012) work on the legitimisation of television as an art form in the post-network era. Several of the characteristics of post-racial sitcoms on broadcast television that Molina-Guzmán points to, such as single camera production and the lack of a laugh track, are elements that Newman and Levine argue have been used to signify ‘quality’ programming. In other words, even though she does not explicitly address perceptions of quality, Molina-Guzmán’s work helps to start fill in the scholarly gaps of how notions of race, sexuality, and class are embedded in contemporary industrial and cultural practices of television production.