Even the author concedes that Kennedy is a stretch, and includes her only because the actress Iyari Limon is Mexican.

Of course if you really wanted a Buffyverse Latin superhero, there is Number 5 from Angel.

AlanD | November 06, 15:19 CET

I had no clue she or the actress is Latin. Wow! That's awesome.

Neo-Prodigy | November 06, 15:43 CET

No El Hombre from Astro City? His arc was bleak to say the least. But nice to see Kennedy get some recognition.

Simon | November 06, 16:44 CET

Actually, Iyari is a blend of various races. She's a melting pot all her own. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyari_Limon

Iyari Pérez Limón (born July 8, 1976 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico) is an actress best known for her role as Potential Slayer Kennedy on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Though born in Mexico, she moved to Los Angeles at the age of one. Limón speaks fluent Spanish and is of Spanish, French, German and Native American heritage.

quantumac | November 06, 17:22 CET

I'm not really familiar with the character, but it seems like the new Blue Beetle deserves to be on the list.

It's also a bit sad that they established Selina Kyle/Catwoman as being half-Hispanic in her last series and then never did anything with it, other than show she's fluent in Spanish. Of course, it was part of the worst arc in the character's history...

Okay, I'll stop being a geek now. Out loud at least.

Lady Brick | November 06, 17:25 CET

I thought she quit show biz.

Anyway, my vote goes for Numero Cinco.

John Darc | November 06, 17:33 CET

Before I actually read the article, my first thought was, but Buffy (the show) never made any reference at all to Kennedy's ethnicity. Did they choose her solely because Iyari Limon is Latino? And then, they said, yep, we did. It was a stretch, but they also raise the larger issue of diversity in the Buffyverse, something we have debated often on this board.

Dana5140 | November 06, 19:00 CET

What's interesting is that of the latin superheroes listed, three are queer: Rictor is bi, and the Question and Kennedy are gay.

Liam Mars | November 06, 19:07 CET

Victor Mancha is also on the list. This is extremely important, because he rocks.

Sunfire | November 06, 19:09 CET

I believe Kennedy was English.
Some adds to the latin list could be Saci, Emilia and Monica a strong female character, with more than human power, who usualy beat bad guys and has a friend called "Little Angel" in her group. Oh, her creator also write about a spaceship boy.
Nothing familiar...

Brasilian Chaos Man | November 06, 19:10 CET

BCM: Nah, Kennedy's from NYC, isn't she? Just 'cause she's rich doesn't mean she's British;) And if she were, she'd sound like it.

GreatMuppetyOdin | November 06, 19:22 CET

Sorry, GreatMuppetyOdin You're probably right. Iwondered she was British couse the rich thing (house with wings) and for her has gone to Buffy's home with Giles, but Chao-Ahn arrived togheter :)

Brasilian Chaos Man | November 06, 19:41 CET

Kennedy arrives from Britain together with Giles and two English Potentials, and even says to Buffy "sorry about the British invasion". On the other hand, she speaks American English with an American accent, and her family's "summer home" is on Long Island.

I've always assumed she was born in the US but was living in England, presumably with her Watcher (or maybe at some kind of Slayer training academy), at the start of Season 7.

***

And I've never understood the argument that because the show didn't make a big thing about Kennedy being Latina then therefore she can't have been a Latina. Would you argue that 'Angel' Season 5 didn't depict Gunn as black, because he didn't fill the conventional* stereotype of a black man?

*pre-Obama

stormwreath | November 06, 21:50 CET

Did not say she could not be Latina, only that the show made no reference to her ethnicity. And it is not apparent that she is Latina; see comments regarding her coming from England (where, yes, you could still be Latina, but much less likely). Iyari, Latina; Kennedy, who knows? Gunn being black is a given; what does stereotyping have to do with the question of ethnicity?

Dana5140 | November 06, 22:07 CET

It's not that the show didn't make a big thing about Kennedy being Latina, it's that the show didn't identify her as being Latina. Cuz, really, it doesn't matter. Gunn, on the other hand, was clearly depicted as black. As long as the performance is there, actors should be allowed to play all sorts of roles, not just roles that "fit their skin color." One thing I love about theater as opposed to film and television is that in a stage play, race rarely matters. Once I even saw a production of Othello where the lead actor was white, although, obviously, the character is black, but the race of the actor didn't affect the perfomance. (Though I guess I should point out that he was the understudy. And his performance wasn't that great either, mainly because he was just reading from his script the whole time.)

