This is just an observation which occured to me a few months ago and now I thought I'd just write it down to get it out of my system. For years now, Martin Sheen (second interview) has been playing Josiah Bartlet, a descendant of one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence and Present of the United States on the NBC show The West Wing. And on the show, there have been more than a few interesting milestones in terms of the fictional U.S. Some which stand out are having the first Latino Supreme Court justice (played by Edward James Olmos) and a sexual romantic relationship between a black White House employee and the President's youngest daughter Zoe Bartlet.
This season the racial iconography reaches new heights. Actor Jimmy Smits plays Matthew Santos as the first serious Latino candidate for President of the United States, and in the season finale he wins the nomination for the Democratic party. The really ironic part of all this is that Martin Sheen (originally named Ramon Estevez) is *actually* Hispanic. So in a bizzarre twist, fans of the show have been watching a Hispanic man play the role of President for several years, but not until this latest season is when the idea of having a Hispanic president is explicitly addressed on the show.
I think this goes back to an earlier observation of how Latino (or Hispanic) is more of a space than a people. Jimmy Smits and Ramon Estevez (Martin Sheen) both come from the same "place" but Estevez is white (and has a certain invisibility), while Smits is mestizo. And so they arrive at different "positions" in the US racial paradigm.
Damn, I really need to reread Black Skin, White Masks
4 comments:
Umm, Martin Sheen actually comes from a mixed marriage. His mother was Irish and his father was Spanish from Spain. He took his mother's maiden name to become Sheen. I think Jimmy Smits is Puerto Rican, so while both have Latin culture, it isn't the same Latin culture and I don't know enough about Martin Sheen's upbringing to know how prominent his father's Spanish culture was in his household. For all we know, it was Irish boiled dinner every night.
From Wikipedia:
Early life
Sheen was born Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez in Dayton, Ohio, the son of Mary Anne (née Phelan), an immigrant from County Tipperary, Ireland, and Francisco Estévez, a Galician factory worker/machinery inspector from Parderrubias. Sheen's mother fled from Ireland during the Irish War of Independence due to her family's IRA connections. Sheen adopted his stage name in honor of Catholic archbishop and theologian Fulton J. Sheen.[1] Sheen lived on Brown Street in the South Park neighborhood, and was one of 10 siblings (9 boys and one girl).[1] He attended Chaminade High School (now Chaminade-Julienne High School) and was raised as a Roman Catholic.[1]
For some time during the 1940s and 1950s, his family lived in Bermuda, where Sheen's father was a representative of IBM, selling cash registers and early computing and copying equipment to businesses and the US Air Force.
Here is also an interesting quote from Martin Sheen. Many believe he changed his name cause he was ashamed of his heritage but not true at all. It's a stage name and it was a business decision.
In an interview with Horizon Magazine, Sheen said, "I'm very proud of my Hispanic heritage … I never changed my name. I never will. In the context of the business, I had to adapt to a way of nonconfrontation 40 years ago, so I invented myself. I invented Martin Sheen. Within my heart I'm still Ramon."
You have hit the mark. Thought excellent, I support.
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