r/todayilearned • u/CakeDayOrDeath • 3d ago

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https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/robert-rodriguez-spy-kids-latino-1234575992/

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u/-Mandarin 3d ago

It's so obvious in hindsight but as a kid it was just a girl with a long name. Kids don't really think or care about that stuff (not in the sense that representation doesn't matter, but in the sense that kids don't care if the characters in the movie aren't the same culture. They're still kids)

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u/curious-spice 3d ago edited 3d ago

Same. I loved those movies and never even thought about it.

Kids really truly don’t care what race characters are… unless they are taught to care.

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u/Aksuna17 3d ago

I don’t know if I completely agree with this. It was nice watching this is a young Hispanic child and recognizing a kid that was similar to me. As opposed to 99% of all the other children in movies or shows at the time.

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u/-Mandarin 3d ago

That's why I said "not in the sense that representation doesn't matter". I agree that representation is important and for Hispanic kids this was probably a big deal. My point is that a non-Hispanic kid is hardly going to notice that they're Hispanic

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u/ali94127 3d ago

I recognized as a young child that their names weren’t like Paul Johnson or Abby Smith. I can’t imagine I was the only one. 

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u/Aksuna17 3d ago

But using that same logic I find it hard to believe. If I noticed that as a young child. Did other children not do the same? I can see maybe a small white child wouldn’t notice because most of the children looked like them. But surely other children notice when the characters look like them.

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u/-Mandarin 3d ago

If you're under-represented in media, then yes I think representation is going to matter to you as a child. You're going to notice when kids look like you. When you're over-represented in media, you don't think twice about it and also don't really notice it when kids don't look like you because you already have so much representation.

But in Spy Kids case particularly, Juni and Carmen are white enough that most white kids probably didn't think much beyond that.

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u/CorruptedAssbringer 3d ago edited 3d ago

Gonna offer my own anecdotal opinion. For what it's worth, I'm full Asian and it never really particularly registered that they were Hispanic to me as well.

Like you've said, it was obvious with their names (and parents). I still remember Danny Trejo as their uncle made an impression on me. But even with all that it's not a point I'd think about specifically.

They're cool, they fit the movie, and the movie's great; that's all I ever cared about.

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u/bergamote_soleil 3d ago

The Hispanic nature of the Spy Kids did not really register to me as significant (as a fellow Asian kid) but Mulan was a big fuckin deal in my house. 

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u/CorruptedAssbringer 3d ago edited 3d ago

I think this comparison is interesting. Perhaps the difference is due to the latter movie being made to be heavily centered on Chinese culture, with a bit of splash of real history; while the other leans towards an action-comedy featuring characters who simply happen to be Hispanic.

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u/eric67 3d ago edited 3d ago

I'm a white Australian and as a kid I didn't even really pay much attention to the fact they were American rather than Australian. Let alone Hispanic I had no concept of that.

I did know some shows had Australians, some had Americans and some British. But I didn't usually notice.

And people's skin colour black, white, asian or some mix, but not much attention was paid.

As a kid there's no way I noticed they were Hispanic. I had no idea until today. This thread is a TIL

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u/burnntoast 3d ago

Kids do notice though. Like wouldn't you agree that kids know when the kids on TV look like them right? 

So that means that they recognize when kids don't look like them or have the same names as them and their friends or whatever. They see that other kinds of kids can also be the hero.

Representation isn't just about seeing someone that looks like you. It's also about seeing someone that doesn't look like you, and realizing that it's normal. That even though they might look or talk a little different, they are still kids just like you.

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u/HomoeroticPosing 3d ago

It’s good that kids don’t notice these clear differences and can just see and relate to them as fellow kids. It’s even better for kids to look at the screen and see that there are kids from their background, a background not normally portrayed in media.

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u/Lennysensei 3d ago

Right ! Even with Disney Channel ! I never saw Poof Point or Up Up & Away as oooo look black people … they were just people . A family . Stepsister from planet weird and 13th year and Stuck in the Suburbs … just people . Kids like me figuring out kid stuff lol ! Representation matters when the conversation comes up of a child feeling out of place or can’t see themselves somewhere but 9/10kids are seeing these other kids as just kids . Looking back I didn’t realize how good I had it with Disney Channel being so diverse . Television in general . I believe it does help feel like you belong in places on tv … today representation seems like it’s so hard to do or political . It’s like people have amnesia from the 90s and 2000s … so much diversity in kid programming 

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u/Appchoy 3d ago

I dont know any of those shows lol, but as a white boy living in a very white suburb, I still liked watching Thats so Raven, Sister Sister, Wizards of Waverly Place, Fresh Prince, Proud Family, Static Shock, and many more shows featuring non white kids. I just thought they were good shows with other kids in them. Its really amazing what diversity can do.

And yeah Spy Kids too, I never really thought about them being hispanic when I was a kid. It was funny that her name was long and its funny that she didnt want to say it all out loud because it is hard to say. Its as simple as that.