Invisible Green | November 06, 22:14 CET

I've said it myself, assuming a Latin actor can only play Latin characters is itself a form of prejudice. That having been said, I always assumed Kennedy was Latina because Revello Drive was always in severe need of integration. I think her Latin ethnicity has been established in t he comics a bit, a bit, more certainly.

DaddyCatALSO | November 06, 23:17 CET

I realize that SoCal possesses a high Latino population, but aren't there still some towns that are, as Mr. Trick put it, "strictly the Caucasian persuasion," especially in the more upper-crusty areas?

To be honest, I wasn't happy with the way race was integrated into Buffy--or rather, that it really wasn't integrated, but rather felt shoehorned in. People of all different races were on Angel from the very beginning, even if the cast was (mostly) white. That seems like L.A. to me. But it wasn't that way on Buffy. First, things really were pretty monochrome...the writers even cracked wise about it, as seen above...and then the last couple seasons, especially with the introduction of the Potentials and Principal Wood, things were different.

Only...not REALLY different. There were just enough non-white potentials to make me wonder why there weren't a hell of a lot more. Caucasians aren't all that uncommon on earth, but assuming an even spread of potentials through the population, roughly two or three in six should have been from China and India -- and Giles had his hands full enough with Chao-Ahn's translation issues. And we didn't see any South American, Caribbean, African, non-Chinese East Asian, or Middle Eastern potentials that I know of. (With the exception of the Turkish potential who got killed in "Lessons," and the possible exception of the Latina potential from "Dirty Girls.") Also, most of our U.S. potentials were white...more than there should be, given the demographics.

Now you can try to explain this away. Maybe the spread isn't even...there are more in First-World countries, and particularly, in English-speaking countries. But then, why would it be that way? Or maybe most of the others got killed. In which case, isn't it just CONVENIENT that so many of the ones that were left turned out to be from the States? If I had been the First, I think I would have taken out native speakers of the Slayer's language before I turned my attention elsewhere. Or maybe travel was an issue, especially in a post 9/11 world -- but no, explanations like that sound like the silly and illogical justifications that they are. We all know that the real explanation is just, "More white actresses turned up at the casting call."

And the fact that Rona and Kennedy, two of the very small number of non-Caucasians, were pushed forward...plus Chao-Ahn being used for significant comic relief...is kind of offensive to me. It smacks of tokenism, as when universities spotlight their "diverse" student body, even though it isn't diverse at all. Give me Angel's treatment of race any day, as a background note that made no difference day-to-day (except in episodes where it was explicitly noticed as part of the story, like "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been" and "War Zone" and "The Thin Dead Line"). Or give me Veronica Mars, where the class-race line at Neptune High was a major hot-button issue through the first two seasons, and was treated as such.

BAFfler | November 07, 00:04 CET

Oh, probably I din't get that meaning of latin. You are talking about ancestors, but here we don't take that much. If your parents are germans and you born here you are brazilian, the same from african, jewish, etc. Just when the person have tiny eyes then will ever be called Japan :)
Still, I never liked the ethnicity in Buffy too, but couse seemed like they were casting those characters only to mixed the group. I wouldn't liked if they had put a latin character just for fill a quote.

BAFfler said:


Oh, you don't saw my idea for the future Willow Movie with the story of her and Kennedy in their base in Brazil? ;)

Brasilian Chaos Man | November 07, 14:59 CET

Brasilian Chaos Man :Hey your Willow movie would be a great start to a series. Second could be a film of my cyber freind CaughtNTheQuiet's Willow's Promise.

DaddyCatALSO | November 07, 16:18 CET

Well, we just need to make some adjustments in the script, DaddyCatALSO. I'm irreducible in the scenes in Rio, Brasilia and with the character of the Boto ;)

What is about Willow's Promise by the way.

Brasilian Chaos Man | November 07, 17:39 CET

Willow statrs conencting in dreasm witha Tara in another universe where it was willow who was shot and the attmept to close the Hellmouth failed and the Fang Gang all died in the alley. And she decides to rescue this Alterna-Tara from the Hell-on-Earth she and Angel are fighting almost alone against over there.

DaddyCatALSO | November 07, 18:58 CET

Wow! Not a bit dark.
Don't has a book where Giles becames a vampire master?

Brasilian Chaos Man | November 07, 20:11 CET

BChM: Thatw as the professional novleization called the Lost SLayer.

DaddyCatALSO | November 07, 23:13 CET