Introduction

MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF LATINO IMMIGRATION play on two main images: “good” immigrants seeking political asylum versus “bad” immigrants flooding across the border for economic reasons. One type of evening news story sympathetically describes events like the Mariel boatlift, Nicaraguan exiles fleeing the Sandinistas, or Salvadorans and Guatemalans escaping the death squads. Here the focus is on repressive political regimes and the hardships of the journey; the immigrants are celebrated as heroic and valiant, and families are shown and interviewed. Quite different news stories report on the “economic” migrants, where Mexicans in search of a living wage are almost universally represented by single males. Their activities are “criminalized” as they are shown racing across the border, spotlighted by helicopters, fleeing raids, or rounded up and “arrested” while awaiting deportation. When so called “in-depth” stories are done, they usually consist of documenting dependence on social services and charity. In each case we are regaled with stories of individual struggles for a new life in America rather than an analysis of distinct peoples responding to specific social, political, and economic circumstances.