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By Alexander Kastanoff and Michael Moshiri
History BA Students at Cal State East Bay
For many years, Disney has been a pioneer in animation and has now moved on to become a pioneer in diversity and representation, especially among Latin Americans. Many people know that older Disney films from the 1930s and 1940s have questionable racial depictions of different cultures and people of color. Some may wonder why Disney made some of these older projects in the first place. It turns out the answer is more political than one might expect. The Good Neighbor Act of 1933 greatly influenced the making of Disney’s first Latin American-oriented projects. Some of these projects, such as Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros, represent some of the earliest American film media that attempted to connect with Latin American audiences. These attempts were made with a goal in mind: promoting the idea of Pan-Americanism. The primary goal of the Good Neighbor Act was to increase cooperation between the U.S. and Latin America. In the modern day, projects like Encanto, Coco, The Book of Life, and The Owl House have shown that Disney has shifted towards exploring a magical new world of Latin Disney, one where Disney becomes more inclusive and respectful of different Latin American cultures without political pressures. The increase of Latin American representation in animation coincides with the increased Latin American population in the United States and the need to tell more stories from a diverse range of cultures as “America has grown to become more accepting over the years” (Borge 2004, 24).
In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt passed the Good Neighbor Act to improve and renegotiate the terms in which the U.S. created better relations with Latin America. FDR wanted to build good faith with Latin America by passing a bill that could help preserve peace in the Americas, or so he thought. This new approach to Latin America influenced how Latin Americans were perceived in popular culture, as Disney created films to gain favor from Latin Americans. As you might expect from older Disney films, some of these have been scrutinized by modern audiences for unflattering depictions. Disney films, such as Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros, have shown negative and racial depictions of how Latin Americans were viewed at the time. For instance, in Saludos Amigos, the film shows Goofy as a gaucho smoking a cigarette. The scene alone was depicted as problematic, for the film was meant to represent “the heroism of gaucho soldiers in Argentina’s struggle for independence,” and the scene only brought concerns for Argentines. The film also introduces a new character named Jose Carioca, who is meant to represent Brazil. He is shown to be a cigar-smoking “jitterbug,” as the film depicts Brazilians only enjoying music, drinking alcohol, and smoking cigars (Sadler 2012, 49). While the film did succeed in Latin America, it still doesn’t take away from the depictions Walt Disney portrayed in Latin American culture. The Three Caballeros, released in 1944, also showcases some racial depictions of Latin Americans. The film stars Donald Duck, Jose Carioca, and a new character Panchito Pistoles, who is meant to represent Mexico. Panchito Pistoles is shown to be boisterous, fast-talking, and fun-loving. While good-natured, he is also shown to be trigger-happy, shooting two pistols at will. The film also depicts that “Latin American women are so sexually stimulating” during the live-action segments, where Donald is shown chasing Brazilian and Mexican women, and the film “completely erases Mexico’s and Brazil’s dark and racial mixed populations,” as the film shows the humans cast to only be white (Sadler 2012, 55). Despite these negative traits, the film helped promote the Good Neighbor Act and became a big success for Disney.
Saludos Amigos Promotional Poster
Despite Disney’s poor portrayal of how Latin Americans were perceived in the 1940s, recent films have shown a more positive light towards Latin American culture. For instance, the movie Encanto takes place in Colombia, where the Madrigal family resides, filled with Colombian art, nature, architecture, and music. The film was also praised for Colombia's diverse Latin American community and “has a family with a variety of skin shades and hair textures,” showcasing Colombia’s mixed-race population (Luna 2021). More importantly, Encanto “challenges the idea that South American countries are dangerous and violent,” as the film values its focus on family rather than drugs and crime (Sandoval 2022). The Owl House does things differently when portraying Latin American culture. The main character, Luz Noceda, is a 14-year-old teenage Dominican-American girl who is praised by fans for her positive representation as a Latin American lead, usually from how her relationship with her mother is “referred to as a refreshing representation of a real Latin family,” showing off Latin American customs and language throughout the show. Furthermore, Luz is also represented as an LGBT lead, as she is bisexual and dating another girl (Hermann 2022). Luz’s character is a perfect example of representation that breaks away from formed cultural ideas people generally perceive, where she is loved and celebrated by many Latin Americans and fans alike.
Encanto Ending Scene With Family Back Together
Another thing we found interesting in modern Disney media was the portrayal of Dios de Los Muertos in The Book of Life and Coco, as both films have a central theme revolving around the holiday. In both films, the main characters must enter the land of the dead to achieve a personal objective, but a very noticeable difference is how the films show the importance of Dios de Los Muertos (Nieuwboer 2014, 12). In The Book of Life, the holiday is less critical to the main story but emphasizes that true love for those we cherish will never die. In Coco, however, the holiday has a more central role in the story and shows the importance of remembering familia, or family. In terms of visual representation, both films portray the dead as skeletons with skulls resembling Calaveras, or sugar skulls, by giving the dead characters vibrant designs with exaggerated skeletal features (Luca S. 2014).
As we can see from Latin Disney films made alongside the Good Neighbor Act, there has been a tremendous change when portraying Latin American culture compared to the Latin Disney films of recent years. While Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros had good intentions of wanting to please Latin Americans, Disney still needed to adequately represent Latin Americans during its time, as it was filled with negative depictions and stereotypes. As for the latest Disney films, such as Encanto and Coco, there has been a lot more respect given to Latin Americans, as they give the audience a sense of wonder from how they portray Latin American culture in a positive light. It begs the question of how this significant shift managed to give us much-needed representation, as the latest films show us the authentic culture of Columbia and Mexico, compared to negative portrayals of Brazillians and Mexicans in the 1940s. With much-needed change, Disney has shown us a world of what it means to be Latin American now rather than what a Latin American was seen as many years ago, a magical new world of Latin Disney.
Bibliography
Borge, Jason. “Disney in the Vanguard: Latin American Writers and ‘Fantasia.’” Hispanic Journal 25, no. 1/2 (2004): 209–24.
Cappellini, Lino. Saludos Amigos Promotional Poster, Photograph, Pinterest, August 7, 2019, https://za.pinterest.com/pin/803611127251259097/.
Delores, Bee. Encanto Ending Scene With Family Back Together, Photograph, Slash Films, January 28, 2022, https://www.slashfilm.com/750190/the-best-moments-in-encanto-ranked/
Hermann, Burkely. “‘The Owl House’ Showcases Diverse Stories and LGBTQ Representation.” The Geekiary, July 8, 2022,
Luna, Jose María. “Disney’s Encanto isn’t just about representation — it’s an act of defiance.” Polygon, December 27, 2021
Nieuwboer, Marit. “Representation of Mexican Culture in Animation Films for Children: An Analysis of Coco and The Book of Life.” PhD thesis, University of Utrecht, 2014,
S., Luca. “Hispanic Representation Through Animation: A Brief Comparison.” The Grizzley News, January 21, 2021,
Sadler, Darlene J. Americans All: Good Neighbor Cultural Diplomacy in World War II. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012.
Sandoval, Ariadna. “Latin culture is joyously reflected in ‘Encanto.’” Boston University News Network, March 6, 2022,
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