Perception: One story: Latin Americans.

The one story of Latin Americans is something that has been around for decades. And throughout the years little has changed in the way that they are portrayed in the Media. Their one story is seen as lazy, dirty, immigrants who come from terrible life circumstances and can't bother to learn english.

In this song by Cheech and Chong shows a a comedic musical interpretation of how Latin Americans see themselves. While also having the contrast of how americans view Latin Americans. This is one storied on both sides. Showing how Latin's see themselves portrayed in the media as all of these different stereotypes, then the americans agreeing with all the stereotypes and just lumping them all into a one word summary. 

In the media Latin americans are seen as being the character with "street smarts'. The one who knows their way around illegal activity and drugs. This is based on where they come from. Often these are pushed into media using comedy. Most latin characters are the jokers, the ones in which are not as smart as the main character but are there to lighten the mood and kick in a good joke well timed joke. This stems from the idea that because Latin americans may look, or sound a little different then that makes them less. It gives them a right to make fun of them self and in turn make others feel guilt because they come from worse situations.  Saying anything after the saying "in my country...", ends up being either extremely comical, or an extreme reality check. Television shows and movies are two of the biggest culprits fro cultivating this ideal. In modern family Sofia Vergara plays the extremely attractive latin american mom who knows her way around the block. Her character is hilarious and well written to accurately show the "one story" way the media views Latin Woman. 

Pitch Perfect 2 added in a Sassy Latin to really fill out it's cast. And adds many one liners from the Character Flo about how her life as a Latino American is. 

 

Taking a deeper look into the reasons behind why these stereotypes come about led to the underlying idea of the "American Dream". It is what all the jokes, images, videos and media stem back to. The concept that the U.S. is superior to the other latin and hispanic countries. That these other countries are poor, dirty, and uncivilized and that the moving to the US provides a better life. The one story is that everyone came her for the same reason; to escape a horrible situation. Yet this is not true at all, their are hundreds of different reasons why Latin's have moved to the U.S. But this idea of finding a better life is the only one that seems to be recognized. This article depicts how this ideal is not only extremely stereotypical, but also false. Statistics show that first generations latin americans are usually in equal circumstances in the US as they would be in their home nations. But the second generation is where you see a large increase and the idea of a "better future" is more common.  

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/11/are-hispanics-finding-a-better-life-in-the-us/416211/