chicanosontv

About Sept. 2011, I attended a Chicano/Latino Film Festival in Downtown Santa Ana. It had dozens of Latino and Latino themed movies. One Saturday I attended for 6 hours 3 different movies and it was quiet an incredible experience. It was also an eye opener because two of these movies were made in the 1950s before I was born and yet I had never seen them nor heard of them.
What was incredible about these two black and white movies, Zorro and The Fugitive was that they were mainstream movies using big Hollywood actors such as Henry Fonday and , and big Mexicano actors such as Dolores del Rio and , while using rural Mexican landscapes and themes.
My million dollar question is what happened to us and to Chicanos on TV? Why did Hollywood make these such movies over 50 years ago and not now? Why didn’t they continue making these types of movies since? Especially since now there is a wider Latino base of audiance in the US?

Frank R Castillo (c) 2011

Last week’s Academy Awards or Oscars leaves you with the question “Why should Chicano/Latinos watch the Oscars?” There is nothing there for us. We are not adequately represented. The only Latino movie nominated for an Academy Award was Biutiful. But other than this there were no Chicanos on TV or the Oscars. I think we should do what we did with the Grammys a few years ago and have our our Latino Oscars just like the Latin Grammys. I’m sure we all get tired of seeing which white woman or white man will win this award whether for acting, writing, directing etc. Will he be from the US or from England or Scotland? Wow such diversity!
Again instead of watching the same old same ole, why don’t we have a Latin Oscars? Wouldn’t it be interesting?

Frank R Castillo (c) 2011

    Recently I saw a PBS special on pioneers and tv. It focused on space programs. One particular part mentioned the 1960s Star Trek series. It was saying that this TV program was unique in th at it was dealing with social issues on TV which up until that time weren’t mentioned. There was one part on Ohura, the black woman on the series. She stated that she wanted to quit the program early on because of the racism etc. that she encountered there. Until she received a phone call from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He told her he watched the show because there was an black (African-American) woman on the show. He told her how important it was for her to stay on the show. 

      Basically he told her that all of the civil rights fighting that has happening on the streets, she was doing just by being on TV because all America could see a black woman on TV. Needless to say she continued on the series. Wow what a statement! For Martin Luther King to compliment her for what she was doing on TV. Truly where on one has gone before.

Frank R Castillo (c) 2011

  Last summer there was a new Disney movie about a young, beautiful princess. This was not unsual. Afterall Disney has made a fortune telling stories about such princesses. What was unsual was that this was about a black pricess, a princess of color. I don’t remember the name of the movie (The Princess and the Frog) but it also involved a frog.  What was more incredible to me was a comment I heard in the news regarding this movie. “It was the first in Disney”s 50+ years in existence of making a cartoon movie featuring a black princess.”

  My only question is why did it take so long to make? And what about the other ethnic groups including Chicanos on TV? 

Frank R Castillo (C) 2011

     It’s great to be back after several months. I had two major problems and they are both related. One was of a technical/ computer problem. Basically last summer 2010, my email account was high jacked and used by some spanners. I was unable to use my email or my blog for about 5 months. Finally I was able to recover it. (I wasn’t even able to open it or send an email.)
      The second problem was that I started noticing that I was receiving many comments on my blog. But they were fake comments only intended to go and see some web page. As of today February 4, 2011, I have 372 comments, 171 Spam, 200 Pending and 1 approved. I could spend the next several months just reading these shabby comments. I won’t. But this was the second problem with my blog. Like my brother told me “they are just trying to shut me down.” But it won’t work. I’m still here. And my message of NO CHICANOS ON TV is still here.

Frank R. Castillo (c) 2011

The other day I went to the dollar theatre to watch some recent movies that I didn’t want to pay full top price for and I was surprised.

During the movie, Did You Hear About the Mogans?the white protagonist said something like, “her cologne smelled like a burrito.”  Then her ex-husband said something like maybe it wasn’t her cologne that smelled like a burrito. Maybe she smelled like a burrito.” I was flabbergasted. Here I was maybe the only Chicano watching this comedy in nearby Huntington Beach, CA and out of nowhere came this line. It felt like someone had used the N word on me.

Can’t Hollywood do better than this? Can’t they write lines that don’t make these kinds of racists comments?

One thing is not to have Chicanos on TV another is to insult us and our food with these kinds of comments. How would Jews or blacks feel if they had used their ethnic food to attach a smell to them?

Frank R. Castillo  ©      2010

Welcome to 2010!  I thought recently that there are now over 500 TV stations on cable TV. Wow! Or I should say now there are about 500 TV stations without Chicanos On TV!

I’m not sure which was better when we were excluded from only the regular channels like 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13. Now we we are excluded from more. You do the math. It seems like our best bet is Latino TV in Spanish like some commercials announce on Channel 34.

So welcome to 2010, still No Chicanos On TV!