¡Bienvenidos a la Boca del Infierno!

[tablesaw]

This is the result of a few things.

One, I found a new blog, SciFi Latino, by typing in the same Google search that I do every few months, "SciFi Latino". Someone else was also frustrated by the unhelpful results, and has started a blog (and a Twitter account that's keeps updated with links).

The blog will review current television series, cancelled shows, movies, books and anything else that I consider genre-worthy and where we see a Latino participating in a significant capacity. He or she may be an actor, a director, a producer—I want to reach out and get to know as many as I can. SCIFI LATINO will cover English and Spanish language media from the U.S. and abroad.

And on the front page, there's a great collage of Latinos from scifi and fantasy media.

Two, I rewatched "Inca Mummy Girl" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Three, whedonland hosted a picspam challenge.

And these three things made me think, "I should do a picspam of all the Latino/a characters that appeared on Buffy the Vampire Slayer." And thus:



First, a word about methodology. To find Latinos, I read through the entire IMDB episode-cast list for Buffy. As a result, I based my list mostly on the names that got credited. When possible, I tried to get some corroboration on publicity pages or, at the very least, by seeing if the actors were credited with Latino roles elsewhere on IMDB. But Buffy's over ten years old, and not everyone kept acting since then. I may have missed a few, and it might turn out that some of the actors listed as Latino/as below actually aren't.

1.5 Never Kill a Boy on the First Date

The first Latino actor to be credited in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is Paul-Felix Montez as "Mysterious Guy"



Well, this is embarrassing. I mean, I know he was credited.



As far as I can tell, the scene featuring "Mysterious Guy" was in the original script (you can find it in the Buffy Script Book, but that scene doesn't appear in the aired episode. The fact that Montez got a screen credit suggests to me that the scene was filmed, though.

So the first Latino in Sunnydale was . . . edited out. That's not a good sign.

Especially since we don't see anyone else until next season

2.02 Inca Mummy Girl

This episode has three Latino/a characters, which is the most we'll ever see in one episode. First, let's start with the star of the show, Ara Celi as "Ampata Gutierrez."



Okay, you got me, not all of those are from the show. The center right image is of Momia Juanita, an Inca girl who was found frozen in ice on Mount Ampato in Peru in 1995, and who toured the United States a year before the episode aired.

Both Juanita and "Ampata" are over 500 years old, and although Celi is a gorgeous Chicana (who I certainly had a crush on back when this episode first aired), it's pretty silly casting to have someone that pale playing a Pre-Columbian Inca. But there's another Peruvian character this episode, "Peruvian Man":



"Peruvian Man" is played by Gil Birmingham, who is not not Peruvian, but Comanche. You may know him better from some small indie film about about the supernatural in the American Northwest.



But wait, there's more! There's one last Latino character, "Peruvian Boy" (the actual Ampata), played by Samuel Jacobs:



Yeah, that's the best screenshot there is, and thanks to desert_sky for managing to get it. Samuel Jacobs has no IMDB credits other than this one episode; this is all we know of him.

So our first three Latino characters and our first (probably) two Latino/a actors don't appear until season two. And yet, we still haven't seen any Sunnydale Latinos—these three are all from Peru. Anybody else this season? Well, kinda.

2.9-2.10 What's My Line?

Hey, look, it's Saverio Guerra in his first appearance as Willy, the Snitch with a bar. He'll show up a few other times (3.10 Amends, 3.13 The Zeppo, and 4.14 Goodbye Iowa) and be mentioned even a few more.



Now Willy's a Sunnydale institution, but Guerra is of European descent (Spanish-American). Depending on how you draw the lines, you may or may not consider him Hispanic, but he's not a Latino. So why's he here? Well, I get points based on the number of pics in this spam. And frankly, I can use the borderline cases with multiple appearances, because we're already off to next season.

3.9 The Wish

Now let's meet Robert Covarrubias.



Covarrubias has been an actor in Los Angeles for many years, and he's playing the first Latino resident of Sunnydale. I'm sure he's an important . . . wait, what's he holding there?



Well, then. Covarrubias is playing the "Caretaker" of Sunnydale High School. And, technically, this is an alternate-universe Sunnydale, but I think we can assume that he's there in the real Sunnydale too, even if we never, ever, ever see him again.

3.9 Earshot

Keram Malicki-Sánchez is Freddy Iverson, the editor of the Sunnydale Sentinel.



Malicki-Sanchez is Canadian and mixed Polish and Ecuadoran. He's also a singer and, according to Wikipedia, a "New Media guru." Freddy is the first Latino student at Sunnydale High, and he's the only one we'll see until the school is rebuilt in Season 7.

