Hello world! You'd think that Disney's box-office bombs and several cries to stop would keep them from making absolute malarkey in the future, right? Well apparently, these rat worshippers show no sign of stopping their terrible remakes, indoctrination and other failures. And on top of all their 'representation' rubbish, they still manage to be complete and total hypocrites by using several stereotypes and a lack of research to represent the Hispanic/Latino community. Friends and enemies, I give you Disney's latest abomination: 'Primos.'
Primos is a show that is centered around a girl named Tater (No, her last name isn't 'Tots') who is known to be eccentric and is trying to find where she belongs. (Soul searching/coming-of-age type thing I suppose.)
But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked! No, I'm just pulling on your leg! What actually happens is that her 12 cousins (Hence the title name primos) move in for the summer and accompany her in her search of finding who she is.
Now, when I read the synopsis, I thought it would be innocent enough, and that maybe, just maybe, the internet is making a bit of a big deal about this. I thought that maybe Disney was trying to give itself some redemption (somehow.) Boy was I wrong...
I watched the (about) minute long intro song and was first met with a green sign (those free-way signs) that read: 'Terremoto Heights.'
I kid you not, I did a double take. For those of you who don't know, terremoto means 'earthquake' in English. I found this quite insensitive, and I sighed.
'We're only 2 seconds in!'
Mexico has had many, many, MANY earthquakes since... ever. Their last earthquake was about 2 days ago with a magnitude of 4.3. That's like naming a town '9/11 city' or a Japanese city 'Tsunami.' Neither would be okay, so what's the story behind this poorly picked out name? That I couldn't tell you...
And if you look at the same frame above, what else do you notice? I am talking about the staple of every single Hollywood movie that takes place in Mexico: The yellow filter. This is a fictional town in California, but I guess that if the entertainment industry is discussing Latinos, the entire atmosphere has to resemble Canada and New York's sky at the moment. Is Mexico another dimension or something...?
What's crazy about all this is that this is only THE FIRST FRAME!
Another stereotype that this terrible show introduced is that every Latino household lives with their entire bloodline... Yes, there are people who live with multiple relatives, but it is pretty upsetting to only depict us that way. Not to mention that the house is often shown as dirty, messy, loud and chaotic. I know that there are a lot of people under one roof, but even the house in the movie Cheaper by the Dozen was much cleaner than this!
And what do you know? The children that 'just-so-happen' to have a darker skin tone have disheveled hair, and a very unflattering appearance... (I'm not sure if this is intentional or not...)
But even then, the design is really unflattering for all characters.
During all this, the main characters repeatedly sing: ¡Oye primos! which directly translates to 'Hey cousins!' This single phrase was the gateway to everything wrong with this show. The translation is a literal translation and the conjugation is wrong. The correct word would be 'oigan' (used in ellos/ellas/y ustedes conjugation) The main character is referring to multiple people so oye is not the correct word, especially since ¡Oye! is often used in a rude manner. That just shows how much 'research' Disney put into this show. Wrong usage of words? Major red flag...
Their poorly thought-out ideas don't stop there, the names of the cousins are pretty... unsavory. They range from the 'basic idea' of a Latino boy's nickname 'Nacho' to 'Gordita' (which is the tamest name out of these because it is often used in an endearing way, I call my younger brother gordo as a nickname) and lastly, 'Cuquita.' This particular name is bad regardless because it can either be referring to a cockroach, or a woman's nether regions...
So, who is the mastermind behind this poorly made cartoon? I originally thought another white person with no knowledge of the Mexican American culture made this show. (I apologize)
But nope, a Mexican American woman named Natasha Kline fed these stereotypes further. Instead of dispelling these stereotypes, she further enforces and keeps these stereotypes on life-support. She states that it was based on her experiences in Los Angeles and what she knew. This just proves how self-centered she seems to be. Maybe she didn't think that half the things in this intro seem like awful Hispanic stereotypes?
The voice actor for Tater (Tots) responded by saying this:
"The Spanish language is not a Latin-American language. It's a language the Spanish conquistadors forced upon Latin-American people. The only reason we're Latin people and not Native American people is because of that distinction. So be mad at me all you want for misspelling words in Spanish, be mad at me all you want for mispronouncing words in Spanish, that doesn't take away from the fact that I am a Mexican-American, Native-American woman. We're trying to make a good show for kids. For kids that feel left out, for kids that are different, for kids who don't have a full grasp on any language no matter where they live. And if you're gonna be mad at that, I don't know, be mad then."
I put the link to the video below:
Oh, the hatred and condescending tone she had. It really showed how little she cared about people's offense, and it gave the feeling that we were in the wrong. It gave the feeling of: "I'm sorry that you feel like that..." She has the audacity to say that Spanish was a forced language, in English, which is also a 'forced' language by her logic.
Also, we are not trying to take away the fact that you are Mexican American, we are trying to explain that you are just feeding into the stereotypes that Hollywood has of our culture. With your show that tries to make left out children feel better, you are just isolating them further. Latin American people are stigmatized so much for being brown. They tell us to 'Go back to your country' they call us 'wetbacks' and 'immigrants.' They treat our men and women as these 'exotic' and 'spicy' foreign exports.
This show has a lot wrong with it, and to me, it seems like a rip-off of the Casagrandes from Nickelodeon. They are a big family in a small house, who also happen to be Latin American, but what they did right was giving a proper representation of Latin American culture without being based on the stereotypes Hollywood has laid out for us. It is written by people who live the same culture and live in Mexican families.
It was a spinoff of The Loud House, and it was indeed a money grab, but they represented our culture in a way that wasn't offensive and stereotypical.
Now, I normally am okay with jokes about our culture like how our mothers won't hesitate to throw the chancla or how we like to wear sombreros and eat tacos 24/7, but this representing us in such an ignorant way.
Hey Disney, here’s an idea! Since you’re supposed to be all about inclusion, what about if you listen to the feedback from the culture you’re portraying?
I think that these stereotypes are fairly harmless, but still not cool, and the only thing that mad this worse was that the voice actress of Tater (Tots) decided that instead of acknowledging the grammatical error, she attacked the people who called it out and basically stated that the error doesn't matter since the language was forced upon the people of Latin America.
I am all for inclusion, but Disney's idea of inclusion is so poorly done that it's a wonder their still in business. I honestly just wish that instead of making terrible attempts of representing people and hurting more people, they would just stop and listen to the reviews.
"Oh no, people don't like the show! Maybe we should quit shoving politics and pushing inclusion in every nook and cranny!"
Now, I can't even watch a show without some political standing pushed into it. I watch shows to get away from the world I'm in, not to see the exact same thing. The family dynamic and the concept as a whole is SO overdone, and by the looks of it, they aren’t going to put a new unique spin on it.
This show does have one thing good about it: the Hispanic community has banded together against this awful show. We all love to hate this show. (It's like the effect of HBO's terrible show Velma)
Come to think of it, this mishap with the grammar would have been an easy fix if it weren't for the VA's video. She talked down to people and threw a match at a gas spill. It probably would have blown over by now if it wasn't for her.
At this point, I am just enjoying watching the Disney company crash and burn multiple times in one year. They still don't understand that people make or break their company, do they? If they keep this up, they are going to go belly up. The magic of Disney is no more. They are frantically holding onto what they once had and have lost sight of their roots.
Well goodbye Disney, nice knowing you...
Thank you for reading everybody!
I hope you enjoyed and as always
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