By Fatima Valadez
The new Walt Disney Princess “Sofia” is undecided on whether to be Latina. Most people wouldn’t agree she’s Latina with her physical attributes which include light skin, blue eyes, and auburn hair, because then people would think she’ll have European heritage. In the United States, most Hispanic people’s physical attributes are dark skin, brown eyes and brown hair.
On Sunday, the Nov. 18, the new Disney Hispanic princess “Sofia” will be on Disney Channel and Disney Junior that both can be seen on other countries beside the United States. “Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess” is a TV movie, and Hispanic advocacy groups are undecided whether it’s appropriate for her to be light skinned and blue eyes (representing the Hispanic population). Hispanics would probably think that it was time for Disney to have a Hispanic/Latina princess, since Disney has princess of other cultures such as Arabic, Indo-American, and Chinese. According to Disney, Sofia’s mom is from a Spain-inspired kingdom, while her dad is from a realm inspired by Scandinavia. After been many controversies, as to whether princess Sofia is Latina or not, Disney now claims that Sofia was never supposed to be Latina in the first place.
The new Hispanic Disney Princess is voiced by Ariel Winter, a Caucasian actress best known for her role as Alex in Modern Family. Many wonder why is the Princess Sofia a kid, and not an adult like the rest of them like Cinderella, Fa Mullan, Pocahontas, Princess Jasmine, Princess Ariel, Princess Aurora, Belle and, Snow White that are adults. According to nj.com, Sofia is supposed to teach how to share things and get along with brothers and sisters and as she is taught to become the best princess ever.
Most kids adore Dora The Explorer (a cartoon character of Nickelodeon), who is eight years old , and is considered as a Latina, because of her physical traits of brown hair, brown eyes and dark skin. Probably Dora The Explorer gets a lot of publicity of her being Latina/Hispanic and shares the Hispanic culture of speaking in English and Spanish, for people who know both languages to see her or Disney wants to be like Dora, that she’s little and wants to make the new Princess little. She also has a lot of a lot of publicity of her teaching kids a lot of stuff at the same time, such as translating things from English to Spanish or backwards. “Sofia The First” is aimed for children at ages two through seven; whether she’s really Latina or not, people at least will be happy that they tried to make a Latina and Hispanic princess, to represent the population of Latinos/Hispanics living in the United States. At the end, Princess Sofia is good, because she represents the 50 million Hispanics that live in the United States, and they would probably encourage their children to watch it, since it does promise to teach good lessons.