Articles, Books, Documentaries

The following books, articles, documentaries, and electronic resources assisted in the creation of this guide. Book titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog and can help you learn more about relevant topics and serve as a jumping-off point for further research. Links to additional online content are included when available.

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Chicanos and Film by Chon A. Noriega (Contribution by)
Call Number: PN1995.9.M49 C49 1992
ISBN: 0816622183
Published/Created: 1992-10-01
To date, film scholarship has not considered the issue of Chicano and Latino representation and participation in the American film industry. Genre criticism in particular has been all but blind to the presence of Chicanos in genres that have, at times, been constructed around a Chicano or Chicana "other" - Westerns, social problem films, and the more recent urban violence film. Additionally, Chicano studies draw upon the scholarship of Chicano politics, narrative and visual art, and cultural studies.
Cinema Between Latin America and Los Angeles by Colin Gunckel (Editor)
Call Number: PN1993.5.M4 C48 2019
ISBN: 9781978801257
Published/Created: 2019
Historically, Los Angeles and its exhibition market have been central to the international success of Latin American cinema. Not only was Los Angeles a site crucial for exhibition of these films, but it became the most important hub in the western hemisphere for the distribution of Spanish language films made for Latin American audiences. Cinema between Latin America and Los Angeles builds upon this foundational insight to both examine the considerable, ongoing role that Los Angeles played in the history of Spanish-language cinema and to explore the implications of this transnational dynamic for the study and analysis of Latin American cinema before 1960. The volume editors aim to flesh out the gaps between Hollywood and Latin America, American imperialism and Latin American nationalism in order to produce a more nuanced view of transnational cultural relations in the western hemisphere.
From Latin America to Hollywood by Cari Beauchamp
Call Number: PN1995.9.L37 F76 2017
ISBN: 9780692911327
Published/Created: 2017-01-01
Hispanics and United States Film by Gary D. Keller
Call Number: PN1995.9.L37
ISBN: 0927534401
Published/Created: 1993-11-01
Hollywood Riots by Doug Dibbern
Call Number: PN1995.9.P6 D52 2016
ISBN: 9781780766324
Published/Created: 2015-12-17
The large literature about the politics of Hollywood in the period of McCarthy and the blacklist has largely overlooked political filmmaking during those agitated years. "Hollywood Riots" examines the most vibrant cycle of independently produced political films made while House Committee on Un-American Activities was investigating communists in the film industry. In doing so, it shifts the focus from the politics of Washington to the politics of Los Angeles and from the films of the Hollywood Ten to the more politically complex films of the progressive community at large. Dibbern shows how the movies produced by progressives at the end of the 1950s, including "The Lawless", "The Sound of Fury", "The Underworld", were the logical cinematic parallel to their political and journalistic advocacy fighting the conservative newspapers. In these films they were recasting political events from California's recent past as politically-engaged narratives that were inflected with their own fears of persecution.
Latina Filmmakers and Writers by Jenny Dean
Call Number: PS153.M4 D39 2007
ISBN: 9780979645716
Published/Created: 2007-08-01
During the Chicano Movement in the 1960s and 1970s, Chicanas helped Chicanos achieve equal rights, while at the same time suffered oppression as women wihin their own race. In the 1970s, the Chicana Feminist Movement was founded to address the specific needs of Chicanas as women of color in the United States. Chicana artits began to write and produce works in which Chicanas were given a proper name, voice, and image. Soon, Chicanisma, a sense of sisterhood and feminist discourse, emerged to confront the triple oppression of race, class, and gender.
Latino Images in Film by Charles Ramírez Berg
Call Number: PN1995.9.H47 B46 2002
ISBN: 0292709064
Published/Created: 2002-08-15
The bandido, the harlot, the male buffoon, the female clown, the Latin lover, and the dark lady - these have been the defining, and demeaning, images of Latinos in U.S. cinema for more than a century. In this book, Charles Ramerez Berg develops an innovative theory of stereotyping that accounts for the persistence of such images in U.S. popular culture. He also explores how Latino actors and filmmakers have actively subverted and resisted such stereotyping. In the first part of the book, Berg sets forth his theory of stereotyping, defines the classic stereotypes, and investigates how actors such as Raul Julia, Rosie Perez, José Ferrer, Lupe Vélez, and Gilbert Roland have subverted stereotypical roles. In the second part, he analyses Hollywood's portrayal of Latinos in three genres: social problem films, John Ford westerns, and science fiction films. In the concluding section, Berg looks at Latino self-representation and anti-stereotyping in Mexican American border documentaries and in the feature films of Robert Rodreguez.
