Jaime Camil is proud of the respectful way “Jane The Virgin” has portrayed Latinos.
The Mexican-born actor, who plays Jane’s dad Rogelio de la Vega, spoke to Mic recently about his role in the show and Latino stereotypes in Hollywood. Camil explained that one of The CW show’s strengths is how they treat their Latino characters.
“Jane the Virgin portrays Latinos with a lot of respect,” Camil told Mic. “Just because we’re Latinos doesn’t mean we need to have hot pink houses and piñatas and shout things like, ‘Tacos! Fiestas!’ We’re a powerful Latino cast, the characters are humans and the show is written for a mainstream market.”
In the interview, Camil also discussed the narrow-minded stereotypes that still impact how Mexicans specifically are portrayed by Hollywood.
“You don’t have to portray Mexicans as nannies or gardeners. We are not rapists or drug dealers. Mexico is cosmopolitan and our films show that,” he said, referencing Trump’s infamous remarks about Mexican immigrants.
In a 2015 interview with Latina magazine, the actor also spoke about how the industry doesn’t understand the diversity, complexity and power of the Latino demographic.
“Hollywood, they make up these Latinos because they have a certain physical type or a certain name or whatever… It’s not that easy,” Camil told the magazine about how Latino stars are often cast. “It’s like me wanting to do a movie with an American actor and I say, ‘Hey listen, I have either Johnny Depp or Carrot Top.’ You’ll go, ‘Dude are you fucking insane? Are you really putting those guys in the same category?’ And my answer would be, ‘Well, yes, they’re both Americans and they both do films.’ That’s kind of a way to explain.”
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