All throughout my life, I’ve clashed with many stereotypes that describe “what a Puerto Rican is or should be” because “I don’t look Puerto Rican”. It’s almost as if my fair skin, my green eyes, and shy demeanor are shocking, and almost offensive, to those who see me for the first time. This scenario is usually followed by “I don’t think you’re Puerto Rican”. This is where I take a deep breath, ask Dios mío for patience, and fight the urge to rant. Little did I know that this cultural and social phenomenon is more common than I thought, and is not only subject to people the island itself, but in the United States as well. Being a student of the Social Science Department, reading about this was equivalent to reading obscene literature: busting nerves, yet providing a sense of wanting to know more. In order to fulfill that need, I decided to research the psychological effects of negative stereotypes towards Puerto Ricans in the media, and how it makes up a collective sense, eventually affecting our economy as well. It’s important that I clarify that the effect of negative stereotypes is not the only cause for our economic crisis, it can be considered as a catalyst of the crisis.
Many of us have been witnesses of how Puerto Ricans are depicted in the media, mainly in film and television. There’s the sexy Latina with the thick accent and curvaceous body, the religious maid that gossips more than she cleans, the construction worker that’s grossly underpaid, the “Princeso” that seduces women but can’t recite the entire alphabet, the young thug that sells drugs, and the hot-headed, impulsive mother that can make a mean mofongo, among many more. For many of us, this might seem like something recent, but little do we know that this idea people have of Puerto Ricans in the media has been evident since a year as early as 1952.
Puertoricans in the Media:
According to Mario Menéndez in his study “Puerto Ricans in Film: The Struggle for Recognition”, Puerto Rican characters, not necessarily played by Puerto Rican actors, began to appear in films in the early 1950s, colliding with the big migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States. The general image of Puerto Ricans was that of “clannish men, knife carriers, oversexed liars, not fit to live in cities”. Another deep breath, “Dios mío dame paciencia…” This point of view made its way into books, plays, films, and media in itself, creating the stereotype that we still see nowadays. According to “Stereotypes” by P. Bordalo, N. Gennaioli, K. Coffman and A. Schleifer, psychologists define stereotypes as a mental representation of real differences between groups, allowing easier and more efficient processing of information. But those representations also cause distorted judgment and biased behavior, like discrimination, due to its high inaccuracy. One of the best examples is “West Side Story”. To me, it hurts to say this because it’s one of my favorite musicals. It had positive effects, such as Rita Moreno becoming the first Puerto Rican woman to win an Academy Award for her role as Anita and bringing to the public light the migration situation with the song “America”. But I do have to admit that the musical film portrays a much stigmatized representation of Puerto Ricans, focusing on a small group (gang members) as a generalization of Puerto Ricans. I have to say that those gang members have amazing dance moves… but, the actors and dancers weren’t Hispanic, instead their faces were overly bronzed and they were told to speak with an accent. Stereotyping and discrimination isn’t only shown in the screen, but also behind the scenes as well.
During the 1960s, movies reflected the political and economical reality of Puerto Ricans as a way to spread awareness. These films received a lot of backlash by Puerto Rican communities due to the fact they were portrayed as burdens to communities. During my research for this article, I came across a film released in 1974 titled “Badge 373”, which used the Puerto Rican independence movement as a main theme, linking it to drug dealers and hardcore criminals who spent most of their time shouting “¡Viva Puerto Rico libre!”, according to Menéndez. The film was eventually boycotted by the Puerto Rican community that demanded to not release it. Initially, the Paramount Company, which produced the film, eventually removed the film due to demonstrations by the Puerto Rican Action Coalition. Soon after, the new generation of Puerto Ricans was intended to show the other side of the community that was never shown in mainstream movies, one that went against all negative stereotypes. Their cultural and political identity became stronger and they began to film themselves as a political and social statement.
Two studies of cultural diversity and ethnic minority psychology examined Puerto Rican youths’ development on the U.S. mainland, studying the consequences of perceived racial/ethnic discrimination on mental health. The studies, conducted by L.A. Szalacha, S. Erkut, C. García Coll, O. Alarcón, J.P. Fields, and I. Leder, showed that in Study 1, children were found to have a low likelihood of perceiving discrimination, whereas in Study 2, nearly half of the adolescent sample reported perceiving racial/ethnic discrimination. Discrimination may occur due to stereotyping. Results stated that although both groups scored high on multiple indicators of mental health, perceiving discrimination was negatively associated with self-esteem issues and positively associated with depression and stress. The adolescents of Study 2 were aware of negative stereotypes about Puerto Ricans, and nearly half of them related discriminatory instances. Concluding with the fact that perceiving discrimination can serve ask risk factors for the mental health of this population, according to those who conducted these studies.
