When a new Latino film or TV series hits streamers, I’ll most likely avoid it. And that was my initial reaction to Netflix’s Griselda.
That’s because there’s a strong chance Latino-led shows will include some (or all) of the following: characters who are either criminals, cholos, gangsters, and/or narcos; or immigrants who speak broken English or with an accent. They’re most likely poor, work hard jobs, and their intense passion means they have little to no control over their emotions.
There’s no doubt that these elements do portray (albeit dramatically) slivers of reality about the Latino culture. Latinos love hard, work hard, and spice up just about anything in life—that’s why we love our culture. The hesitation to view it onscreen comes from us knowing that the picture is incomplete, or an exaggerated version, and then the rest of the world takes that thin slice they see onscreen as major truths about said people, which then bleed out into real-life interactions.
