El Espace is a column dedicated to news and culture relevant to Latinx communities. Expect politics, arts, analysis, personal essays and more. ¿Lo mejor? It’ll be in Spanish and English, so you can forward it to your tía, your primo Lalo or anyone else (read: everyone).
When we were growing up in Chicago, my older brother Gabriel often spent hours reading manga and graphic novels, narrating detailed accounts of their plots to me after school. But obsessed as Gabriel was with this world, there weren’t many mainstream stories featuring kids like him, a second-generation Dominican, in comic books back in the ’90s.
Today, the landscape looks a little different. Publishers and artists have started to create characters that resonate with all kinds of communities, putting folks generally relegated to the sidekick role in the spotlight. Sometimes, that has meant dreaming up new superheroes, but it has also meant reimagining and diversifying well-known stories.
There is still much work to be done when it comes to representing Latinx identities in comics, but as New York Comic Con kicks off, here are five superheroes who have made it to the fore. Consider this a guide to your cosplay this weekend.
White Tiger, conceived by Bill Mantlo and George Pérez in 1975, was Marvel’s first Latino superhero. He was introduced in the “Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #19” comic. The character obtains superhuman strength, enhanced reflexes and master martial arts abilities through three mystical amulets designed in the form of tiger’s paws and a head that he wore around his neck. The amulets would be later be donned by other family members, like his niece Angela del Toro and sister Ava Ayala.
Miss America, also a Marvel character, is a queer, no-nonsense runaway from an alternate reality called Utopian Parallel. She boasts superhuman strength and endurance, the power of flight and the ability to traverse dimensions. America Chavez was introduced in 2011 and popularized when Gabby Rivera, a queer Boricua novelist, penned the character’s first solo series in 2017. The series was canceled a year later, but you could probably still find her signature American flag jean jacket somewhere.
La Borinqueña, created by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, became a beloved cult figure after her debut in 2016. Miranda-Rodriguez, who has worked with Marvel and DMC, envisioned the character as a symbol of hope in the face of Puerto Rico’s debt crisis. The superhero is a Nuyorican undergrad at Columbia studying environmental science when she does a domestic study abroad program in Puerto Rico. (Spoiler alert: Climate change is a major theme of the comic.) There, a Taino goddess and her sons appears before her in a cave and give Marisol the powers of strength, flight and the ability to control storms. La Borinqueña is the rare multidimensional and true-to-life Latina superhero who sidesteps stereotypes. (I mean, where else have you seen a superhero with a Chinese-Dominican best friend?)
Bonita Juarez joined the Marvel universe in 1981. She was a social worker on a walk through the desert in Albuquerque when a radioactive meteorite landed nearby. The experience altered her DNA and gave her the ability to fly, manipulate fire and catch glimpses of the future. The Mexican-American superhero appeared in Avengers story lines alongside well-known characters like Thor and Captain America, and later joined another superhero team called the Rangers.
Spider-Man (a.k.a Miles Morales)
When Miles Morales, a lovable teenager born to African-American and Puerto Rican parents in Brooklyn, was first introduced in 2011 after the death of Peter Parker, the news erupted into a now-familiar controversy — could a reimagining of Spider-Man with a black lead preserve the authenticity of the original? (Excuse me while I retrieve my eyes from the back of my head.) But Morales was introduced to a brand-new audience when “Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse” was released last year, drawing praise for its striking animation and witty dialogue, and even collecting a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. Despite the recent uproar about the casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel in a coming remake of “The Little Mermaid,” the success of Miles Morales proves that updating a well-known story for new communities not only works commercially, but can lead to innovative storytelling, too.
El Roundup
A New York City transplant to Los Angeles takes with her an emblem of her hometown: the neighborhood bodega.
“Despacito” opened the door to a stream of collaborations between English- and Spanish-speaking artists. But are these a reflection of appreciation or appropriation? The music editor for Remezcla went on our Popcast to discuss.
How Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) uses big data to find its targets.
In Mexico, migrants are resorting to increasingly dangerous tactics to cross the border.
In this Vox article the writer explores how Jennifer Lopez’s role in “Hustlers” complicates the way we talk about her body. — Concepción de León
What else do you want to see in El Espace? Let us know: elespace@nytimes.com
