Being a young Latina who lives in New York City, you see many different things and because of the diversity; you see the other side of what the media shows us. As someone who sees and knows how different us Latina women really are, it is truly disheartening to see the same stereotypes constantly thrown around in the media. If they were good stereotypes, that would be OK but they are the same ones constantly. While there will always be people that fall into stereotypes, it is extremely dangerous for people to believe in these one-sided characteristics.

The other day, I saw a movie called "Beatriz at Dinner." Actress Salma Hayek plays Beatriz, who is a masseuse for Cathy. Cathy considers Beatriz a family friend as she had taken care of her daughter, Tara, a few years prior. Beatriz’s car stops working and Cathy insists she stay for dinner with her husband’s work associates. Essentially, the dinner goes wrong as she does not sit well with one of the men at dinner. Point being, they portray Salma Hayek as a crazy, older Hispanic woman. For one, they have Salma Hayek hold a thicker accent than she actually does have; as if she doesn't speak both English and Spanish fluently or as if she hasn't lived in America for years. In the movie, she lives in California and owns goats, which blew my mind. She spends the first ten minutes of the movie upset about how her neighbor killed one of her goats. Then Cathy uses that as an excuse for why Beatriz acts up throughout the entire movie. No, Doug, Beatriz doesn't hate you because you're a terrible person, she's just being emotional because her goats died - cue an immense eye roll.

In media, we see three main stereotypes for Hispanic women. One being the non-English-speaking older immigrant, which can also be subbed out for the angry immigrant who does speak English but with a strong accent, that no one really understands. Contrary to popular belief, people who are immigrants know English even better than some people that live in America. While we are angry sometimes, that does not fall on our race as a whole but on us as individual people. Either way, if we just happen to be angry as a whole, that might have to do with us paying attention to racial stereotypes thrown at us.

A second stereotype that is constantly shown is the overly sexy Hispanic. They come in many different ways and usually don't speak too often, but one thing is the same. They are oversexualized and gawked at during every opportunity. While Hispanics are known for having larger breasts and butts, that doesn't make it OK, that every Hispanic has that in media. We are all different and that constant sexualization is what makes people think it's OK to comment on Hispanic women who don't fit into this body type.

Finally, the worst one of all and one that has an entire show around the idea: maids. We are constantly shown to be maids in media. Whether it be a job that we got when we came here or they work for a family because their family did prior, it is so common. Hispanic women always have this job, in novelas, in regular television, in movies – that is normal portrayal.

This leads to a certain level of animosity and stereotyping to normal Hispanic women. If we don't fit into these stereotypes, we are seen as weird and criticized for not fitting into what people know of us as "normal."