Lunes Latina: Top 10 Geeky Hispanic Characters
by Teresa Jusino
September 15-October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month! As a Puerto Rican geek, I thought it only appropriate to spotlight all the gloriously geeky contributions Hispanics have made in print, TV, and film. It’s easy to complain that there aren’t enough Latino roles in things – and it’s true, there could certainly be more – but when I sat down to think about it, Latinos and Latinas contribute so much to the geeky stories we love; sometimes in places we least expect!
So, for the next month, every Monday will be a Lunes Latina, and I will showcase some quality Latin geekery!
This week: The Top 10 Geeky Hispanic Characters
HONORABLE MENTION: The Crazy Babysitter Twins, Planet Terror
Do you really need to ask why? Because they’re f%$!@ng crazy! And hot! And will totally f%@! up your s%#@! That’s why! They were played by Venezuelan actresses, Electra and Elise Avellan, nieces to Planet Terror director, Robert Rodriguez.
10) Anya Corazon (Araña), Marvel Comics
She came onto the scene when I started reading comics back in 2004. I was snooping around online, and read that a new comic was coming out that would be focused on a Puerto Rican/Mexican Spider-Girl. What?! I thought it was an amazing idea. Sadly, her run in Amazing Fantasy wasn’t so…well…amazing. The character was great, but the story was…not so much. However, Marvel gave it another go by continuing her story in her own title, Araña: The Heart of the Spider, but that only lasted 12 issues. She has since popped up in a Spider-Man/Araña one-shot, Marvel Team-Up, and in Ms. Marvel as a registered protégé after the Civil War, and I hope that one day someone will figure out how to write this character properly and give her a title of her own that will be worthy of her. Hmmm. Maybe Joe Quesada would be interested in giving me a job…
9) Enrique Muniz, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
As I watched Deep Space Nine, I was surprised and glad when a small, recurring character started appearing more and more. An engineering crewman by the name of Enrique Muniz. He called Chief O’Brien jefe, and he and the chief developed a close working relationship. As time went on proved to be a valuable asset to DS9 in its fight against the Jem’Hadar. I thought to myself, Woah! A recurring character in the Star Trek universe who’s “openly Hispanic”! That’s awesome! 
Actually, according to Memory Alpha, he was the first person to speak Spanish on a Star Trek show! Sadly, he died in the show’s fifth season…but I was very pleased that he wasn’t given a “redshirt” death. His death was showcased in a poignant episode titled “The Ship”, after he had helped the DS9 crew salvage a Jem’Hadar ship and saved Chief O’Brien’s life. He was treated like an important member of the crew, despite being a smallish role, and it was great to see such tenderness involved in caring for him when he was injured, and looking after him once he died. Muniz was played by Puerto Rican actor, F.J. Rio, who went on to playing roles on Voyager and Enterprise, as well as other quality geeky shows like The X-Files.
Pedro Sanchez, Napoleon Dynamite
Napoleon Dynamite is a movie about some of the geekiest people in movie history. Geeky beyond pop culture. People so geeky they live as though they are trapped in an 80s teen movie…in 2004. Pedro Sanchez is a Mexican transfer student whom Napoleon befriends and teaches how to survive in their high school’s social scene. His campaign to become student body president and serve serious comeuppance to the stuck-up Summer Wheatly drives the main plot of the film. One of the best aspects of his character is that, in addition to being hilarious, he is allowed to be extremely Mexican in a funny, but not insulting way. And really, who at this point doesn’t own a “Vote For Pedro” t-shirt? Pedro was played by half Salvadoran/half Mexican actor, Efren Ramirez.
7) Victor Mancha, Runaways
Marvel seems to be on it with the Hispanic characters! Victor Mancha, a Mexican teenager who is half human, half machine is one of the Runaways. He has a complicated relationship with the team at first, as they are never quite sure whether or not he is going to kill them. However, he proves his loyalty to the rest of the Runaways and they become close friends. It is interesting to watch him struggle with his human side and his machine side, as a person needing to perform a balancing act between two sides of themselves is a familiar predicament for many young Latinos…
6) B’Elanna Torres, Star Trek: Voyager
One of the more complex characters in the Star Trek universe, B’Elanna Torres is half Klingon and half….Latina! B’Elanna isn’t someone that would jump out at you as being Latina, but her father, a human named John Torres, was indeed of Mexican descent. He left her and her Klingon mother, Miral, when B’Elanna was about 5 or 6 after not being able to deal with a Klingon wife any longer. (Interestingly enough, I happen to think that Klingon women and Latinas have a lot in common, and I’m not just talking about their hot-temperedness and mutual love of switchblades!) Seriously folks, not only was B’Elanna half Latina, but much of the stories that involved her character delved into her issues with being bi-racial, or rather, an interspecies hybrid. Once again, his tug-of-war between two cultures is a theme that is very familiar to Latinos in this country, and it’s interesting to see that struggle reflected in the Star Trek universe. B’Elanna is played by Puerto Rican actress, director, and author, Roxann Dawson.
