Rojas, V. (2004). The gender of Latinidad : Latinas speak about Hispanic television. The Communication Review, 7(2), 125-153. Retrieved March 7, 2008, from Communication & Mass Media Complete database. (Document ID: 10.1080/10714420490448688).

Viviana Rojas, Ph.D has previously worked at both the University of Chile and the Univeristy of Diego Portales in Santiago Chile. In 1997 Rojas moved to the United States to pursue her Ph.D in Journalism at The University of Texas. Since 2002, Rojas has taught as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Texas at San Antonio. In addition, Rojas has published work in Media Access: Social and Psychological Dimensions of New Technology Use and is currently working on issues pertinent to the affects of media on adolecents. Rojas' article examines how a group of immigrant and non-immigrant Latinas in Austin, Texas, evaluate women’s representations on the television networks Univisíon and Telemundo, the two largest Hispanic networks in the United States. The main focus of the study detailed in this article is on the respondents' perception of gender, race and class representations in the talk shows El Show de Cristina and Laura en America.

 A series of one to three in-depth interviews were conducted with a group of 27 women between 1999 and 2002. Rojas refers to Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice to explain the relationship Latinas feel with Spanish-language TV, which is one of ambivalence and distinction. Rojas’ (2004) study focuses on four main questions when interviewing the participants.  First, how do Latinas perceive themselves in relation to the U.S. society? Second, how do Latinas feel about how other cultural groups classify them? Third, what is the relevance of Spanish-language television in their lives? Lastly, what do Latinas think about women’s representations on Hispanic television in general, and in El Show de Cristina and Laura en America?  This article aims to provide initial answers to some of these questions with an emphasis on the analysis of the last two questions.

According to Rojas (2004), the purpose of the study is two-fold. Not only does it attempt to get Latinas to speak of their opinions regarding the manner in which Spanish-Language television represent women and Latinos in general, the article also aims to compare and contrast other discourses of Latino cultural unity or "Latinidad" that play a significant role in the way Latinos are identifying themselves in  modern society (Rojas, 2004, 127). In addition, Rojas (2004) evaluates and highlights how Latinas, both U.S. born and immigrant, respond to issues of class, race, and gender in Spanish-Language television.  

Rojas believes that there is a great need to study issues of Hispanic representations and stereotypes in both the English and Spanish-language media. Latino audiences are rarely researched for academic purposes and therefore, there is a lack of information on how the Latino population consumes, perceives and responds to pop culture. Her study allows Latinas to discuss and evaluate Hispanic network's legitimacy to represent and serve Latinos living in the U.S. 

 The majority of the respondents believed that the Univisíon and Telemundo networks serve an entertainment function more than a public service for Latinos. Rojas (2004) concluded that regardless of class, social status, education, or whether the volunteer was U.S. born or a recent immigrant, the majority of the women perceived such shows as degrading towards Latinos, and particularly towards Latino women. The major criticisms were a controversial representation of Latino women, a lack of information about their countries of origin, and a lack of necessary and helpful information for Latinos, such as information on immigration problems, health assistance, or scholarship applications. Some of the respondents indicated that the networks need to offer more diverse programming and to balance between entertainment and education functions. For many of the interviewees, Spanish-language television does not help Latinos in their personal growth. Rojas (2004) examined how the majority of her subjects agreed that Univisíon and Telemundo do help Latino immigrant transition and assimilate to the dominant culture, however, both networks focus, mostly, on entertaining audiences instead of providing a genuine public service. Mostly, the women in Rojas study argued that both El Show de Cristina and  Laura en America were seen by the interviewees as helping  newcomers adjust to their new environment, however, they were criticized for promoting certain Latino steretypes rather than promoting a true intention to advance the Latino community. 

Women's sexualization on Spanish-language TV was also criticized by the majority of the respondents, many of which felt attacked, offended, and humiliated by the manner in which women were negatively portrayed as a sex symbol in both networks. They also challenged the concept of Latino cultural unity, "Latinidad", promoted by the networks. Most of the interviewees believe that Spanish-language television needs to grow and include other elements of the Latino population to aid in their advancement. However, the repondents' criticizm of both Univision and Thelemundo does not undermine the existence of Spanish-language television networks, but rather it reflects the complex expectations of Latinos regarding the work of Hispanic networks in their community.  

Many scholars argue that Hispanic talk shows seem to follow the white model of television talk shows claiming that this model co-opts the representations of African Americans and Hispanics either by whitening them out or reducing them to stereotypes of oversexed Latinas, loud black women, and infatile black men. Rojas' article confirms these arguments and emphasizes the importance of ethnic media's self evaluation. Rojas' (2004) focus on the representation of "Latinas" in Hispanic TV is more pressing considering recent research that highlight Latinas' racialization in Hispanic media. Rojas' article encourages all audiences, not simply Latinos, to take a better look at the content being presented in their own media and how it represents them. Ethnic groups usually give more attention to how mainstream media represent them, but this article is a call for all ethnic groups to question how their ethnic media represent them and whether these representations are purely for entertainment sake or for the betterment of their community. (Reviewed by Priscilia and edited by Jessica D. Duran)