This article examines the ways that the animated children's program Dragon Tales wavers between deracinating its lead characters, Emmy and Max, and exoticizing the racialized difference that Enrique, a recent addition to the program, embodies. The analysis begins with the contention that the effacement of Latinos' physical, cultural, and linguistic differences vis-à-vis the representation of Emmy and Max constitutes an understandable strategy for neutralizing the otherness of Latinos but actually undermines multiculturalism because it fails to nurture children's ability to live fearlessly with and within difference. The program is further problematized through the argument that the crafting of Enrique only reinscribes the otherness of Latinos. With the effacement of Latino difference on one hand and the exoticization of Latino difference on the other, Dragon Tales ends up an example of a program unable to model and nurture a healthy accommodation of difference.
Anzaldúa, G. (1987). Borderlands/La frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute.
2.
Anzaldúa, G. (1993). Friends from the other side/Amigos del otro lado . San Francisco: Children's Book Press.
3.
Bernstein, L., Clash, K., Connell, D., Cooney, J.G., Elias-Bamberger, N., Garfinkel, S., et al. (Executive Producers). (1969- ). Sesame street [Television series] . New York: Sesame Workshop.
4.
Berry, G.L., & Asamen, J.K. (1993). Preface. In G. L. Berry & J. K. Asamen, (Eds.), Children and Television: Images in a changing sociocultural world (pp. ix-x). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
5.
Buchanan, P.J. (1997, August 8). Is America still a country? Retrieved November 1, 2005, from http://www.buchanan.org/pa-97-0808.html
6.
Capriccioso, R. (2005, August 1). Not Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood anymore . Connect for Kids. Retrieved November 13, 2005, from http://www.connectforkids.org/node/3296
7.
Character descriptions. (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2005, from http://pbskids.org/dragontales/parentsteachers/character_descriptions.html
8.
Campbell, M. (Director). (1998). The mask of Zorro [Motion Picture] . United States: TriStar Pictures.
9.
Coane, J. (Executive Producer). (1999- ). Dragon tales [Television series]. New York: Sesame Workshop and Columbia Television.
10.
Cohen, C. (Writer). (2005, March 9). Feliz cumpleaños, Enrique [Television series episode]. In J. Coane (Executive Producer), Dragon tales. New York: Sesame Workshop and Columbia Television.
11.
de León, A. (1983). They called them greasers: Anglo attitudes toward Mexicans in Texas, 1821-1900. Austin: University of Texas Press.
12.
DeSipio, L., Banet-Weiser, S., Escalante-Dalton, K., & Subervi-Vélez, F. (2000). Talking back to television: Latinos discuss how television portrays them and the quality of programming options. In Chon A. Noriega (Ed.), The future of Latino independent media: A NALIP sourcebook (pp. 59-97). Los Angeles: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center.
13.
Dirr, P., Dede, C., Anderson, D., Thomas, V., Lonigan, C., Rivera, C., et al. (2004, September 22-23). Ready to Learn television program panel review. Retrieved November 6, 2005, from http://www.ed.gov/programs/rtltv/panelreview.html
14.
Dornfeld, B. (1998). Producing public television, producing public culture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
15.
Fisher, J., Stahl, J., & Goldman, L. (Writers). (2001, September 4). Back to the fairytales [Television series episode]. In J. Coane (Executive Producer), Dragon tales. New York: Sesame Workshop and Columbia Television.
16.
Forte, D. (Executive Producer). (2004- ). Maya and Miguel [Television series]. New York: Scholastic Studios .
17.
Franklin, B.A.K. (1999). An honest self?: Searching for Latinos in United States children television. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Tulane University, New Orleans, Los Angeles.
Gifford, C. (Executive Producer). (2000- ). Dora the explorer [Television series]. New York: Viacom International .
20.
Gillies, D. (2005, March 15). Moving [Television series episode]. In J. Coane (Executive Producer), Dragon tales. New York : Sesame Workshop and Columbia Television.
21.
Herrera, J.F. (2000). The upside down boy. San Francisco : Children's Book Press.
