Hello There!
So you want to make a Mexican character, but you are not Mexican and need some tips, here is a guide, by yours truly!
1: Our Religion
Christiany and Catholic are teh most common religions in Mexico and Mexican families. Some of us have pictures of Jesus in a wall, some of us have little shrines, and some of us just have a cross in our house.
Praying is something we do a lot. A type of prayer I do before going to sleep, or saying goodbye to someone, is “En el nombre del padre, del hijo, y del espiritu santo, amen”. Some families pray before eating. In Dia del Muerto, we pray. Not all of us have ofrendas, but we do get Pan de Muerto. Another holiday we do is Los Reyes Magos. Basically in January 6, We get a special holiday bread with baby jesus figures inside. Whoever gets the piece of bread with a baby jesus has to bring tamales on Feburary 2nd.
2: Our appearance
I know that this is a hard pill to swallow, but, not every mexican has dark skin. This is coming from a pale mexican. My family is mostly light skinned, but we are 100% mexican. We can have blue eyes, blond hair, light skin, and be 100% mexican. Mexicans are very diverse, some of us are even born with East Asian features.
3: When do we speak spanish?
We usually speak Spanish in our house, or in family gatherings, or just anywhere with people who speak spanish. We don’t go up to someone who doesn’t speak spanish and say “Hola, que honda, mi amigo!”, We talk in english to people who only speak english. But we do think in spanish sometimes, depends how and where you grew up.
4: Avoid Stereotypes.
If you want to make a Latin character, please avoid the following stereotypes.
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The Sexual Latina trope. You don’t know how many stories or movies or just tv shows in general have the latinx character a person who does the thing to everyone they see. Not all of us are like that. Liek me for example, I am the artist who would rather watch anime and chill then hook up with some dude.
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The Poor Mexican stereotype. God, this one really pisses me off. There are many mexicans who are very wealthy, not all of us live in a cheap dirty house and can barely afford clothes.
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The Gang/Drug Dealer Mexican Stereotype. Many stories have gang members or drug dealers mexican, or have spanish names, and I honestly don’t understand why. There are people like that in every country and ethnicity, not just latins.
5: Give the character a personality
Thsi goes to every character of any ethnicity. For example, people think that being Asian is a personality, it’s not. All of us humans are diverse and complex, we are all different, and we each have our own personality. Being a certain ethnicity is not all we do, we like other things too.
Good Luck, Fellow episodians <3
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