CVK
Season 2 of the Showtime drama “The L Word” introduced a new character - Carmen De La Pica Morales (played by Sarah Shahi, who is of Iranian/Spanish descent) who becomes the love interest of Shane. But how well is the show depicting Latino culture? AfterEllen.com–an excellent Web site that’s sort of the lesbian equivalent of MMW–takes a close look:

The result…is a well-intentioned but somewhat clumsy introduction to Latino culture, featuring overgeneralizations and an unfortunate reliance on stereotypes…

Carmen explains to her friends that coming out in a Mexican family is just not done:

Carmen: The whole, uh, coming out to your parents in a Mexican family, that stuff, there’s something about it — it doesn’t really play.
Shane: So you just stay in the closet.
Carmen: No, sweetheart, you don’t just stay in the closet. There are certain things that are understood, and it is understood that we do not talk about those things. Like I have this Uncle Papi, he borrowed his sister’s prom dress one year and what he did with that prom dress we don’t know. And guess what? We don’t ask.

Though Carmen’s explanation may indeed apply to her specific family situation, it is important to note that the degree to which a family (of any ethnic background) is tolerant of homosexuality varies according to specifics, including the degree to which that family has assimilated to the United States, and whether or not they are aware of LGBT rights movements in their country of origin. More recent immigrants, though they may not be as Americanized as second or third-generation immigrants, may be more knowledgeable about LGBT issues in their home country.

Definitely check out the rest of the article - it also looks at other Latina lesbian TV characters, delves into how Latina lesbians have been depicted in literature, and explores whether there is such a thing as “Latina lesbian culture.”