Making Cinelandia by Laura Isabel Serna
Call Number: PN1993.5.M6 S47 2014
ISBN: 9780822356417
Published/Created: 2014-03-28
In the 1920s, as American films came to dominate Mexico's cinemas, many of its cultural and political elites feared that this "Yanqui invasion" would turn Mexico into a cultural vassal of the United States. In Making Cinelandia, Laura Isabel Serna contends that Hollywood films were not simply tools of cultural imperialism. Instead, they offered Mexicans on both sides of the border an imaginative and crucial means of participating in global modernity, even as these films and their producers and distributors frequently displayed anti-Mexican bias. Before the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, Mexican audiences used their encounters with American films to construct a national film culture. Drawing on extensive archival research, Serna explores the popular experience of cinemagoing from the perspective of exhibitors, cinema workers, journalists, censors, and fans, showing how Mexican audiences actively engaged with American films to identify more deeply with Mexico.
Movies (and Other Things) by Shea Serrano; Arturo Torres (Illustrator)
Call Number: PN1993.5.U6 S47 2019
ISBN: 9781538730195
Published/Created: 2019-10-08
Many, many things happen in Movies (And Other Things), some of which funny, others of which are sad, a few of which are insightful, and all of which are handled with the type of care and dedication to the smallest details and pockets of pop culture that only a book by Shea Serrano can provide.
Reel Latinxs by Frederick Luis Aldama; Christopher González
Call Number: PN1995.9.H47 A43 2019
ISBN: 9780816539581
Published/Created: 2019
Latinx representation in the popular imagination has infuriated and befuddled the Latinx community for decades. These misrepresentations and stereotypes soon became as American as apple pie. But these cardboard cutouts and examples of lazy storytelling could never embody the rich traditions and histories of Latinx peoples. Not seeing real Latinxs on TV and film reels as kids inspired the authors to dive deep into the world of mainstream television and film to uncover examples of representation, good and bad. The result: a riveting ride through televisual and celluloid reels that make up mainstream culture. As pop culture experts Frederick Luis Aldama and Christopher González show, the way Latinx peoples have appeared and are still represented in mainstream TV and film narratives is as frustrating as it is illuminating. Stereotypes such as drug lords, petty criminals, buffoons, and sexed-up lovers have filled both small and silver screens--and the minds of the public.
Gender in Hispanic Literature and Visual Arts by Christina Mougoyanni Hennessy (Editor)
Call Number: PS153.H56 G46 2016
ISBN: 9781498521192
Published/Created: 2015
Gender in Hispanic Literature and Visual Arts provides an interdisciplinary and multicultural perspective on gender within Hispanic film and literature. The contributors analyze the relationship between the historical and social contexts of various Hispanic countries--including Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, and Uruguay--and the effects of their contexts on their representations of gender. This book examines gender-based violence, transvestism, lesbianism, (mis)representation, indigenism, dissent, identity, and voice as a means of better understanding the meaning and implications of gender within the diversity of people and cultures that comprise the Hispanic world.
Bronze Screen by Rosa Linda Fregoso
Call Number: PN1995.9.M49
ISBN: 9781452901008
Published/Created: 1993
Explores Chicana and Chicano popular culture through contemporary representations in both Hollywood commercial and independent cinema. Rosa Linda Fregoso's The Bronze Screen opens the way for international debate on the new critical field of Chicano/a cinema. Fregoso provides an incisive articulation of the ways in which narrative codes in film can telescope complex versions of Mexican and American culture and history.
LatinX Voices by Katie Coronado and Erica Kight (editors)
Call Number: P94.5.H58
ISBN: 9781315284118
Published/Created: 2018
LatinX Voices is the first undergraduate textbook that includes an overview of Hispanic/LatinX Media in the U.S. and gives readers an understanding of how media in the United States has transformed around this audience. Based on the authors' professional and research experience, and teaching broadcast media courses in the classroom, this text covers the evolving industry and offers perspective on topics related to Latin-American areas of interest.

