So I’ve recently started watching telenovelas on Netflix – I know that watching TV in Spanish will help keep my Spanish comprehension skills “fresh”.
Within the past few weeks, I was watching a telenovela (I have the audio in Spanish with Spanish subtitles) in the family room when my tween walked in. She heard them speaking Spanish and was watching the screen for a few minutes, and then she suddenly asked me if they (the actors) were Mexican. My tween knows that people from Mexico can be any skin color—I’ve even shown her pictures of the boxer Canelo to help prove my point. But I think from her point of view, Mexicans tend to look like her—various shades of tan and brown. The majority of the actors in this telenovela are in fact Mexican, so I told her that and also reminded her that Mexican skin tones vary.
But when my tween hears Spanish, she instantly thinks of Mexico, Mexicans, and/or Mexican-Americans. And I think that makes sense because we tend to think about what we’re familiar with; we think about what we have seen and what we have experienced. From her point of view, the actors in that scene were not representing Mexico; they were not representing her... because they all had a very light skin color. And in that moment I was forced to realize what was right in front of my face—colorism is alive and well on Netflix. It’s almost 2025, and the television that is being produced for Spanish speakers on streaming channels is still feeding into the stereotypes brought about by colorism.
The basic storyline of the telenovela I was watching, Accidente, is that there is this terrible accident involving children at a birthday party. The tragedy that occurs “sets off an unthinkable chain of events”. This telenovela is definitely entertaining, but it also supports the idea that people with lighter skin tend to be more affluent, more intelligent, and more successful. The majority of the men in the show work at this architectural company and basically have mansions. And the “help” in their homes? They all had a significantly darker skin tone. The maintenance man at one of the mansions ends up being blamed for a crime because the rich, lighter-skinned men think that he will be the perfect scapegoat.
This isn’t some telenovela from a decade ago; this limited series was just released this year, in 2024. And this isn’t the only show like this… “The Surrogacy (Madre de Alquiler)” was released just last year in 2023. An affluent, light-skinned couple is unable to have a child on their own, so they decided to pursue surrogacy. The surrogate? A woman with darker skin that doesn’t come from a lot of money. She’s forced into surrogacy for this powerful Mexican business family because she’s led to believe that it’s the only way to save her father’s life.
When you know better, you do better… and you should know better Netflix. I am the mom of a beautiful, brown girl… and I am begging you to stop feeding into colorism stereotypes. And if the bigoted and discriminatory effects of colorism are still prevalent in the real world in the majority of Spanish-speaking countries (we know they definitely still are in the United States), well maybe you could be brave and take a definitive stand against it. I want my daughter to see herself represented on the screen, but not within the prejudiced world streaming channels are still perpetuating based on skin color. My tween wants to be an anesthesiologist when she grows up, so she needs to see herself represented on TV as being able to do more than just cook and clean a home.
[…] to teach kids about fairness and justice. Use MLK Day as a chance to discuss issues like racism, colorism, and systemic inequality in an age-appropriate way. For older kids, tie the conversation to current […]