Disney’s newest princess, Sofia the First, certainly doesn’t seem to be the first Latina princess and the public is taking notice.
In recent years Disney has been praised for the diversity of all their characters in sitcoms, movies, and even television games.
The major company has introduced princesses of all different backgrounds, except Latina.
It seems as if Sofia the First was supposed to change all that seeing that her mother was from a country based on Spain, but the brown haired blue eyed girl doesn’t seem Hispanic in the slightest bit.
She has very pale skin and doesn’t speak a lick of Spanish, or even have an accent. Sofia has the potential to be a lot of different things, but it doesn’t seem like Latina is one of them.
The unveiling of the new, not-so-Latina princess even has several Disney fans on Twitter upset, disappointed and confused.
“Overheard ‘Disney’s New Latina princess Sofia is about as Latina as Mitt Romney is Mexican. Controversy,” one Twitter user tweeted.
Another Twitter user not only expressed her disappointment with Disney’s lack of a Latina princess, but she also pointed out that she isn’t happy with the African American representation either.
“I’m so over #Disney. First they make the Black Princess a frog now they’re defending their blonde/blue-eyed Latina princess,” @DawnMelissa posted to her Twitter account.
She isn’t completely accurate, however, because although Disney has shown support for Sofia they haven’t shown any public support for the idea that Sofia was even meant to be Latina in the first place.
“To clarify, no character is Latina in Sofia the First,” Disney said in a statement to the Huffington Post. “The series does not depict ‘real world’ cultures – it is set in a fairytale world. The producer misspoke when he identified Queen Miranda (Sofia’s mother) as Latina.”
Even the princess’s name is spelled in the way most Latina’s would spell it (Sofia) rather than how most English communities would spell the name (Sophia.)
It seems like the company just didn’t’ want to deal with the backlash, however, and just decided to drop the Hispanic title associated with Sofia the First.
Disney’s past portrayals of the Spanish speaking cultures suggest that maybe it is better for the Hispanic community to give up the battle to have a Latina princess featured… at least not yet anyway.
Past characters of Hispanic descent fit into major stereotypes such as the “hot headed Latino”
One of Disney’s only major Hispanic characters in their animated films was Tito from “Oliver in Company” and as expected, the Latino character was a Chihuahua.
The short dog, was very emotion and angered easily which is a stereotype commonly associated with people of Hispanic descent.
Disney does have several Latina characters featured in their sitcoms, such as Selena Gomez in “The Wizards of Waverly Place” and even in one of their hit movies “High School Musical” which starred Vanessa Hudgens.
Well although you may be able to catch a Latina or two on the scripted series, it seems like Disney is still holding off on the idea of a Latina princess.
