For real, ya’ll. During the season finale of Ugly Betty, the love interest of Hilda, Betty’s older sister, gave her a necklace with a pendant made of Dominican amber. It was the first time, despite the show’s setting being New York City, that there was any representation of some tangible element of something that is Caribbean Latino on the show. This isn’t to say that cultural elements of the Spanish speaking Caribbean are missing from the show; these elements that are precisely used to emphasize the family’s Latino background. For instance, reggeatón is used between scenes; and somehow, Betty can dance salsa although very few Mexicans I have met in the U.S. can; etc.
However, never in the show do we see people from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and other Caribbean portions of Latin America. If this is NYC, where are these folks? I was hoping the show would help the mainstream public understand the diversity of Latino community in the United States that are highly touted within the community and suddenly swept under the rug when not politically convenient. The fact that Betty’s family is a Mexican family in New York City is itself fodder for other important subjects such as the changing demographic trends of Latinos in NYC (although Betty’s family has been there for almost 30 years). Even in Queens, known for its high concentration of Columbians, Ecuadorians and Dominicans, we are left to search harder for these people than I ever did for Waldo. ¿Dónde está mi gente?
Then again, that may be too much to ask my favorite television. Then again, perhaps groundbreaking doesn’t exactly have the same meaning in TV land.
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