3.22 Graduation Day: Part 2

Paulo Andrés is Doctor Powell, who takes care of Buffy—not to be confused with Doctor Gold, who takes care of Faith. (That could totally be an episode of Grey's Anatomy. "My surgery's a Slayer." "Oh yeah, well, my surgery's a rogue slayer.")



I'm not entirely certain, but I think that there's a good chance that this is the same Andrés who's a talent manager.

4.01 The Freshman

Okay, so we're in a new season, Sunnydale HS is destroyed, and Buffy's going to college. You'd expect to see a wider range of diversity in Buffy's new class. And here's Pedro Pascal (formerly Pedro Balmaceda) as Eddie, making a new-student connection with fellow classmate Buffy.



What a fantastic meet-cute. And a great opportunity for Buffy to have a recurring Latino character. Maybe they'll share classes or pass each other in the dorm halls.



Or maybe he'll be devoured by a group of White vampires who completely obliterate all traces of his existence. That is also a thing that might happen. Also, that's the end of Latino UCS students. Let's hear it for Prop 209.

4.10 Hush

Yeah, I know, this isn't the episode I would expect to find Latinos with speaking roles, and yet, here's Carlos Amezcua as "Newscaster."



It's no coincidence that Amezcua would be playing a newscaster reporting on Sunnydale from Los Angeles.



That's because Amezcua has been an LA newscaster for quite a while. Although he's currently on KTTV, the local Fox station (as you can see above), in 1999, he was an anchor on KTLA, the WB station that aired Buffy in Los Angeles.

We're at the halfway point of the entire series, we've had:

7 Latinos onscreen,
1 Latino cut out,
1 Spanish-American, and
1 Native American playing a Peruvian.

Well, I guess we should continue.

4.21 Primeval

Let's take a look at Latinos in The Initiative. Here's Jordi Vilasuso as Dixon.



Vilasuso is a Cuban-American who won an Emmy for playing Tony Santos on Guiding Light.

5.19 Tough Love

Almost an entire season later, we meet Mrs. Stevens, played by Anne Betancourt.



Stevens is the principal of Dawn's middle school, and only the second Latina we've seen since Ara Celi. (We won't meet another until the Potentials start gathering.)

6.05 Life Serial

Life Serial, is the second episode to have more than one Latino actor—Noel Gugliemi as Vince and Enrique Almeida as Marco.



Gugliemi is on the left and Almeida is on the right, both as part of the construction crew that Xander works on.

When I mentioned this project to ojouchan, she said, "Oh, you get to put Noel in it!" She'd worked with Gugliemi on a project, and he'd been very proud of his time on Buffy, including some work as a vampire. He showed her a picture of himself with his "game face" on. Of course, as a vampire he didn't have any lines, which means he didn't get a credit for it.

6.06 All the Way

Back-to-back Latinos? Here's Tony Sago as "Paramedic #2"



This is a real blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance, and again, thanks to desert_sky for managing to nab the screencap.

6.07 Once More, with Feeling

Three in a row? Is it possible? Here's Alex Estornel as "Henchman"



I have no idea which one he is. Estornel is a dancer and fitness trainer who's toured with artists like Jennifer Lopez and Gloria Estefan. Here he is without the mask:



6.09 Smashed

We skip an episode, and then we're back on track. This time it's Rick Garcia as "Reporter"



Like Amezcua, Garcia is an LA newscaster. At the time, Garcia was on KTTV, the local Fox affiliate. But since Buffy had moved to UPN, the UPN affiliate had been purchased by Fox, and Buffy was being produced by Fox, I guess they went with KTTV this time. (Now he's at a CBS-owned station.)

Both Amezcua and Garcia have won multiple Emmys and have been recognized by the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

7.01 Lessons

Nothing until next season, but we start out early. The rebuilt Sunnydale High is going to turn out to be slightly more diverse (but just slightly). First, let's look at the faculty—Ed Francis Martin as a "Teacher":



Seriously, all his screecaps are really boring looking.

Update: entwashian points out an omission in my original post for this episode:

entwashian: I have to ask, is there any particular reason you've discluded David Zepeda, who played one of Dawn's new buddies, Carlos, in "Lessons"?
tablesaw: Gah!

No, just an oversight. I'll update tomorrow when I have a chance.
entwashian: It must've been the shock of having 2 Latinos in 2 different scenes in one episode.

During Dawn's first day of high school, she meets up with two other new students who are also seeing strange things at school. And they join forces and survive, and they walk off together, and you get the feeling that Dawn has found her own Willow and Xander.

Yeah, we never see them again.

