Well, since I posted this in another thread as a response, I do think that this should belong in it's own thread. So, this thread is to broadcast the media appearances, roles, and portrayals of latinos of asian descent. It's also to show how a whole other culture perceives its asian descendants in its society. So, here goes.

By the way, Brazilian novelas are a much bigger industry and mass viewership than Hollywood films in South America. In general, the novela and music industries have far more influence on Latin American society, as opposed to Hollywood films.

First a link in portugese about some of the japanese descendant brazilian novela stars,
ohaYO!

And some clips.



Dan Nakagawa, a popular singer turned actor. Actually, I think he still performs in the music arena.







Carlos Takeshi



Takeshi, by the way, is an old hand in the novella industry.

From Peru, Patty Wong, who hosts, or used to host her own show. I'm not sure what she does now, but she used to be very popular in Peru, and via cable, across Latin America.



You'll see asian latinos in advertisements, commercials, movies, novelas, etc. Having asian blood is a point of pride among the asian descendant community. Even when the women marry non asian men, the children make it a point to retain the asian name. That's how different it is down here. Some, even with no asian blood (which is debatable because of all the indigenous/mestizo), go out of their way to name themselves the moniker, Chino!



Chino Dominguez is considered one of Peru's greatest contributors to the arts, in the form of photography. Latin America has a huge emphasis on it's artists, much more than in the Anglo world.

Hiromi Hayakawa, a singer from Mexico





Fernanda Takai, a popular brazilian singer, of Pato Fu fame, one of Brazil's most influential bands, and yes, I'm a huge fan of Bossa Nova.





It's not just in the media either. Asian's have played major roles in the political movements of Latin American countries, for example, Arlen Siu, who's a revered national hero and revolutionary to the nicaraguans, and revolutionaries all over Latin America, of which there are MANY, from Nicaragua with the Sandinista movement. She was a martyr to the cause, and there's lots of places named in her honor in Nicaragua.

Arlen Siu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


And another asian latino, Juan Pablo Chang, who faught alongside El Che Guevara,
Guevara, Also Known as Che - Google Book Search
Juan Pablo Chang Navarro - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
If you want an interesting tidbit, he and Che Guevara died together in La Higuera, Bolivia.

In music, a TON of latino bands have an asian descendant musician. Some are even majority asian descendant, like Los Tintoreros, an asian argentine band that's very popular in the Southern Cone, and considered one of the best hard core bands to come out of Argentina.



More about them here.

Tintoreros - Rock.com.ar

They were chosen as "relevation group" by the Argentine press in 1997, and they've been nominated for top honors, not to mention to play along side Cypress Hill and Marilyn Manson. Three of the members are japanese descendant. Just the drummer ain't.

Here's the group



This is just a small sample. Whenever I turn on latin american TV in the respective countries, I'll catch an asian latino in a news cast (Brazil), a commercial (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador), a novela (Brazil, Peru, etc), rock group music video (all over the place), a model, etc. One of the major things I've noticed about asian latino portrayals is they're almost always doing what the locals do. They're portrayed speaking standard local spanish or portugese, and as a contributor to society. And, it's a huge contrast in comparison to what I've observed in Anglosphere TV... at least until very recently.

"Your mind's pictures of today are tomorrows reality."

http://www.myspace.com/adventure_maniac
Blog: http://davesnewadventure.wordpress.com

Could many latinos already be of asian descent?

Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas

Don't forget the delicious Bárbara Mori, who is of partial Japanese ancestry: