The Golden Globes aren’t until Jan. 10, but a snafu in the form of mistaking one Latina actress for another has already been made during the announcement of the nominees.
You may remember America Ferrera from iconic roles such as Carmen from “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and the title character from “Ugly Betty.” On the other hand, Gina Rodriguez has recently risen to fame for being the title character on “Jane the Virgin,” already winning a Golden Globe earlier this year.
They are very different people. For starters, Ferrera’s parents are from Honduras and Rodriguez is of Puerto Rican and Jewish descent, so, why did the Golden Globe twitter account confuse them, tweeting that Rodriguez was on stage when it was Ferrara who was currently announcing?
It may seem like a small mistake, and I’m sure that white woman has been confused for each other before, but it meant a lot to me and I know it meant a lot to other Latina women as well. There are already so few Latina icons to look up to that it hurts to see two of them reduced to the same old stereotype of all minorities looking the same.
This event also seems to once again address an underlying issue within media: the lack of famous minorities. It’s an undeniable fact, with statistics to back it, that Caucasian people are featured far more frequently in everything from magazine covers to TV shows. A recent statistic said that woman of color is only on major fashion magazine covers about 14% of the time.
These startling facts, and that I am a Latina myself, led to me being very happy when I heard about “Jane the Virgin.” The concept of another Latina starring in a relatable way on a major network TV show made me giggle with delight. She was someone that I and millions of girls could look up to. And when she won a Golden Globe for her role? I was ready to usher in a new era, but, I acted too quickly; one battle doesn’t mean we’ve won the war.
Gina Rodriguez commented on the mix-up saying that the incident didn’t bother her. Even so, I hope in the future she and other Latinos and Latinas can be shown more respect and attention to detail.
