John Leguizamo isn't happy with James Franco playing Fidel Castro

Caribbean aboriginals were Taino, Arawak, Kalinago etc.

Not Aztec or Mayan.

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So, Franco is ineligible because he is of Portuguese ancestry. So close, James!
Only people of Spanish-Canarian ancestries who can also trace relatives back to Cuba qualify.

Portugal was once part of Spain…

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Is anyone happy with Franco being in any movie at this point, though?

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I would immediately say no but he was perfectly cast in “The Disaster Artist”.

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Well, with Franco in the role, Castro will certainly come across as sleazy and sketchy. If that was the intent, then the casting choice was perfect.

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Some definitions of “Latin American” include all the peoples originating from the American colonial activities of Romance countiries, where the colonized region’s culture has been strongly influenced by said colonizing nation. This ends up including Haiti (having borne French colonialism) but, maybe weirdly, tends to exclude Canada (since although it was originally a French protectorate its European cultural heritage is more informed by England). In common usage I think the “Iberoamerican” idea is more widely accepted. In either case “Latino” tends to assume the Americas, since it emerges from “Latin America” geographic identifier.

Spain itself is often included under the “Hispanic” heading, since Hispanic-ness is sometimes treated as a linguistic-cultural grouping rather than a manifestation of a particular colonial inheritance. (I don’t know if I agree with this one myself…)

Belize is right out.

Equitorial Guinea is Hispanic but not Latino.

In practice, though, Hispanic and Latino are often treated as nearly interchangeable. Do so at your own peril.

Hey folks, it’s a category debate! My favorite.

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The various peoples of the Earth who are distinctly different do have different genetics, and race when applied to skin color or features can be considered genetically acquired. Neither better nor worse, merely different.

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Kenan Thompson Snl GIF by Saturday Night Live

Read the article I posted. Race is not a genetic thing. At all. It’s a social construct. It’s locality that matters, not skin color.

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Which is why I specifically mentioned Mexico and Central America as the origins for those peoples.

Tell you have White privilege, without telling me…

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Ah - like saying he wasn’t Portuguese because he didn’t have heritage from the Teutonic aboriginals.

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Pff. I see no importance in genetic differentiation. I make no claim about the thoughts and beliefs of white supremacists, and do not count myself as one of them. Privilege has nothing to do with personal morality. A rich person can choose to be equitable while a poor one can choose to be stingy. Accusing a white person of being unable not to bask in privilege is itself racist. Racism is not in how you are born but in how you act and speak.

This would be an argument in favor of the social construction of race and how it can be about locality- not genes - as Mindy explained.

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Let’s be clear here, this isn’t a discussion about what constitutes “race”, because it means different things to different people.

A great example of this is being Jewish by ancestry, Jewish by religion, or Jewish by cultural association. I know people who declare themselves Jewish (or not) because of all three of these categories, and they may or may not belong to the other two. Regardless of what they believe, though, society variably considers them “Jewish” or not through their own definitions of the term. And this is nothing compared to the situation I’m sure PoC experience regularly.

As with many of these issues, the focus should be on what the group themselves consider to be inclusive. It may change over time, especially as the history of migration becomes more clear, and social norms change. Hollywood has an obligation to understand the nuances here. They are being held to task for this, and rightly so.

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Not what I wrote nor implied, nor does it address my valid point.

Thanks for confirming.

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First, a disclaimer.
It is sometimes hard to engage with such arguments as these while making it clear that you are calling out the argument and not the person making them so I’ll be direct. I engage with the argument presented and make no claim as to the intent or state of mind of the person making them.

In the general sense this is irrelevant, Mexicans also have Spanish (And German, and French and so on) ancestry as well as ancestry to people indigenous to what is now known as Mexico. This ancestry is not just Aztec or Maya, there are just too many indigenous peoples to mention.

I mean, so are a lot of people form Latin America which is why it is irrelevant. but this argument, that Spanish ancestors are white unless they are Moors is so wrong. I personally know some Spaniards, not all of them would classify as “white” at first glance. And we’re talking about Castro here, he wasn’t born centuries ago when the Moors were a distinct population.
Castro’s father was certainly a Spaniard, but if Fidel Castro is not Latin American, then who is?

The arguments (The arguments only!) as presented here conflate ethnicity and nationality in such a way as to establish the category of whiteness as something that cant overlap with Latin Americans, and fully encompassing the people of Spain.

Please note that you argue that Castro is descendent from white people because they are from Spain and not Moors.

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What does all this have to do with playing a role? (Yes, Mickey Rooney aside, but there was still a lot of deep seated anger against Japan in the 1950s, a lot of it deserved, and a lot of racism, which is still here. Nothing to do with Japanese Americans.) To say that any particular character cannot be played by a skilled actor because that actor does not have the cultural or racial history of the character is to say no actor is good enough. It is also condemning all non-white actors to never get another role for a character who is intended to be white or is simply not specific. The street runs both ways. You want a pigeon-hole? You’ll get a pigeon-hole, in spades.

You don’t even need to put him in a character to make him a “please don’t be angry at me” kind of person:


Those eyes… dude can pull off intense that’s for sure.

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I’ll respond to that from my communities’ experience. It’s not that it can’t be done - it’s that it usually has been done so poorly and the practice excluded minority populations from all roles.

What you’re stating as a possible consequence was actually the ground state.

As to how poorly it served art; this is the Hollywood portrayal of a transgender woman in Dog Day Afternoon:

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This is that woman in reality:

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