5) El Wray, Planet Terror
When you’re first watching Planet Terror, he seems kind of wussy at first…a short wanna-be whining about his jacket to the hot go-go dancer he “deservedly” lost. However, it isn’t long before we discover that that wussy dude is “El Wray”, the most badass shot in the world…or at least in the state. The point is, he’s badass, and he can take out zombies and re-win the heart of the lovely Cherry Darling by fashioning a machine-gun leg for her. El Wray is played by Puerto Rican actor, Freddie Rodriguez.
4) Ana-Lucia Cortez, Lost
There has never been a polarizing figure in geek television quite like Ana-Lucia Cortez. Some people love her, some people can’t stand her. But in the world of Lost, she’s definitely interesting. Not only is she the anti-Jack, not shirking from leading the Tailies as Jack whines at every turn about leading his camp on the other side of the island, but she is also one of the people who was closest to Jack’s dad, Christian Shephard, who is one of the central figures in the mystery of the island. You might not like her, but you can’t ignore her, and I think that makes for a great character. She is played by half Puerto Rican/half Dominican actress, Michelle Rodriguez, who will be returning to Lost in 2009!
3) Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, Lost
Ana Lucia has everyone split, but there is no doubt that everyone loves Hurley! His relationship to the infamous “Numbers” and his seeming tie to Jacob’s cabin make him intriguing, but it’s his complexity as a character – his humor, his questionable sanity and his sweet demeanor – that make him really interesting. Also, he is another one of those characters that is “openly Hispanic” without being a stereotype, reflecting what it’s like to be a Latino who was born in the US and doesn’t necessarily watch Univision every day. He speaks Spanish to his mother at home….and hell, his dad is Cheech Marin! How awesome is that?! He’s played by half Chilean/half Cuban actor, Jorge Garcia.
2) Admiral William Adama, Battlestar Galactica
I’ve only just started watching Battlestar Galactica (I know…where have I been?), but I have fallen in love with the show and its characters. Adama is a wonderfully complex character; one with honor and integrity, but not without his flaws. It’s kind of difficult to discuss a character in terms of “ethnicity” when that character was born on another planet, but as he is brilliantly played by Mexican actor, Edward James Olmos, let’s just say that Adama is whatever the Hispanic equivalent would be on Caprica…
*drumroll*
1) The Joker, Batman
*screech* What?! I hear you ask…
But who said that The Joker was a gringo under that clown makeup? No one, that’s who! And in the 1960s TV version of Batman, The Joker was played by Cuban actor, Cesar Romero. As there’s no definitive back story for The Joker, we’ll never really know what his true ethnicity is. However, I’ll always prefer to think of The Joker as a sociopathic Cuban who would give Scarface a run for his money!
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TERESA JUSINO was born on the same day that Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn’t think so. As a writer, her work has appeared in Elmont Life newspaper, and on the sadly defunct website, CentralBooking.com. She is currently at work on a collection of short stories. As a geek, Teresa loves Star Trek, Lost, comics, and anything Joss Whedon ever touched. Also, she has a fangirl *squee-ing* crush on Brian K. Vaughan, which is now being rivaled by her burgeoning crush on Robert Downey Jr. in his Iron Man suit.
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Excellent list – and I’m one of those who loved Ana Lucia. Other Marvel Hispanic people include Skin and Cecelia Reyes, though Skin has more of a stereotype for a background (and was since killed) and Cecelia may or may not also be dead. If the Global Frequency TV show had gone ahead, we would have had the awesome self-described computing goddess Aleph, whose ethnicity was unclear in the comics but was played by the Mexican/Puerto Rican Aimee Garcia on TV.
Oh! And don’t forget the wonderful Wendy Watson, lead character of Middleman! She needs a post all her own! I look forward to this week.
Great list, Teresa! I look forward to the next installment of your column.
