by Mary Beltrán
about Mary Beltrán
Mary Beltrán is Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Radio-Television-Film and an affiliate of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Latina/o Stars in U.S. Eyes and co-editor with Camilla Fojas of Mixed Race Hollywood. She is currently working on a new book, Latino, Latina, and Latinx Television: Navigations of U.S. Storytelling.
East Los High
Abstract: While most U.S. television series aim to entertain rather than to educate us, Hulu’s series East Los High managed to do both. Featuring life lessons and factual information about birth control, domestic violence, the Dream Act, and other issues within its melodramatic storyline, the Latina teen drama proved that empowerment can be a goal of television programming that is also entertaining.