Univision Incident Reignites Questions About Diversity In Latino Media

Arlene Dávila.

New York University Professor Arlene Dávila, who studies Latino media, says she's not surprised. "I think that anybody who watches Univision regularly ... will notice the white, white space that station [Univision] historically has been," she says. "You're not going to see Indo-Latinos, you're not going to see Afro-Latinos." In fact, she says, the Univision landscape is often whiter than mainstream U.S. television.

Dávila says Latino television largely echoes, imports and repackages Latin American programming, with all its pitfalls. "Already in Latin America, our very [media are] skewed and not a representation. But then you're talking about the U.S. Latino world, you would think that it would be a different world — a world that would not be tied to the traditional racist views of our countries, but that rather would try to imagine a pan-Latino universe."

Read Jasmine Garsd's blog in NPR's The Two-Way about how the fallout from former Univision host Rodner Figueroa's controversial comments about First Lady Michelle Obama shine a light on the lack of diversity in Latino media by clicking here.