Sunday, November 25, 2012

 The final episode that I watched of Pastport on NUVO TV was with actress Tatyana Ali, best known for playing  Ashley Banks on the TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Tatyana is a first generation American who's father is from Trinidad and mother is from Panama. She visited Panama once but was too young to remember the trip. In this episode the young actress returns to Panama with her sister to meet her uncle and extended family and to learn about her Panamanian heritage. While there, she also was able to perform and record with a famous reggaeton group. As always, it was very moving to see this young successful American actress explore one side of her ethnic heritage and meet family members and have a life changing experience.
 Now that I have seen four episodes ( Cuba, Colombia, Argentina, and Panama) I can conclude that the show is consciously breaking with American stereotypes about Latinas/Latinos, educating the viewer of the diversity of Latino culture. It is not the "Imagined Latinidad" that has long been the tradition in American media. The male hosts are not depicted as "Latin-lovers", or "banditos", and the female hosts are not exploited as exotic sex symbols nor are they portrayed as spicy "spitfires". This is a reality show about real Latino-Americans, each with very different, and complicated family histories.The show does battle with the Hollywood notion of the generic-Latino and includes American entertainers whose audiences may not even be aware of their Latino heritage. Tatyana, for example, is famous for playing an African-American character on sitcom with an all African-American cast, which included Will Smith as the show's star. As an Afro-Caribbean-Latino she breaks the mold of what Hollywood says Latinas should look like. In picking these entertainers the producers are showing that all Latinas do not look like Selma Hayek or Jenifer Lopez, some look African, some look European etc.
Also I believe it is safe to say that the intended audience is young Latino-Americans that speak mostly English, but may understand some Spanish. I say this because the hosts are mostly young and they engage in youth culture in some way(music groups, young actors, hip fashion). Secondly, hosts speak English when addressing the audience during their intervews where the speak directly to the camera, and all the spanish that is spoken on the show is subtitled in English. Also, they are all entertainers that appear in English language media. Lastly, the fast tempo music and rapid cuts in the editing seems to indicate that the producers are shooting for a hip audience.
Over all, I found Nuvo's Pastport to be an entertaining show which provides much needed visibility for Latinas/Latinos in the media, and represented in a very thoughtful and positive manner.

 

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