“‘Type-Cast Set’: What Autobiographies of Latino/a Performers Show About Playing to (Stereo)Type ”

Abstract

Through the autobiographies of Rita Moreno, Rosie Perez, and John Leguizamo, this essay establishes a trajectory of the utilization and reformation of stereotypes for Latino/a performers so as to make these texts part of the genre of life-writing within Latino/a literature. These actors have been struggling with the stereotypical roles they enact and have reformulated them to better represent the embodied experience of being Latino/a on the stage and screen for both their sake as the individual performer but also for their community as well. Keywords: Latino/a; stereotypical roles; performance on stage and screen; participatory resistance.

Keywords

• Latino/a
• stereotypical roles
• performance on stage and screen
• participatory resistance.