Sofia Vergara, Colombia’s star in the US sitcom Modern Family, on Tuesday rejected criticism on her portrayal of Latin women.
In an interview with Spanish news agency EFE, denied trying to portray a negative stereotype of Latinas, stressing the diversity of women from Latin America.
“Whoever said that all Latin women are the same? It’s impossible to caricature millions of women from 20 countries. There are many kinds of Latinas, just like there are many types and styles of women all over the world,” the actress told EFE.
According to Vergara, the existing stereotype of Latinas “”goes more toward seeing us as all about our families, hard working, standing up for ourselves, ultra-protective of our kids, and that we do ourselves up more than others, because a lot of us wear perfume even to take the kids to school in the morning,” she said jokingly.
The character of Gloria Delgada in Modern Family is not meant to reinforce any stereotype, but is rather a fusion of women the actress personally knows.
“Gloria has a lot of my mom and my aunts in her, especially the funniest and most temperamental of them. I love my character, it makes me proud to play her as a symbol of many Latin women, but not all of them,” she said.
Additionally, “I have a lot of friends and fans who are white, Jews, African-Americans, Europeans, Australians and of all ages and colors whose relatives tell them they are identical to Gloria,” said the actress.
The Colombian actress, whose upcoming action film “Machete Kills” will premiere Oct. 11, has faced criticism over her character’s alleged stereotyping of Latinas ever since the show took to the air in 2009.
