First off, American Teen looks incredibly interesting and we can’t wait to see it. However — and it’s a substantial however — we’ve got to wonder where Latino teens fit into the landscape of the American teenager. Movies about inner city life or growing up in an urban environment usually feature at least one Latino character rising above adversity by discovering their inner dancer / beatboxer. And that’s great, but not all Latinos live in big cities and not all Latinos are interested in listening to dope beats on a boombox while riding the 6 train into Manhattan. Mostly because we’re a diverse group of people and also because, hi, it’s 2008. Latinos teenagers, and their families, are moving increasingly into rural areas and their stories and experiences form part of what it is to be a young person growing up in America.

Where do such experiences fit in a movie like American Teen, or in a movie that spoofs “typical” American teen behavior, like the American Pie movies or highbrow satire like Ghost World or American Beauty? It’s pretty telling that the only minority character to appear in this trailer is a young black man who is told he looks like Magic Johnson.

That’s not to say there aren’t movies that are about Latino teenagers. Quinceañera, for instance, Real Woman Have Curves and Raising Victor Vargas all took a look at Latinos growing up, dealing with the same kind of shit all teens have to deal with. But these weren’t mainstream movie fare. These were, for all intents and purpose, movies about Latinos… for Latinos. They were exclusively about Latino teens and not an inclusive look at American teens. In fact, one of the very few films to include a Latino character in a look at typical, average, rural America was Napoleon Dynamite. Who would think that Pedro Sanchez shaving his head because his head was too hot and running for president with bolero tie firmly in place would make him a trailblazer in American cinema? Do we applaud… or sadly shake our heads?

So, the question is two-fold: First, if the teenage experience must, as MTV consistently reminds us, be divided into specific categories like “The Jock,” “The Geek,” or “The Outcast”, where do Latinos fit? For better or for worse, other minorities have been assigned their categories but, for whatever reason, Latino teens still remain invisible and, in this way, impervious to categorization in the high school hierarchy. And, secondly, would anyone watch a movie about a typical teen who happens to be named Juan or Juana?