“Blue Beetle,” the new summer blockbuster from the DC franchise starring Xolo Maridueña is a big moment for Latino representation in Hollywood.
If predictions hold true that “Blue Beetle,” the new summer blockbuster from the DC franchise will knock out “Barbie” from the top box office slot this weekend, it would prove what I and others have been saying for years: Give Latino creatives the big budget chances and they will deliver. “Blue Beetle,” which opened Friday, is directed by Puerto Rican Ángel Manuel Soto, written by Mexican Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer and features the fabulous Cuban-Mexican-Ecuadorian Xolo Maridueña of “Cobra Kai” fame as a bonafide non-animated (sorry, Miles Morales) Latino superhero.
Maridueña stars as Jaime Reyes, who gets his own power suit of armor from a relic known as the Scarab to transform into the Blue Beetle superhero. In the film, Reyes returns to his fictional hometown of Palmera City, which Soto said was inspired by the real city of El Paso, Texas, where moviegoers get to know his multigenerational family members who present an endearing experience that just feels right to U.S. Latinos thirsting to see more of themselves onscreen.
Described by one reviewer as exactly what the “struggling” DC franchise needs, “Blue Beetle,” even more importantly, is a game changer for Latino representation and a prompt to Hollywood to stop recycling stereotypes, reducing U.S. Latinos to side characters and telling trite stories that lack cultural complexity and fail to speak to our communities.
Film critic Carlos Aguilar tweeted that he was “impressed by pop culture details and historical references,” noting that “this is the work of filmmakers who know and care about Latin America.”
As Soto explained to USA Today, “We wanted to get the story right because we felt our Latinidad was just authentically ourselves.” He said, “I did not have to try to be Latin, and a lot of what happens in the movie are experiences the actors have had because they’re Latino too.