22.
Huntington, S.P. (2004). Who are we?: The challenges to America's national identity. New York: Simon & Schuster.
23.
Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
24.
Jinkins, J. & Campbell, D. (Executive Producers). (1991-1999). Doug [Television series]. New York: Nickelodeon.
25.
Jiménez, F. (1997). The circuit. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
26.
Klasky, A. & Csupo, G. (Executive Producers). (1995). Santo Bugito [Television series]. Los Angeles: Klasky-Csupo .
27.
Kraidy, U.S. (2002). Sunny days on Sesame street?: Multiculturalism and resistance postmodernism. Journal of Communication Inquiry , 26(1), 9-25.
28.
Lacan, J. (1977). The mirror stage as formative of the function of the I as revealed in psychoanalytic experience. In A. Sheridan (Ed. &. trans.), Écrits: A selection (pp. 1-7). New York: W.W. Norton, 1977. (Original work published 1949)
29.
Leach, S., Parker, K., & DeShazer, D. (Executive Producers). (1992- ). Barney and friends [Television series]. Allen, TX: HIT Entertainment .
30.
Lesser, E. (Writer). (1999, September 6). To fly with dragons [Television series episode]. In J. Coane (Executive Producer), Dragon tales. New York: Sesame Workshop and Columbia Television.
31.
Lowe, L. (1996). Immigrant acts: On Asian American cultural politics . Durham, NC: Duke University Press .
32.
Lynch, T., & Mattos, M. (Executive Producers). (1993-1994). Xuxa [Television series]. New York: MTM Enterprises.
33.
Menendez, J. (Writer). (2005, March 2). El dia del maestro [Television series episode]. In J. Coane (Executive Producer), Dragon tales. New York: Sesame Workshop and Columbia Television.
34.
Minh-ha, T.T. (1989). Woman native other: Writing postcoloniality and feminism. Bloomington and Indianapolis : Indiana University Press.
35.
Nericcio, W.A. (1996). Autopsy of a rat: Odd, sundry parables of Freddy Lopez, Speedy Gonzales, and other Chicano/Latino marionettes prancing about our first world visual emporium. Camera Obscura: A Journal of Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies, 37, 189-237.
36.
New season of award-winning Dragon tales set for February 2005 premiere on PBS Kids. (2005, January 3). Retrieved September 10, 2005, from http://www.sesameworkshop.org/aboutus/pressroom/presskits/dt/dt_pr010305.php
37.
Oboler, S. (1995). Ethnic labels, Latino lives: Identity and the politics of (re)presentation in the United States. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press.
38.
Program summary. (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2005, from http://pbskids.org/dragontales/parentsteachers/program_summary.html
39.
Rodriguez, R. (1983). Hunger of memory. New York : Bantam.
40.
Rodríguez, L.J. (1999). It doesn't have to be this way. San Francisco: Children's Book Press.
41.
Schneider, C. (1987). Children's television: The art, the business, and how it works. Chicago: NTC Business Books.
42.
Simpson, A. (1998). Representing racial difference: Brazil's Xuxa at the televisual border. Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, 17, 197-221.
43.
Stefan, D. (Writer). (2005, March 14). Play it and say it [Television series episode]. In J. Coane (Executive Producer), Dragon tales. New York: Sesame Workshop and Columbia Television.
44.
Subervi-Vélez, F. (1999). The mass media and Latinos: Policy and research agendas for the next century. Aztlan, 24, 131-147.
45.
Subervi-Vélez, F., & Necochea, J. (1990). Television viewing and self-concept among Latino children: A pilot study. The Howard Journal of Communications , 2, 315-329.
46.
Umstead, R.T. (2005, July 11). How Nick expects to maintain edge in preschool TV. Multichannel News. Retrieved November 28, 2005, from http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA624629.html
47.
Walsh, V. (Writer). (2004, October 1). Daisy, la quinceañera [Television series episode]. In Cathy Galeota (Producer), Dora the explorer. New York: Viacom International.
