While talking about Olrox with a friend I realized that this man, THIS MAN- is absolutely peak latino representation
Like, no kidding, the whole "why do white people always run towards danger when you obviously should run from it instead" argument is such a big thing for our community. And what does Olrox do? He doesn't participate in fights he knows he's going to lose. He fought at the end not bc of a change of heart, but bc he could feel something turned towards their favor
Not to mention all the other things, like the whole "I play nice, but I have my own agenda" act in front of the oppressors/villains. How he only kills Julia bc she killed someone he loved and not bc he just loves killing, latino people often act in an "eye for an eye" mindset, most of us don't believe in the "be the bigger person" mantra
Or how he's so... loud, you know? But not in the stereotypical way. His presence, his colorful clothes, his jewels, his vibrant green eyes... His design is so loud, it screams "look at me" without having to actually say anything
TLDR: I'm a Hispanic-American woman raised by a Central American father who loved musicals before he could even speak English to understand them.
I love seeing other Hispanic men embracing this form of expression and engaging in the community to show that loving musicals doesn't make you "white" or "gay".
If you want a more in-depth explanation of what JRM and LMM mean to me and my family, please read below.
I'm a Hispanic-American woman who was raised in a predominantly white area. My entire life I've been made fun of by my cousins and the friends for loving musicals so much.
You see, my dad's never been a traditional machista Central American man. Back in his country, he remembers watching Grease on a friend's TV (they were too poor to own one in his house), and he loved it, despite not speaking English. He loved the music and dancing.
Then he came to America in the 80s. Dirty Dancing and Footloose were released. By that point, he understood more English. He watched and loved both. When I was born, I grew up watching these as my dad's favorite movies. Since I was an infant, musicals have been a part of my life. My dad couldn’t afford Broadway or anything like that so he wasn't a fan of musical theater in that sense. But he was a huge fan of movie musicals so we watched pretty much all of them as kids.
With things like Disney Channel and (later on) YouTube slime tutorials, I was exposed to more musical theater. I showed my dad so many videos about all of the shows I thought he would enjoy the most. He even took my siblings and I to Broadway multiple times now that we’re older and can afford that kind of stuff. He sat in the Circle in the Square and Walter Kerr Theatre in tears when we saw Once on This Island and Hadestown, respectively. Now he’s a fan of more traditional musicals thanks to the internet making it more accessible. Which is great! However, despite its accessibility improving…it’s still not common to see Hispanic men engaging with musicals.
Musical theater is objectively a white industry. The more I got into it, the more my friends and family would make fun of me. I never really cared or was even offended by it. I grew up hearing my cousins and uncles call my dad "gay" for liking those kinds of movies. He always went along with their jokes and never seemed bothered by it. As I got older and realized how problematic their statements were, it started to bother me more.
Because my dad likes musicals, he has other be gay?
Because I like musicals, I have to be white?
How does that make sense? There's something wrong or othering about him because he's into musicals so he can't be a "normal" man therefore he has to be gay????? I'm a woman so it's okay for me to like musicals but, actually...no because I'm a brown woman I can't????
Absolutely idiotic and bigoted.
Like I said, it used to never bother me because it never seemed to bother my dad. Even now, it's almost 2025 and he still says he doesn't care because he likes what he likes, no matter what people say. Which I love to hear and see. But at the same time, it bothers me greatly that this has been a topic of discussion in my community for years.
Now it just makes me so happy to see other Hispanic men in musical theater making a space for themselves.
It's my hope that as musical theater becomes a more diverse industry, my community will be able to unlearn the stereotypes we've absorbed and regurgitated for decades.
Let's criticize Disney and their awful decisions, one of my favorite activities.
Apparently they are working on a new animated show called "Primos" based on a latinoamerican household. However, they had no idea what they are doing and when people call them out, they are playing the "you don't understand" "it isn't that bad card".
One of the main issues is that they are using Spanish phrases that are grammatically incorrect. If this was a person speaking Spanish in the show, then it wouldn't be that bad because you could understand that it is learning the language, but they are using it in the slogan and main intro of the series. If you are going to use a phrase in another language as your slogan, at least be sure that is correct. Someone mentioned this to the main voice actress of the show, it should had been mentioned to the official page instead and the actress could had perfectly ignore it. But no, the actress choose to call that person a grammar n*zi and say that Spanish is a conqueror language. WTF?? And that is the person you choose to voice the main character?
