Spanish speakers in American movies/tv series (budget, Hispanic)
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Yesterday I was watching Breaking Bad (great TV show!) and kept me wondering.
Why is that that most supposedly Spanish speakers in the show (like for example Tortuga, Tuco or Tuco's uncle (Hector Salamanca)), who all are supposed to be Mexican, do not speak Spanish as native speakers? Spanish is clearly not their native language, and some of them even speak it really badly.
Same happens in lots of other movies and TV shows.
Why do you think it is that? No one cares? No one understand Spanish so it doesn't matter? Do they get Hispanic-American actors that have some basic knowledge of Spanish but English is their main language and they think it is good like that?
Try to imagine the opposite situation: you are watching a Mexican film and the American character has a thick non native accent when speaking English... how credible is that?
No idea... maybe these actors/actresses have foreign accent because they grow up speaking English? sometimes this people have strange accent.
I like the Spanish that Eva Longoria or Jennifer Lopez speak but it sounds strange yes.
Yesterday I was watching Breaking Bad (great TV show!) and kept me wondering.
Why is that that most supposedly Spanish speakers in the show (like for example Tortuga, Tuco or Tuco's uncle (Hector Salamanca)), who all are supposed to be Mexican, do not speak Spanish as native speakers? Spanish is clearly not their native language, and some of them even speak it really badly.
One thing is for sure, the Spanish spoken by the characters in Breaking Bad is way different from the Spanish spoken in Albuquerque and northern New Mexico, in general. I think the only character in the show that is an actual Spanish peaking local is Hank's partner, Gomez (Steven Quezada) and I don't recall if he ever speaks Spanish in the show.
My guess is that the actors who played Tuco and Tortuga are from Los Angeles. Apart from the fact that there are millions of Mexican immigrants and their descendants in southern California, I am not sure of the language situation there, but I find it hard to believe that a Mexican-American actor would find it difficult to practice Spanish and the Mexican accent, in particular there. I know that Danny Trejo (Tortuga) has played dozens of Mexican characters over the years. Badly, apparently. :-)
Yeah I found it weird that they got a dark skinned guy with an American accent to play a Chilean in breaking bad. He didn't even use Chilean words.
You'd think a show with such a high budget would get a more realistic accent. I commend the guy for learning Spanish, he speaks it better than majority of people who don't speak it natively... but still...
Yesterday I was watching Breaking Bad (great TV show!) and kept me wondering.
Why is that that most supposedly Spanish speakers in the show (like for example Tortuga, Tuco or Tuco's uncle (Hector Salamanca)), who all are supposed to be Mexican, do not speak Spanish as native speakers? Spanish is clearly not their native language, and some of them even speak it really badly.
Same happens in lots of other movies and TV shows.
Why do you think it is that? No one cares? No one understand Spanish so it doesn't matter? Do they get Hispanic-American actors that have some basic knowledge of Spanish but English is their main language and they think it is good like that?
Try to imagine the opposite situation: you are watching a Mexican film and the American character has a thick non native accent when speaking English... how credible is that?
This is the most annoying thing, can't stand it! If the character is supposedly from a country, they need to get someone who is completely fluent in the language to play the role. They also need to do the right freaking accent- I've seen many 'Mexicans' on shows played by US Puerto Ricans, it sounds so wrong.
It happens all the time, and really kills movies and shows for me. I stop watching them.
Or they put a pretend Brazilian saying a couple of Spanish words (hola, hasta pronto, etc...)
What I don't like is when they dub a movie and use a voice over with an accent that doesn't fit the character. Like the movie scarface, how hard would it have been to find Cubans to do tonys and manolos voice? No, they used some other accent that didn't fit the movie at all. I'm not saying its a bad accent, but its like using standard midwestern English for a Jamaican character.
Yesterday I was watching Breaking Bad (great TV show!) and kept me wondering.
Why is that that most supposedly Spanish speakers in the show (like for example Tortuga, Tuco or Tuco's uncle (Hector Salamanca)), who all are supposed to be Mexican, do not speak Spanish as native speakers? Spanish is clearly not their native language, and some of them even speak it really badly.
Same happens in lots of other movies and TV shows.
Why do you think it is that? No one cares? No one understand Spanish so it doesn't matter? Do they get Hispanic-American actors that have some basic knowledge of Spanish but English is their main language and they think it is good like that?
Try to imagine the opposite situation: you are watching a Mexican film and the American character has a thick non native accent when speaking English... how credible is that?
Sorry idk the show, is this character actually supposed to be Mexican or Mexican-American?
Many Mexican-Americans don't speak great Spanish and have American accents so people who are native to Mexico can always identify a Mexican-American from a Mexican.
Many Mexican-Americans don't speak great Spanish and have American accents so people who are native to Mexico can always identify a Mexican-American from a Mexican.
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Originally Posted by The Distinctive Dialect of Chicano English
It’s not “beginner English,” it’s not Spanglish and it’s not watered-down Spanish. Chicano English is a distinctive U.S. English dialect. Carmen Fought discusses the dialect common to the Southwestern United States and its roots in a bilingual culture. (The research cited in this essay was first published in 2001.) https://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/a...eties/chicano/
Chicano English is sometimes used by scholars to describe people who do not speak Spanish, but have learned their English with many features, especially in the phonology that show the influence of Spanish.
For example, the ‘a’ sound in words like pasta or saw sounds much more like the Spanish “a” than in other dialects of English.
In endings like going or talking, Chicano English speakers tend to have a higher vowel, more like ‘i’ of Spanish (as in si), so that the words end up sounding more like ‘goween’ and ‘talkeen’.
At other times, the producers do not seem willing to try very hard (especially in movies). While I think you can go overboard about casting ethnically correct actors, at other times it seems ridiculous. Spanglish was about a Mexican single mother who takes work with a white family in Southern California. For such a quintessential Southwestern story, the producers cast Paz Vega (was born in Seville, Spain). Obviously Paz Vega is going to speak perfect Spanish, but you would rarely hear her accent in America.
In some TV shows, the attempt to talk in correct Spanish is much better. In Jane the virgin, la abuela speaks mostly in Spanish and Jane and her mother usually respond to her in English, which she understands perfectly. Ivonne Coll is from Puerto Rico, so she no doubt didn't bother to learn a Venezuelan accent to play the part, but at least it is obvious she is a native language Spanish speaker.
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