I thought this was a really enjoyable review, and you made a lot of humorous points regarding the character dynamics. But, I was disappointed by the extent to which you focused on the skin tone in your analysis of representation in the cast. I can tell you have good intentions and care a lot about representation, but you, perhaps unknowingly, still framed whiteness as default in your analysis of the Manes brothers, Kyle, Steph, and the Ortecho family.

There are issues with the writing, but they were spot-on with the casting. None of these actors are passing for white (their skin tone is their natural skin tone, and are valid representations), their ethnic identities align with the characters they are portraying, and Steph doesn’t win the “LatinOlympics” just because she appears more mestiza/indígena. It’s frustrating (especially for those of us that appear with primarily European, Asian, or African features) to see Anglos criticizing Latinos for what they think we are allowed to look like in public (which is usually some vague shade of not-too-dark, not-too-light tan) and who is allowed to represent us onscreen, because Latinidad is not something we should be pressured to perform for the Anglo gaze.

Please don’t reduce our cultural heritage to skin tone. I really did find your review so entertaining, but I do wish Latinos could be allowed to be Latinos onscreen, without the assumption in the background that they must inherently be aspiring to whiteness. I don’t ever see people debating on whether a white actor is white enough to portray a white character. And yet all the time, Latinos are told they aren’t Latino enough to be onscreen who they are in real-life.