Hispanic queer actors and characters are a prominent force in today’s television landscape — and the representation is more nuanced than ever before. As streaming and television networks are quickly becoming saturated with TV programs, the representation of newer characters has told funnier, messier, and more relatable and vital stories. But will these stories continue to unfold?
In the streaming age, a show getting more than three seasons seems like an anomaly. Even more rare is a Latinx/Hispanic-led show getting more than two seasons. Since 2020, several Latinx/Hispanic-led shows received the axe, including Netflix’s One Day at a Time after three seasons, — and then once again after a fourth season on PopTV — Netflix’s Gentefied after two seasons, Netflix’s Blockbuster after one season, Disney+’s Diary of a Future President after two seasons, and Max’s Gordita Chronicles after one. Pretty Little Liars was unfortunately canceled this past September by Max despite garnering a large following.
Audiences came to know and love Maia Reficco’s Noa on Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin and it’s second iteration, Summer School. On the show, Noa played a Queer girl, fresh out of juvie after taking the fall for her drug addict mother, and working to turn her life around. Openly bisexual, Reficco creates a relatable story throughout the show’s two-season run as she grapples with two different love interests of different genders, mapping out how she feels with each one of them.
Still in Max limbo is Julio Torres’ surrealist series Fantasmas, which follows a fictional version of Torres through a series of trippy, colorful vignettes as he attempts find a missing gold oyster earring, lease an apartment, and secure a “proof of existence.” Each episode of Fantasmas takes viewers on an adventure, as Torres notes in first episode, “I wake up and I just sort of…Julio.” Torres also claims that he “can feel the inner lives of shapes and colors,” as evidenced through the imaginative cinematography in each episode.
On paper, the things Torres says might only make sense to him, but on screen, he visualizes what being Latinx, Queer, and neurodivergent feels like. Such is par for the course in other projects in the Torres universe, including his 2024 film Problemista, which stars Torres as Alejandro — an El Salvadorian immigrant who navigates New York City recalling characters he and his mother created in his childhood, as he attempts to find a sponsor for his work visa within 30 days.
Torres’ 2019 HBO series Los Espookys follows a similar format, in which Torres and crew create emulate horror situations, fooling people into believing they’re real. Despite winning a Peabody Award, the show was cancelled after two seasons in December 2022.
But Torres hasn’t given up hope of Fantasmas‘ story continuing. In an interview with IndieWire, he shared that should the show continue, it would build upon the series’ cinematic elements. “It’s in the way that the show is a little hard to classify,” Torres said. “It would be like ‘Fantasmas 2,’ or something. It could be a completely different thing. I mean, the answer is ‘yes,’ I would like to enter this world in some way or another.”
Perhaps the most relatable Latino Queer character on television right now is Brian Jordan Alvarez’s Evan, the titular character on English Teacher, a show he also created. Evan brings to the screen the struggles of a 30-something Queer professional navigating his career, a messy love life, defiant students, and difficult parents.
The show also introduces situations that feel relatable to Queer men — like having a crush on someone who is taken, but also in an open relationship; maintaining a platonic and sexual relationship with an ex, even if romance is off the table; and having to dial back self-expression in the workplace. These situations also fresh to a mainstream audience.
Alvarez has spent years creating diverse characters, through his web series The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo, and through his TikTok page, which has over 740,000 followers. And with English Teacher, he breaks through with Evan, his most relatable character, by honing in on the messy and awkward parts of the character.
English Teacher just wrapped its first season with a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score and a lot of hope for a second season, though at the time of this writing, a renewal hasn’t come yet. We’ll see if it materializes and pushes back on the trend of cutting short these opportunities for diverse and nuanced stories with a focus on Queer Latinx stories, because while there are more opportunities than ever, after more than paying their dues, these creators, performers, and fans deserve the chance to see how these stories evolve and what they further inspire.
