‘What do you think it is that makes them who they are’? The connections between Latinx stereotypes,claims of white difference,and characters’ deaths in Breaking Bad
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online September, 2021
‘What do you think it is that makes them who they are’? The connections between Latinx stereotypes,claims of white difference,and characters’ deaths in Breaking Bad
This article argues that while reliant on Latinx stereotypes in character construction, Breaking Bad (2008–2013) ultimately uses them to problematise American racial categories and conquest mythology. Comparing stereotyped Latinx criminals to the main white character, Walter White (Bryan Cranston), who claims difference, reveals that they share traits. In its use of Latinx stereotypes to transfer focus from difference to sameness, Breaking Bad shifts the imperial gaze to offer a critical view of the regeneration through violence myth, so integral to American western expansionism and central in Walt’s story, in that he dies in his attempt to regenerate by killing his Latinx enemies.
AmesF (2012) Fisher Ames to Thomas Dwight, October 31, 1803. In: GreenbergAS (ed.), Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion: A brief history with documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, pp. 54–55.
2.
BarreraCE (2016) Negro y Azul: The narcocorrido goes gothic. In: WanatMEngelL (eds) Breaking Down Breaking Bad: Critical perspectives. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, pp. 15–32.
3.
BeboutL (2016) Whiteness on the Border: Mapping the U.S. racial imagination in brown and white. New York, NY: New York University Press.
4.
BenderSW (2003) Greasers and Gringos: Latinos, law, and the American imagination. New York, NY: New York University Press.
5.
BenshoffHMGriffinS (2009) America on Film: Representing race, class, gender, and sexuality at the movies. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
6.
BergCR (1997) Stereotyping in Films in General and of the Hispanic in Particular. In: RodríguezCE (ed.), Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. media. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, pp. 104–120.
7.
BergCR (2002) Latino Images in Film: Stereotypes, subversion, and resistance. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
8.
Better Call Saul (2015–Present) AMC. High Bridge Productions/Crystal Diner Productions/Gran Via Productions/Sony Pictures Television.
9.
BhabhaHK (1994) The Location of Culture. New York, NY: Routledge.
10.
Breaking Bad (2008–2013) AMC. Highbridge Entertainment/Gran Via Productions/ Sony Pictures Television.
11.
CaldwellJT (2009) Indigenism, (In)Visibility: Notes on migratory film. In: DernardiD (ed.), Filming Difference: Actors, directors, producers, and writers on gender, race, and sexuality in film. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
12.
Cisco Kid, The (1950–1956) Syndicated. ZIV Television Programs.
13.
ClayH (2012) Mr. Clay’s Speech. In: GreenbergAS (ed.), Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion: A brief history with documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, pp. 54–55.
14.
CornejoCK (2009) Framing Identity/The Evolving Self: Beyond the academic director. In: DernardiD (ed.), Filming Difference: Actors, directors, producers, and writers on gender, race, and sexuality in film. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, pp. 75–94.
15.
CortésCE (1992) Who Is Maria? What Is Juan? Dilemmas of analyzing the Chicano image in U.S. feature films. In: NoriegaCA (ed.), Chicanos and Film: Representation and resistance. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 74–93.
16.
CortésCE (1997) Chicanas in Film: History of an image. In: RodríguezCE (ed.), Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. media. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, pp. 121–140.
17.
CowlishawB (2015) Intellectual Men: Masculinity versus intelligence. In: CowlishawBR (ed.), Masculinity in Breaking Bad: Critical perspectives. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc., pp. 63–87.
18.
DaweI (2015) Western Men: Breaking Bad’s outlaws and family men. In: CowlishawBR (ed.), Masculinity in Breaking Bad: Critical perspectives. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc., pp. 33–52.
19.
DelayB (2007) Independent Indians and the U.S.-Mexican War. American Historical Review112(1): 35–68.
20.
FirmatGP (2012) Life on the Hyphen: The Cuban-American way. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
21.
FoleyN (1997) The White Scourge: Mexicans, blacks, and poor whites in Texas cotton culture. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
22.
FregosoRL (1993) The Bronze Screen: Chicana and Chicano film culture. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
23.
GomezLE (2007) Manifest Destinies: The making of the Mexican American race. New York, NY: New York University Press.
24.
GreenbergAS (2005) Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
25.
GreenbergAS (2012) Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion: A brief history with documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
26.