It was important for me to mention this study to provide an empirical base to this article, showing that the negative effects of stereotypes in mental health have been proven, especially in Puerto Ricans. A collective psychology of a community is a very real phenomenon and it has direct consequences in society as a whole. Since society and economy are dependent on each other, I believe there is a big possibility of the economy being affected by a collective negative effect of negative stereotypes. According to Marika Gumpangkum from The Borgen Project, discriminatory practices based on race, gender, and sexual orientation in U.S. businesses cost an estimated $64 billion of revenue per year. The effects exist… if we could only imagine what this does to the economy of Puerto Rico, especially when our indecisive colonial status and the Fiscal Control Board also come into play.
The way the media portrays Puerto Ricans is highly influential to the opinions and ideas non-Puerto Ricans have about them, eventually taking away their credibility and their stand. For example, I cannot help but think of Donald Trump’s statement on Mexicans and how that will potentially scar not only the economy of Mexico, but also the economy of the United States. By focusing on stereotypes, and classifying them as “rapists” and “job-stealers” on national television, a wave of discrimination is drowning Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. These limitations (based on false premises, such as stereotypes) will prevent the positive economic effect of immigration to take place, eventually losing the immigrant contribution of $37-$47 billion in tax revenue over the next ten years, according to D. Furchtgott-Roth in her article “The Economic Benefits of Immigration”. Furchtgott-Roth states that immigrants increase economic efficiency by reducing labor shortages in low-and-high-skilled markets, because their educational backgrounds fill holes in the native-born market.
Knowing the possible implications of negative stereotypes in Puerto Ricans’ collective mental health and its effect in economy, the real question is, what can we do to fix it? We can start in simple ways, such as using those negative stereotypes as obstacles to overcome by portraying our diversity, talents, voices, and numerous capacities. Following the examples of the new generation of Puerto Ricans around the 1970s and 1980s, as mentioned earlier, they began to film themselves for what the truly are. This eventually led to an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film for “Lo que le pasó a Santiago” in 1989, marking the Puerto Rican film industry forever and altering the negative stereotypes in the media. We need to take pride in what we do, because each of us has a special ability, and we excel in that. We can’t let stereotypes stain our cultural identity, because it will alter the perception we have of ourselves in a negative way. It has also been proven that the inverse effect of negative stereotypes have positive implications in Puerto Rican society.
I was near the San Jorge Children’s Hospital when the Olympic Caravan was driving around the streets of Puerto Rico, showing the athletes and the well-deserved gold medal. A woman came up to me and we started a casual conversation. She mentioned that the positive reception of the Olympics in Puerto Rico actually reduced crime rates around that time. Crime is also very influential in economy, for good and for bad. As part of my research to prove if that is true, I called the Crime Statistics Division of the Police Department in Puerto Rico and the Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico. After a few days, I received a response with a list of tables indicating Type 1 Violence during the month of July 2016. The table indicates an 8.4% less Type 1 Violence in total this year compared to 2015, which was 2.7% less than 2014. The statistical information for the month of August also has a reduction, 7.7% less Type 1 voilence compared to last year.
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Although this might seem like a mix of different studies and facts, it’s a part of the bigger picture that is our identity. With all the economic and political turmoil happening nowadays in Puerto Rico, the last thing we should lose is our identity. We should hold on to it, and act with it. Whether it’s as small as a random act of kindness, representing your country wherever you go, being who you are, or as big as winning a gold medal, it all has a positive impact on our society and economy, and it definitely overshadows the negative stereotypes. So go ahead and be proud of being Boricua!
Works cited
División de Estadísticas de la Criminalidad, Policía de Puerto Rico. Delitos Tipo I. n.d. <“>http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/economic-benefits-immigration-57….
Gumpangkum, Malika. World Bank: Economic Consequences of Discrimination. 5 March 2014. <“>http://www.jstor.org/stable/20872385>.
Pedro Bordalo, Nicola Gennaioli, Katherine Coffman, Andrei Schleifer. “Stereotypes.” June 2014. Harvard University. Quarterly Journal of Economics. <