Latinx TV in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Frederick Luis Aldama, brings together 21 essays divided into six sections that discuss the evolving roles of Latinxs television professionals working both in front of and behind the camera. Aldama’s collection contributes to a rich history of scholarship from authors such as Mary Beltrán, Charles Ramírez Berg, Isabel Molina-Guzmán and others whose works focus on Latinx representation in television, film, and other popular media. Aldama states in his introduction that “much has changed and much has stayed the same” within Latinx television. The essays highlight shifts happening within Latinx Tvlandia and offer critical insights into recurring issues, such as stereotypes, underrepresentation, and dehumanization of immigrants. The essays also bring attention to subversive action and narrative shaping within contemporary televisual narratives. 

#BrownLaughter explores the use of humor as a narrative shaping tool that challenges dominant TV narratives. Humor within television shows such as Superstore, George Lopez, and Cristela brings attention to the experiences of working-class Latinx people, discusses the American Dream, and puts to work the idea of the Latinx Gaze. Melissa Castillo Planas’s essay “Cristela Alonzo’s Subversive Humor: Television, Nostalgia and the New Latino American Dream” illuminates how the show Cristela subverts the typical family sitcom style by providing nuanced discussions that push against the idea of a monolithic American Dream. Instead, Cristela allows for a reframing of the American Dream that encompasses a working-class Latinx family. The remaining essays in this section focus on a shift in agency and continued subversions happening within Latinx television comedies.

#BrownSuffering/#BrownWellness examines how Latinx characters’ suffering or wellbeing acts as a catalyst for the narratives. “Peripheral Futurities of Multiculturalism: Suffering Latinas in the Orange is the New Black Ensemble Cast” by Katlin Marisol Sweeney sheds light on how Black and Latina characters’ storylines within Orange is the New Black are used as a mechanism to further the plot of the main, white protagonist Piper. Sweeney deems these characters the “suffering support systems” whose goals are to “endure substantial pain and/or violation representative of structural oppression.” Other essays in this section discuss how twenty-first century Latinx tv narratives refuse to shy away from topics of mental health wellness (anxiety, depression, PTSD and ADHD) thus providing representation of an often overlooked—and taboo—topic within Latinx communities. 

#StraightWhiteForms/BentBrownGenres addresses the continued essentialization of Latinx cultures, holidays, and intersectional identities specifically within children’s television, law enforcement, and sci-fi shows. Within this section, both Cristina Rivera and Matthew Sandoval address the reluctance within children’s television shows to assign cultural specificity. Rivera addresses the lack of specificity and continued white washing of Dora the Explorer. While Sandoval addresses how Disney’s Elena of Avalon presents dia de los muertos as “a secular cultural festival in which the central component of death, as well as the holiday’s sacred and religious characters, are completely disguised or disappeared.” Mauricio Espinoza and Carlos Gabriel Kelly González showcase how traditionally mainstream tv genres such as law enforcement and sci-fi are being framed through the Brown Oculi as a way to subvert typical mainstream genre conventions that often place little attention on or ascribe negative roles to Latinx bodies. 

#BorderlandLatinxsReclaimed is an impactful exploration of fiction and non-fiction portrayals of immigration issues and border violence within a variety of television programs. Each essay brings attention to the continued discourse of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ immigrants within the U.S. and how those narratives continue to make their way into documentaries and fictional serialized shows. Authors of this section also tackle issues of DACA, dehumanization, family separation, and drug issues. Within the non-fiction realm, Camilla Fojas’s essay illuminates how the documentary series Living Undocumented, and others like it, challenges ICE narratives and shines a light on the brutal and inhumane treatment immigrants and migrants face. Other essays in this section discuss fictional series such as Party of Five, Jane the Virgin, On My Block, Narcos: Mexico, and The Bridge.

Section Five, #QueeringLatinxTV, provides analysis and critiques of Latinx LGBTQ+ storytelling. This section, like Section Four, provides insight into fictional and non-fictional television instances of queer narratives and how these narratives provide new ways of thinking about LGBTQ+ experiences. Authors of this section explore a variety of characters within the shows The L Word, Vida, and various shows and documentaries featuring Puerto Rican icon Walter Mercado. This section discusses narratives that subvert stereotypical depictions of Latinx characters, it dives into a family’s journey of exploring Latinx kinship and LGBTQ+ identity, and wraps up by discussing a popular Latinx figure who is framed as a “crucial referent [figure] for queer Latinx culture.” 

#StreamingBrown, moves readers into the world of streaming before providing an interview with Peter Murrieta. The essays present in this section focus on Netflix creations. David Schmidt focuses on Netflix narratives outside of novelas and narco stories. Keeping in line with Netflix programming, Nicole Pizarro’s essay bringas attention to Siempre Bruja and its Afro-Latinx character while also reminding readers that there is a continued need for more Afro-Latinx stories within Tvlandia. Streaming has changed the game for television and provided new viewing experiences within television shows that were not previously available. Streaming services have also allowed for a wider range of narrative productions within Tvlandia. The final entry, an interview with Peter Murrieta, provides a testimonio from a creator who has worked in various roles within television. 

This collection celebrates the wins, but the featured scholars expertly discuss the continued need for willful creations of Latinx narratives, especially when one considers that Latinxs on television still only account for around three percent of television narratives. What is most striking about the curation of this collection is the wide breadth of knowledge that is shared within each section. The essays do not solely focus on the importance of representation within Latinx television, but analyze, discuss and critique the tensions happening within white oculi and brown oculi televisual narratives being created today. People working in Latinx studies or Media studies would greatly benefit from this collection.