GreerA (2009) Neither Color Blind, Nor Near-Sighted: Representation, race, and the role of the academic filmmaker. In: DernardiD (ed.), Filming Difference: Actors, directors, producers, and writers on gender, race, and sexuality in film. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, pp. 209–222.
27.
GruberE (2008) No Woman Would Die Like That: Stage Beauty as corrective-counterpoint in Othello. In: BlockM (ed.), Situating the Feminist Gaze and Spectatorship in Postwar Cinema. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 226–239.
28.
GutiérrezR (2016) Unraveling America’s Hispanic Past: Internal stratification and class boundaries. In: NoriegaCAAvilaEDavalosKMSandovalCPerez-TorresR (eds) The Chicano Studies Reader: An anthology of Aztlán, 1970–2015. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press, pp. 345–357.
29.
HallS (2013) The Work of Representation. In: HallSEvansJNixonS (eds) Representation. Los Angeles, CA: Sage, pp. 1–45.
30.
HaverlukTW (2003) Mex-America: From margin to mainstream. In: HausladenGJ (ed.), Western Places, American Myths: How we think about the west. Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press, pp. 166–183.
31.
HoltzmanLSharpeL (2014) Media Messages: What film, television, and popular music teach us about race, class, gender, and sexual orientation, 2nd ed. Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe.
32.
hooksb (1996) Reel to Real: Race, class, and sex at the movies. New York, NY: Routledge.
33.
HorsmanR (1981) Race and Manifest Destiny: The origins of American racial Anglo-Saxonism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
34.
HoweA (2014) Not Your Average Mexican: Breaking bad and the destruction of Latino stereotypes. In: PiersonDP (ed.), Breaking Bad: Critical essays on the contexts, politics, style, and reception of the television series. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, pp. 87–102.
35.
I Love Lucy (1951–1957) CBS. Desilu Productions.
36.
KaplanEA (1997) Looking for the Other: Feminism, film, and the imperial gaze. New York, NY: Routledge.
37.
LarsonSG (2006) Media and Minorities: The politics of race in news and entertainment. Lanham, MD: Rowan and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
38.
LevarioMA (2012) Militarizing the Border: When Mexican became the enemy. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.
39.
LichterSRAmundsonDR (1997) Distorted Reality: Hispanic characters in TV entertainment. In: RodríguezCE (ed.), Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. media. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, pp. 57–72.
40.
LimerickPN (1987) The Legacy of Conquest: The unbroken past of the American West. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
41.
LimónJE (1992) Stereotyping and Chicano Resistance: An historical dimension. In: NoriegaCA (ed.), Chicanos and Film: Representation and resistance. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 3–17.
42.
Miami Vice (1984–1989) NBC. Michael Mann Productions/Universal Television.
43.
Molina-GuzmanI (2018) Latinas and Latinos on TV: Colorblind comedy in the post-racial Network Era. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
44.
MoraA (2011) Border Dilemmas: Racial and national uncertainties in New Mexico, 1848–1912. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
45.
O’ConnellM (2016) Breaking Borders and Breaking Bad: Using unconventional choruses to build a narcotragedy. In: WanatMEngelL (eds) Breaking Down Breaking Bad: Critical perspectives. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, pp. 85–96.
46.
RitterbuschR (2008) Shifting Gender(ed) Desire in Anne Fontaine’s Nathalie. In: BlockM (ed.), Situating the Feminist Gaze and Spectatorship in Postwar Cinema. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 27–43.
47.
RodríguezCE (1997) Keeping It Reel? Films of the 1980s and 1990s. In: RodríguezCE (ed.), Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. media. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, pp. 180–184.
48.
SatchelRM (2017) What Movies Teach About Race: Exceptionalism, erasure, and entitlement. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
49.
SchlatterEA (2006) Aryan Cowboys: White Supremacists and the search for a new frontier, 1970–2000. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
50.
SlotkinR (1973) Regeneration Through Violence: The mythology of the American frontier, 1600–1860. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
51.
SlotkinR (1985) The Fatal Environment: The myth of the frontier in the age of industrialization, 1800–1890. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
52.
StamRSpenceL (1985) Colonialism, Racism, and Representation. In: NicholsB (ed.), Movies and Methods. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, pp. 632–648.
53.
ToddIS (2008) Hitchcock’s ‘Good-Looking Blondes’: First glimpses and second glances. In: BlockM (ed.), Situating the Feminist Gaze and Spectatorship in Postwar Cinema. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 52–66.
54.
WrightW (1975) Sixguns and Society: A structural study of the western. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
