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Paper short abstract:

“Las caras lindas”, sings Ismael Rivera, but just how pretty are Puerto Rican faces given their scarcity in film? This paper uses historical mis/representations of Puerto Ricans and the author’s own experiences to discuss the failure of Hollywood towards racial othering and autochthonous filmmaking.

Paper long abstract:

This paper works on two consecutive arguments: first, that the predominately White, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant Hollywood film industry preys on an exoticism of racial “others” to perform stereotypes easily consumable by the American public eye. Using the primary example of Puerto Rican actors and characters in films such as West Side Story, it discusses how White-authored narratives trend towards a misunderstanding of non-autochthonous cultural representations that have damaging effects on the further representation of these cultures in American pop media. Secondly, it argues how the enfranchisement of creatives from “othered” backgrounds with storytelling autonomy leads to a greater sense of respect for the characters within the narrative and the culture. I cite the production process for my own film, The Only Good Thing, to show how the above-mentioned systematic issues originally discouraged me from writing for an all-Puerto Rican cast, only for luck to play its hand in giving in me a full set of Puerto Rican leads. I subsequently explore the history of representation of Puerto Ricans in film, both in front of and behind the camera, as well as provide a general analysis of the systematic failures by the corporative Hollywood industry to portray the aforementioned racial “others” in a respectful fashion. The paper concludes by arguing that the continued active participation of culturally autonomous creatives will lead to better representation and a greater diversity in filmmaking that cannot be provided by the current status-quo.