There are more issues like the name of the kids - specially one named as the slang for p*ssy, which I found incredibly weird that they decided to use this word for a children name. The city is named Terremoto (Earthquake), a natural disaster that had caused hundreds of deaths in Latina American countries.
They started promoting the show as a latinoamerican household, and then changed as Mexican household when people told them Latina America was more than Mexico.
And one of my main issues is the awful design of characters with curly hair and brownish skin compared with characters with light skin. I mean, look at this:
Is as if they decided to do everything wrong on purpose.
Till the Last Beat of My Heart by Louangie Bou-Montes
Release date: 15 October 2024
Genre: young adult contemporary fantasy with horror elements
If you like:
Cemetery Boys
Necromancy
Ex-friends to lovers
Grumpy Nerd x Himbo Jock
Synopsis
The teen son of the local mortician accidentally reanimates the dead body of the boy he had more than friendly feelings for, but can he keep him alive for good before their time runs out?
When you grow up in a funeral home, death is just another part of life. But for sixteen-year-old Jaxon Santiago-Noble, it’s also part of his family’s legacy. Most dead bodies in the town of Jacob’s Barrow wind up at Jaxon’s house; his mom is the local mortician, after all. He doesn’t usually pay them much mind, but when Christian Reyes is brought in after a car accident, Jaxon’s world is turned upside down.
There are a lot of things Jaxon wishes he could have said to his once best friend and first crush. When he accidentally resurrects Christian, Jaxon might finally have that chance. But the more he learns about his newfound necromancy, the more he grasps that Christian’s running on borrowed time—and it's almost out.
As he navigates dark, mysterious magics and family secrets, Jaxon realizes that stepping into an inherited power may also mean opening up old family wounds if he wants to keep the boy he may be falling for alive for good.
Content warnings
Death, parental death, animal death
Car accident, injury/injury descriptions
Blood, nose/ear-bleeds, self-harm for magic purposes
Hospital, medical content
Anxiety, panic attacks
Bullying
Descriptions of dead/decomposing bodies and animal carcasses
Review
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC!
This book is the perfect Halloween read!
While this book is definitely not a horror novel, there were plenty of spooky moments and horror references that feels just in time for Halloween season. I hadn't expected that based on the cover, so it was a pleasant surprise!
The characters read as realistically teenager-y to me. Jaxon is moody and anxious and stubborn (same, dude) while Christian is upbeat and cheerful but is also putting up a front to hide his fears. Also, I really appreciate that Christian is a glasses-wearing jock.
There were certain conflicts that I feel got brushed off/didn't get resolved fully, but for the most part, everything gets resolved pretty well.
I feel that the necromancy aspect isn't fully fleshed out, but as Jaxon is new to this/still figuring things out, I think that's fine.
Overall, a pretty solid YA fantasy, I will definitely be looking forward to see what the author writes next!
I want Tenoch and Mabel to keep their accents, because aside from brown skin and non-eurocentric features, the other thing I feel is horribly misrepresented and picked on and looked down on is an accent, especially when it's not an European one.
I cannot tell you how many times I got told my English "is so good!", or how many times I *still* receive surprised stares from patients and parents when I say I'm an immigrant, only to receive the usual "Oh, your English is so good! You don't have an accent!" response in return.
Let the world see that brown skinned people with beautiful, thick accents can make it big!
After having cut his teeth on Ava DuVernay’s “Queen Sugar” and the latest iteration of “The L Word” — in two recurring roles that allowed him to explore his
The intersectionality of his identities as a queer, Latino actor has had an inextricable impact on Silva’s portrayal of Carlos — and how he views his half of the “Tarlos” dynamic. A study published last year by the Latino Donor Collaborative found that, while Latinos make up about 18.7 percent of the U.S. population, they continue to be disproportionately underrepresented in mainstream media, making up only 2.9 percent of leads on television.
“For me, it’s absolutely about the queer representation, queer love, but it’s also about the Latine existence in America,” Silva said, using a gender-neutral option in lieu of “Latino” or “Latina.” “I think, as long as I approach all of that with a sense of dignity, of responsibility, I can only hope that I’m doing a good job. I’m just extremely grateful for the fans for latching on to Carlos and latching on to this beautiful couple that really demonstrates humanity. They’re not needles in a haystack. We’re not hard to find. We’re everywhere — queer people are everywhere.”
[Read the full article by clicking the link above]
