Hispanic Heritage Month starts today. Go beyond celebration.
GO BEYOND CELEBRATION
National Hispanic Heritage Month starts today. Screen this acclaimed film to celebrate the diversity of Latino cultures while challenging the destructive stereotypes that continue to shape US media and politics.
National Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15) is an important opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary richness of Latino cultures and the contributions Latino people have made to American life.
But at a moment when anti-Latino rhetoric, racial profiling, and hostility toward immigrants are on the rise, there’s also an urgent need to help students understand the cultural forces that have helped fuel this climate of fear and resentment.
That’s where Miguel Picker and Chyng Sun’s acclaimed documentary Latinos Beyond Reel: Challenging a Media Stereotype comes in.
Drawing on Latino scholars, journalists, Hollywood actors, artists, and community leaders, the film digs deep into history to show how U.S. news and entertainment media have reduced one of the nation’s largest and most diverse populations to a narrow set of dehumanizing stereotypes. It also shows how those stereotypes have helped shape public attitudes, political debate, and government policies.
Between now and October 15, we’re offering 15% off Latinos Beyond Reel with the coupon code HERITAGE26.
In direct rebuttal to the distortions and myths that have circulated for decades in U.S. media and political culture, Latinos Beyond Reel also celebrates the richness, diversity, and humanity of Latino communities while challenging viewers to imagine media capable of telling fuller, more truthful stories.
Whether you teach media studies, journalism, sociology, ethnic studies, political science, communications, American history, or Spanish, Latinos Beyond Reel offers a timely way to move beyond celebration alone and help students think critically about the media images that continue to shape how Latino people are seen and understood.
Praise for Latinos Beyond Reel
“Latinos Beyond Reel is more than a compelling documentary: it is a timely indictment of an industry that consistently maligns and misrepresents America’s largest ethnic group.
— Myra Mendible, Ph.D. | Editor of From Bananas to Buttocks: The Latina Body in Popular Film and Culture
“Reveals a relentless, stereotypical, and narrow vision of Latinidad produced by the culture industries.”
— Esteban del Rio | Associate Professor of Communication Studies, University of San Diego
“Illuminates the historical and contemporary invisibility and misrepresentation of Latinos in news and entertainment media and helps viewers understand how and why this distorted picture has come about. Given that 1 in 4 American children is now Latino, this is a vitally important educational documentary.”
— Mary Beltrán, Ph.D. | Author of Latina/o Stars in U.S. Eyes: The Making and Meanings of Film
“Comprehensive and powerful. Shows how stereotypes go beyond the symbolic realm and can harm the minds and bodies of Latinos, particularly children.”
— Debra Merskin, Ph.D. | Author of Media, Minorities, and Meaning: A Critical Introduction
“Convincingly illustrates the gaps between our national rhetoric of a diverse and multiethnic democracy and the paucity of diverse ethnic media representations.”
— Vicki Mayer, Ph.D. | Author of Producing Dreams, Consuming Youth: Mexican Americans and Mass Media
“A must-see documentary. As a black Puerto Rican sociologist who suffers ‘en carne propia’ many of the things highlighted in this documentary, I endorse it wholeheartedly and will use it in my classes.”
— Eduardo Bonilla Silva, Ph.D. | Professor of Sociology, Duke University
“An indispensable resource for scholars and students of mediated Latino identities.”
— Guillermo Avila-Saavedra, Ph.D. | Assistant Professor of Communications at Salem State University
“Through children’s eyes, viewers experience the devastating impact of Latino invisibility and the proliferation of negative images in news and entertainment media.”
— Lourdes Torres, Ph.D. | Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at DePaul University
