著者

牛島 万

出版者

城西大学

雑誌

国際文化研究所紀要 (ISSN:13412663)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.5, pp.39-62, 1999-11-30

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I have studied the transcendental characters of Hispanic/Latinos in American movies. The following may be given as a conclusion. Stereotypes of Hispanics are different by gender, and the number of women's stereotypes is greater than that of the men's. There are both positive and negative images of stereotyped Hispanics. Positive images of male Hispanics are masculine, kind to women, but on the other hand, the negative images are spitfire and violent. Positive images of female Hispanics are passionate, motherly, chaste and pure, but the negative images are short-tempered, ignorant, rude, subordinate, etc. From the 1920s to 40s, Hispanic actresses were very popular and there were two types of actress. Some actresses, like Dolores del Rio and Rita Hayworth, emphasized their positive stereotyped images. Others, like Lupe Velez and Carmen Miranda, tried to get rid of their negative stereotyped images and tried to be comedian actresses. They, however, failed to have transcendental characters at last. The transcendental characters of Hispanic heroes could be often seen in the movies in 1980s. In this period Male Hispanic actors were more popular than Hispanic actresses, and such heroes tried to act as transcendental characters in the movies. For laying emphasis on a strong impression of this kind of Hispanic hero, other actors or actresses with stereotyped characters were necessary to act on the movies. In the 1990s, the same kind of stereotyped characters as that in 1980s are greatly acting in the movies, but a new phenomenon is seen in some American movies: A Hispanic hero has changed his destereotyped characters to a stereotyped one and got to have a counter-transcendental character. This means that it is truly difficult for Hispanics to transcend even in the movies. This is because movies are influenced by the reality of our society.