Jan. 13, 2025
By Zahara Chowdhury
Editor-in-Chief
Growing up, sophomore Serenity Mendoza, who is of Dominican, Peruvian and Puerto Rican descent, said she never culturally identified with TV show characters. She said there were characters, like Dora Márquez from the Nickelodeon cartoon “Dora the Explorer,” who is Mexican, with a culture similar to hers, but none fully represented her ethnic background.
“I would wonder to myself, ‘Wow, none of those girls look like me,’” Mendoza said. “Obviously, there are some stereotypical little-girl experiences that I could relate to on that level but never on that deeper, personal, this-is-my-life level.”
Mendoza said she is happy cartoons today encompass more representation.
She said she notices her 21-month-old brother watching PBS Kids cartoons like “Alma’s Way” and “Rosie’s Rules,” which follow confident female protagonists Alma Rivera, who is of Puerto Rican descent, and Rosie Fuentes, who is of Mexican descent.
Mendoza said if cartoon characters from her youth were like the ones today, she would have found them more relatable.
“If I had seen [them] when I was a little girl, I would have felt a lot prouder in myself and my identity as a Hispanic girl,” Mendoza said.
The diversity in contemporary cartoons mirrors trends in young adult literature, such as “Clap When You Land” by Elizabeth Acevedo, which was published in 2020.
Mendoza said the novel, which was required summer reading for her English II-Honors class, resonated with her, as the protagonists are two teenage sisters of Dominican descent.
“[There were] certain customs and traditions that I hadn’t really seen in the media before,” Mendoza said. “I liked how there was an inclusion of Spanish in their conversations, but not necessarily proper Spanish. It’s a very similar dialect to the dialect that I speak with my family and friends.”
Sophomore Gabriel Campos, who is of Dominican, Ecuadorian and Puerto Rican descent, said he enjoyed reading “Patron Saints of Nothing” by Randy Ribay, which was also assigned as summer reading in the English II-Honors class.
The coming-of-age novel, which was published in 2019, focuses on 17-year-old Filipino-American Jay Reguero, who travels to the Philippines to uncover the truth about his cousin Jun’s death.
“I found myself identifying with Jay while reading ‘Patron Saints of Nothing’ due to his contention with older generations,” Campos said. “[He is] questioning a negative status quo, and older generations [are] either accepting it, like Jay’s titas seem to, or participating in the negativity of the status quo, like Jun’s father does.
Within books, movies and shows, Campos said he would like to see more representation of complex characters from various cultural backgrounds.
“You want to have a little kid that’s reading a book… see themselves on the cover.”
“Something I’ve seen a lot lately with representation is that instead of giving depth to characters of color, I’ll just see a big cast of a variety of different shades of people but no interesting character,” Campos said.
He said the Cartoon Network’s animated show “Craig of the Creek” successfully depicts diverse characters. Campos said one of his favorite episodes is about Indian American character Raj, who speaks Gujarati to his grandmother.
“Just them speaking their language and it being an important part of who he is in his family but not throwing it in our faces and being like ‘This is why we’re doing this’ [is impactful],” Campos said.
Media specialist Ms. Murru said the 2022 absurdist film “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which follows a struggling Chinese American family, is a good example of representation. In 2023, it won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Lead actress Michelle Yeoh won Best Actress and was the first Asian to win this award.
The studio initially asked writers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert to cast white actors, but Kwan and Scheinert told CBS that they insisted on having a mostly Asian cast.
Murru said creatives must continue encouraging the depiction of diverse stories.
“Media will continue to be culturally diverse as long as we have individuals in the writer’s room and producers that can actually advocate for and push diverse stories. So, it’s kind of on everybody to try to make sure these stories are represented,” Murru said.
She said she advises people to make their voices heard by becoming involved with groups, such as the non-profit organization We Need Diverse Books, which support more representation in the media.
“They advocate for changes in children’s publishing to ensure that more diverse titles are getting published, specifically at the younger-child level,” Murru said. “You want to have a little kid that’s reading a book… see themselves on the cover.”
Murru said she considers cultural representation when recommending books for students in English IV classes to use as the basis of their research papers.
“They usually read a high-interest book, so I try to put together a diverse listing of titles for them that they might not have ever picked up before,” Murru said.
She said, in previous catalogs, she included young adult novel “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, which follows two Mexican American teenagers, and the novel in verse “Long Way Down” by Jason Reynolds, which tells the story of an African American 15-year-old.
Murru said it is important for students to read about characters with whom they identify and whose families mirror aspects of their own.
“It can really make you feel more included [and] make you feel like you’re heard, like your voice is meaningful,” Murru said.
English and Special Education teacher Miss Rendzia said the English Department has made an effort to diversify its curricula by including the multicultural texts “After You, My Dear Alphonse” by Shirley Jackson, “Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes and “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, which focus on African Americans and Hispanic Americans.
“We had professional collaboration to discuss what literature we were working with that had different cultural perspectives and how we can best represent these works in our classroom,” Rendzia said.
She said she promotes discussions about cultural identity in her classroom.
“I encourage collaboration and conversation from each student, bringing in the reading through their lens [and] their experience,” Rendzia said. “I embrace all differences [because] I feel that is how one can learn better, to learn from each other and each other’s experiences.”