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The Bronze Screen: 100 Years of the Latino Image in Hollywood External
"Latinos have made many important contributions to the art of cinema. For over a century their contributions have helped create cinema as we know it today. The Latino image has reflected U.S. and world politics. This HBO/Cinemax documentary interviews Latinos actors, directors, and producers about their experiences in the world of cinema." - Nancy De Los Santos-Reza (Vimeo)
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/2003632921
Latinos Beyond Reel External
"In Latinos Beyond Reel, filmmakers Miguel Picker and Chyng Sun examine how US news and entertainment media portray -- and do not portray -- Latinos." - IMDb
Hollywood’s Hidden Latino Figures External
"Once upon a time in Hollywood, Latinos changed their names, hair color, and even physical features to secure movie roles." - Nuestro Stories
LatiNation External
LatiNation is LATV’s docuseries that takes an in depth look at the stories affecting our community the most, from street artists to social activists. There’s a whole lot more going on than what you see on the surface, and we dive deep to find the lives of the people who shape our culture.
Latino + Film + USA External
"An insight into the everyday struggles young Latino filmmakers go through to survive in the industry." -IMDb
The Latino List External
"Renowned Latino artists and leaders pose for a series of highly personal video portraits in this documentary." -IMDb

Action! : the magazine of the Directors Guild of America
Call Number: PN1995.9.P7 A25
Arizona journal of Hispanic cultural studies
Call Number: F1408.3 .A745
Aztlán
Call Number: E184.M5 A98
The bilingual review/ La revista bilingüe
Call Number: P115 .B54
Cinéaste
Call Number: PN1993 .C5177
Cinema journal
Call Number: PN1993 .S62

15 Hispanic Movies That Call Back to Your Vibrant Cultural Roots External
by Samantha Olson
The American Latino Experience: 20 Essential Films Since 2000 External
by Carlos Aguilar
(1 October 2020)
The Aztlán Film Institute's Top 100 List External
by Chon Noriega
(December 1998)
Booklet: “Cinema’s First Nasty Women” External
A Brutally Honest History of Latinos in Hollywood External
by Los Angeles Times Staff
(13 June 2021)
Chicana Director's Initiative External
CDI's Mission: "To create a solid foundation of Latina Directors and Latina DPs and successfully immerse the members into sustainable careers in the entertainment industry with fair representation and equal pay." - Retrieved from https://chicanadirectorsinitiative.org/
Hispanic and Latino Representation in Film: Erasure On Screen & Behind the Camera Across 1,300 Popular Movies External
by Ariana Case, Zoily Mercado & Karla Hernandez with assistance from Dr. Katherine Pieper, Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti & Jacqueline Martinez
(September 2021)
A History of Hispanic & Latinx Representation in Film External
by Allison Michelle Morris
(15 September 2022)
IMDb (Internet Movie Database) External
An internet database covering films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online.
more...less...
This resource greatly assisted the team in researching and identifying film and filmmakers' information to include in the various filmographies of this guide.
Lantern Media History External
Lantern is the search platform for the collections of the Media History Digital Library, an open access initiative led by Eric Hoyt and the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. The Media History Digital Library (MHDL) digitizes collections of classic media periodicals that belong in the public domain for full public access.
Latino legends helped pave the way in Hollywood, but the road is still rocky External
by Mandalit del Barco
(15 September 2022)
Women Film Pioneers Project External
A scholarly resource exploring women’s global involvement at all levels of film production during the silent film era.

Latinx Representation in Film

Caribbean, Iberian & Latin American Studies: Ask a Librarian

Articles, Books, Documentaries