Basic Trope: Characters from Latin America are all brown-skinned and dark-haired, or are assumed to be.
- Straight: Tropetown, USA has four Latino characters: Colombian-American Eva, Mexican-American Carlos, Salvadoran-American Judy, and Cuban-American Felipe. All four have medium-brown skin and dark hair.
- Exaggerated: The show takes us to their home countries, and all the locals of all four countries seen have the brown skin/dark hair phenotype.
- Downplayed: Some white and black Latinos are seen but only in bit roles.
- Justified:
- The setting of the story happens to be in a specific region of Latin America where most of the local population can indeed actually be seen as mestizo.
- All the Latinos in the show actually do have full or partial indigenous ancestry.
- Inverted:
- "Brown is Latino": Mark is assumed to be Latino because of his brown skin and raven hair. He clarifies he is Native American, specifically Cheyenne.
- "Latinos are Not Brown": Latinos in the show come in every phenotype except medium-brown skin and dark hair.
- Subverted: In addition to the four previously mentioned, the black Will then clarifies he is also Latino, specifically Dominican. When pressed about why he never brought it up, he questions why nobody assumed he was Latino.
- Double Subverted: ???
- Parodied: Carlos is fair-skinned and red-haired. When he gets his DNA test back, he learns his mother was Mexican and instantly goes to dye his hair black.
- Zig-Zagged: Eva and Carlos have brown skin, while Judy and Felipe are fair-skinned.
- Averted: The show features Latinos of all races without commenting on it.
- Enforced: A fair-skinned blonde actor played Felipe in the pilot. The executives comment that he doesn't look "Cuban" enough (even though most Cubans are white), and recast him with someone who looks more mestizo for the rest of the show.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: Carlos has fair skin and red hair. He doesn't feel Latino enough and considers dyeing his hair dark and getting a tan.
- Exploited: Carlos has fair skin and red hair. Upon learning that his crush likes swarthy Hispanic guys, he dyes his hair dark and starts spending more time in the sun to evoke the Latin Lover appearance.
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: Carlos has fair skin and red hair. He comments that he doesn't look like the usual pop culture image of a Latino.
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Although he's fully fluent in Spanish and practices in many traditional customs, Carlos is accused of being an "appropriator" and a "fake" due to his fair complexion and red hair, leaving him feeling insecure in his heritage.
Back to Latino Is Brown.
