Asian Americans and Latino Families: Race and Ethnicity Presentation

Background

• Film depicting Asian American family is “Fresh Off The Boat”;
• Aired in 2015;
• Has ran for six seasons so far;
• The show is set in the 1990s;
• It was created by Nahnatchka Khan;
• Focuses on the life of a chef who moves his family from Taiwan to America;
• Film depicting Latino family is “Jane the Virgin”;
• The show is about Jane, who lives with her mother and grandmother;
• Jane’s love life is the main theme of the show;
• It is a telenovela;
• Show was released in 2014 and aired its last episode in 2019;
• It was created by Jennie Snyder Urman.

Why the Families Were Selected

• Jane the Virgin show was selected due to the stereotypes that are enhanced by the show;
• Also selected due to the relations it portrays between races;
• Fresh off the Boat was selected due to the cultural diversity it portrays;
• One show that was considered was Modern Family in place of Jane the Virgin;
• Modern Family was ruled out due to the mixture of cultures within one family through extensive kin.

Stereotypes and Biases

• Jane the Virgin supports the stereotype that Latinos are often janitors and maids;
• Jane is a maid in the hotel of her future husband;
• Also portrays that Latino extensive family include someone who cannot speak English. For example, Jane’s grandmother, Alba Gloriana Villanueva;
• Fresh off the Boat main stereotype is that Asian American moms are tiger moms;
• Also enhance the bias that Asian Americans always have fictive kin.

Culture and Diversity Representation

• Culture and diversity represented both positively and negatively in both shows;
• Diversity clearly brought out through the parenting styles highlighted in Jane the Virgin;
• For instance, Jane wants to use positive reaffirmations to raise her son when the father of her child does not;
• Blended families also brought out in Jane the Virgin as the father of her son also has other children with his ex-wife;
• Diversity also brought out in “Fresh off the Boat” through comparison of Asian-American family values and Caucasian-American ones.

Contrast and Comparison

• Similar in that they are both minority groups living in the US;
• Similar in that they put some focus on extended kin and fictive relatives;
• Different in their cultural representations of family;
• Race influences the differences as Asian-American subscribe to different cultural biases compared to Latinos;
• Learnt that individual cultures have their own biases that oth prolongs the longevity of their societies.

Definition of Race and Ethnicity

• Race – group of people with similar or near similar social and physical characteristics;
• Ethnicity – a group of people tied together by either national or cultural values and beliefs;
• Difference lies in the fact that race is a broad term that can encompass people with similar or near similar physical characteristics but might have different cultures and languages. For instance, Asian-American is a race that includes Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese among others;
• On the other hand, ethnicity includes similarities in cultures, languages. For example among the Chinese there are Zhuang, Manchu and the Hui among others.

Gender Roles

• Traditional gender roles represented in both families;
• In Jane’s family the women are mainly household maids and cleaners;
• The men run the businesses and have careers such as musicians and actors;
• In Louis’ family the woman is the house manager while the father works;
• Similarity can be drawn on gender roles in both races;
• A gender role that is specific to the Latino family is the holder of religion – the woman;
• A gender role that is specific to the Asian American family is the family provider – the man.

Race and Ethnicity as Portrayed in the Media

• They are presented as one and the same thing when they are in fact, different;
• Can be argued that the two aspects are presented as one in the media;
• There is often misrepresentation and misappropriation of culture in an attempt to show either race or ethnicity;
• Films often rely on cultural stereotypes and biases to push their stories;
• Media representation of both race and ethnicity has recently been called out by societies and critics.

Conclusion

• The two films selected were Jane the Virgin and Fresh off the Boat;
• Jane the Virgin depicts the life of a Latino family;
• Fresh off the Boat depicts the life of an Asian-American family;
• Both shows highlight racial and cultural aspects of the two families;
• A similarity is that they clearly separate gender roles based on their individual cultures;
• A difference is the extent of relationship between the nuclear families and the extended kins.