Also, I suspect that the IMDB page is wrong, and that the David Zepeda is different from the one who has most of the telenovela credits on that page. They don't quite look the same, and I have a hard time believing that the kid in this episode was the first runner up in Manhunt International two years earlier. You can see for yourself over here.

7.04 Help

Next, let's take a look at the students. Here's Rick Gonzalez as Tomas.



You might remember him from his recent role as Ben Gonzalez on Reaper



7.05 Never Leave Me

Next we have Roberto Santos as Grimes.



About whom I have little to say.

7.10 Bring on the Night

And finally, we move on to the Potential Slayers. The first batch arrive in this episode, including Iyari Limon as Kennedy.



Kennedy is by far the most prominent Latina on Buffy. She is credited with 13 episodes, more than half of the last season. She has regular screentime and becomes romantically involved with one of the main characters. And yet, she isn't identified as a Latina by the show. As Ben Francisco said, when putting Kennedy at #8 on his list of Top 12 Latin Superheroes:

I don’t think Kennedy’s ethnicity was ever explicitly identified, though she was played by Mexican actress Iyari Limon. Given that, I would say her inclusion in this list is somewhat problematic, but I’m a big Buffy fan so I stretched the point. Of course, the fact that I had to stretch this far for a Latina character from the Buffyverse is a sign that the show was not quite the rainbow of diversity it’s sometimes made out to be. Especially considering this was California, which has more Latinos than some Latin American countries.

I'll talk a little more about this after the pictures. And there are more Latinas in among the Potentials.

7.18 Dirty Girls

Kennedy's not the only recurring Latina. Our next Potential is Caridad, played by Dania Ramírez.



Caridad only gets lines in Xander's fantasy scene, but she does show up as a real-life slayer with speaking lines as well. Those scenes are either in large groups or debris-filled caverns or both, so I couldn't dredge up any more screencaps, though. Ramírez may also be familiar as Maya from Heroes.



According to the Buffy Wiki, "Caridad was originally named 'Kelly'. The character was renamed after Dania Ramírez was cast." Of course, they didn't make any similar changes when Limon was cast as Kennedy, perhaps because Ramírez is darker skinned and has an accent.

7.20 Touched

Our last potential is Lisa Ann Cabasa as "Injured Girl"



She's injured in "Touched," but she recovers enough to participate in and make it out of the final battle.



And that's it.

So we've looked at a total of 24 people.

1 is Spanish-American.
1 is Native American (playing a Latino).
1 is a Latino whose scene was cut.
21 are Latino/as who appeared onscreen.

Of those:
16 are men.
5 are women.
1 appeared in more than three episodes.
2 appeared in exactly three episodes.
18 appeared in only one episode.
13 appeared in only one scene.
2 were LA newscasters playing themselves.
12 were Sunnydale natives.

And what have we learned? Well, as many have noted, there aren't very many Latinos on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On the other hand, there are more than I expected. And they are overwhelmingly male, which I wouldn't have expected, but which falls in line with a general perception that non-white groups default to male. Also, a number of the Latino/as are very light-skinned. Now I'm a mixed white Mexican myself, but it's another thing that contributes to the invisibility of Latino/as on the show. With Anglo names (or no names at all) and the overwhelming whiteness of the rest of the milieu, viewers are led to see these characters and actors as white (and also not Latino).

So it's mostly what I knew before, but with a bit more data and with lots of pretty pictures.

Comments

[zevabe.livejournal.com]

So having actors of color is only diverse if the commander is a POC? Was the original Star Trek not diverse (for its time) because Shatner is white?

[jadelennox]

1. "having actors of color is only diverse if the commander is a person of color" isn't even remotely what I said.

2. The original Star Trek was 40 years before Firefly. I'd like to think that we have made some progress in 40 years.

3. Firefly's race problems are so immense that the presence of Gina Torres don't even come close to the fighting them. Mostly, they have to do with a world full of white people cursing in Mandarin; stylized prostitutes that are modeled after some kind of mythical geisha ideal; people wearing coolie hats in front of signs that say "we serve dog"; the creator defending it as "I know we have no Asian actors but they were the best actors for the job, really, race blind casting!" (paraphrase).

4. That being said, responding to the question you asked about the comment I didn't make: people of color as powerful sidekicks has become a trope across literature, television, and film. If you look at the standard posse shot from most television shows, you will see the leader in front (usually a white man/white boy) with his friends and sidekicks behind him, usually including a white woman and a man of color. See also the Missing Black Woman Formation as a related trope. Literature and film are full of white men being in charge of the group of heroes. Joss is less guilty than many (he's also had a white woman in charge!) but like many others, he creates art that falls into this trope. I'm not saying he should be pilloried for it, but I am saying he sure as hell shouldn't be praised.