Cultural Appropriation is real and very wrong.
Being a Latina comes with a lot of pride, and it hurts to see a non-Latino profit off of Spanish culture. The definition of cultural appropriation is when members of a dominant culture take elements or ideas from a minorities culture and claim it as their own or profit from it.
One example is an actress, Ronni Hawk, who played a Mexican-American character named Olivia on the Netflix original series, “On My Block,” last year. In the show, Hawk’s character lived with family friends since her parents were deported. Fans of the show questioned her ethnicity and weeks later it was found online that Hawk was not of Spanish descent.
On her social media, she was not afraid to showcase her pro-Trump side and talked very badly about Hispanics. Past co-stars who worked with Hawk were not pleased to find out she was working on a show based off of Latino and African-American characters when Hawk proved to have racial tendencies.
Hawk’s past co-star, Jenna Ortega was not pleased and took it upon social media to share her thoughts. In the tweet, she subliminally calls out Hawk for her white privilege to best casted on the show vs. someone who could’ve had the role who is of Spanish descent.
After all the drama it was discovered that Hawk and her agent lied about her ethnicity for multiple roles to earn more acting jobs. It is hurtful to know this happens a lot in the entertainment industry. Minority groups work hard to be taken seriously and pursue a career in a white-dominated industry.
When Latinos do get cast for shows because of their race they are stereotyped and asked to perform with an accent or act clueless. A lot of young actors fall into the trap and perform stereotyped roles because they rather book a role.
This happens almost all the time, even with the celebrities we all know and love like Madonna who played, Evita, an Argentinian, and although we all love the movie “Nacho Libre,” I do wish Hollywood would have picked someone else.
Cultural appropriation n is everywhere and will continue to happen if we don’t speak up and say something.