Very nice. I’m… kind of intrigued by the fact that several of them caused me to pause and say, “Oh yeah, I guess s/he is.” (Although, I think part of why I keep forgetting about Bill Adama is that both actors who play his sons are rather Anglo, while EJO’s actual son plays a completely unrelated character on BSG.) Speaking as someone from northern New England – a place not really known for its ethnic diversity – most of my exposure to other cultures during the formative years came through television. The non-white characters we’re seeing now are so much more realistic and positive than they would’ve been twenty years ago.
The entertainment industry seems to be moving beyond the cartoonish stereotypes and portraying people of all ethnicities as just people. I think that’s a good thing. Not to say that national/ethnic distinctions shouldn’t be made, just that the people making these shows and movies have finally realized that there’s more than one way to be “Black” or “Latino” or “Asian” or, yes, even “White”. Also, I’m noticing a lot more biracial actors getting into the mix, which adds another layer of complexity.
We may not be all the way there yet, but this seems to be a good start.
@ lilacsigil: I don’t know Middleman at all, actually! You’ll need to brief me on that one…
@ Rhea: Thanks!
@ Robin: It was really interesting to read your reaction. Something to remember, too, is that Hispanics come in all shades and there are plenty of Hispanics that look “Anglo.” Re: The Adamas on BSG, I read somewhere that EJO wears blue contacts on the show to resemble Jamie Bamber more, and that Bamber dyed his hair darker to resemble EJO more. Thing is, if I didn’t already know Bamber were British, I couldn’t just assume that he wasn’t Hispanic. Especially since EJO is playing his dad.
I didn’t realize that EJO’s son was on the show, too! (I’m only in the first season – trying to catch up by January) Who does he play?
Oh, you MUST include Wendy Watson on any list. The character was original not supposed to be Latina, but the Puerto Rican showrunner/comic creator Javy Grillo-Marxuach (he’s also worked on Lost and other shows) was told to make her a Latina by ABC. he only agreed if she would not be a stereotype (saying Papi, etc.) So the lovely Cuban-American actress Natalie Morales was chosen and plays the part like a regular person, not a stereotype. Met both at Comic Con, hope their show gets picked up for season 2.
http://abcfamily.go.com/abcfamily/path/section_Shows/page_Listing
@EMM – I couldn’t agree more! Natalie Morales is amazing on Middle Man. In fact, when Lisa first showed me Teresa’s list, my first response was “What about Wendy Watson?”
Dang. I need to watch Middle Man!
Very awesome. I love your list. =D LOL…I laughed about your comment on the Joker. I had not realized that his first actor was Cuban! He was so hilarious.
Also, does Runaways have a completed graphic novel set yet? I’ve been meaning to ask!
@Teresa: “I didn’t realize that EJO’s son was on the show, too! (I’m only in the first season – trying to catch up by January) Who does he play?”
Bodie [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0647453/] plays a Viper pilot, callsign Hot Dog. You’ve probably seen him around already.
Good luck getting caught up. Don’t forget to take periodic anti-angst breaks.
I think you’re right. Part of why I see Lee Adama as being so “white” is because I know Jamie is British. I hadn’t noticed EJO wearing blue contacts, but now I’ll have to investigate. Which means rewatching at least one episode. Darn the luck. [/sarcasm]
I read this on Javier Grillo-Marxuach’s blog the other day:
the culture warriors of npr have coined a rule from the middleman’s own natalie morales…the “morales rule” applies to the non-strereotypical portrayal of latinos in television, citing shows in which 1. no one calls anyone “papi’… 2. …no one dances to salsa music… and 3. no gratuitous spanish.
@ Noel: YES! Runaways has trade paperbacks (or hardcover, should you choose) through the recent Joss Whedon run on the title. There are 48 issues in all (49 if you count the craptastic newest one that’s supposed to “revamp” the series. Ugh.). Happy Reading!
Runaways 1: Pride & Joy #1-6
Runaways 2: Teenage Wasteland #7-12
Runaways 3: The Good Die Young #13-18
SECOND VOLUME
Runaways 4: True Believers #1-6
Runaways 5: Escape to New York #7-12
Runaways 6: Parental Guidance #13-18
Runaways 7: Live Fast #19-24
Runaways 8: Dead End Kids (written by Joss Whedon) #25-30
@ Robin: HOT DOG! I have seen him! That’s awesome! (and I love that character, too)
@ Alpha-Girl: That is amazing!
Now I really need to watch this show…I think just about everyone on my list adheres to the Morales Rule.