Just Folks, for a Change : Latinos on CBS’ ‘Second Chances’ Welcome Their Portrayal

There are four Latinos on a single TV series and not one of them is a criminal.

It shouldn’t be news. But in the world of prime-time television, it is--as the producers of CBS’ “Second Chances” ruefully learned in casting for their tight-knit, attractive, middle-class Latino family.

“It surprised me how emotional our auditioning process became because so many of the actors said they never have a chance to play non-criminals, non-pimps or pushers or gang members,” said Bernard Lechowick, who along with his wife, Lynn Marie Latham, created and produces the nighttime soap opera that premiered in December.

“We continue to get these heartfelt testimonials about how they appreciate someone presenting a family that reflects their actual families,” he said. “Someone treating their culture with respect. To me it’s kind of sad in a way, and I don’t know when it will come, but I really look forward to the day when it won’t be news that there is a Mexican American family on TV.”

Pepe Serna, who landed the role of the widowed father trying to do right by his job while keeping a stern eye on his three children, said he’s done 40 feature films, 40 television movies and about 100 guest shots on TV series, “and this is by far the best, most positive part I’ve ever gotten. It’s the best thing I’ve seen in showing a Mexican American family that is strong, caring, intelligent and proud of their culture. Television always tends to exploit, and it has always exploited Latinos in the worst light.”

*

Latham and Lechowick, two white producers who added a black family during their six-year stint on “Knots Landing” and also included a black family in their most recent drama, last season’s “Homefront,” said their primary concern is good drama, not breaking new ground. Since “Second Chances” is set in Southern California, reality and good storytelling dictated that Latinos play a part. (Because of severe earthquake damage to its set in Valencia, the show has shut down production indefinitely. CBS says it is expected to return in several months.)

The producers say that the key is to write the characters as real people rather than as representatives of an ethnic group, and the truth, Latham noted, is that a huge number of Latinos in this country live in middle-class families, struggling with the same financial and personal difficulties as most white families.

Still, the show takes time to let the characters be uniquely Mexican American. Serna’s character, a Vietnam vet and fifth-generation Californian, keeps a flag of Mexico in his office and desperately wants his 22-year-old daughter, played by Jennifer Lopez, to marry within her race. His two sons (portrayed by John Chaidez and Daniel Gonzalez) play soccer. Both he and his daughter use phrases of Spanish when they argue.

Lechowick, who has produced two bilingual series for PBS, writes the occasional line of Spanish dialogue and checks with Serna and other friends to make sure the syntax and other cultural details are correct. Serna, a native of Corpus Christi, Tex., said he sometimes asks to add some Spanish slang here or there “to educate the viewers and make them see that they don’t have to be afraid of Spanish.”

Since so few Latino characters exist on network television today--one of the minor regulars on “NYPD Blue” is Puerto Rican and one of the white characters on “Beverly Hills, 90210” is dating a Latino--Lechowick acknowledged that he feels an increased responsibility to portray his Mexican American characters positively. The Serna and Lopez characters are fiercely intelligent, honest and absolutely true to their own moral code.

Meanwhile, many of the white characters--and the show does spend a great deal of its time chronicling the love triangles and a convoluted murder investigation that primarily involves the many white residents of the fictional Santa Rita--are laden with foibles.

“We look forward to the day when we can cast a villain or a saint without having to be sensitive to that kind of thing,” Lechowick said. “But I think we also have to be responsible to creating real characters, and I do think these people have flaws. The father is sometimes way out of line and overbearing and is even vulnerable to the charge of being a racist for his wanting his daughter to marry a Mexican.”

Serna, however, doesn’t see anything wrong with presenting overwhelmingly strong, intelligent Latinos as a counterbalance to all the negative images that predominate.

“I don’t think it’s a completely ‘Father Knows Best’ kind of thing because they do show the foibles of this family,” Serna said. “But if it comes off as a little Pollyanna, that’s OK. We need that not only for the Latino youth, but for all the young people in this country. To show young Latinos that the possibilities are there for anything you can dream of. I love that I’m playing a positive guy.”

And he said, the Latinos who have seen it love it too. Serna said that leaders of Latino organizations have called to thank him, saying it is “exactly what we need. One woman told me that ours was the first show that her husband actually watched and did not click around. Latino professionals from around the country call me and they think I’m a genius for writing all this brilliant stuff, for finally getting us up there on the screen. And the kids too watch this with some pride that it’s not about cholos getting busted by the cops. That the kids are just American boys with the same problems as other kids--getting their homework done.”

Lopez, who was born to Puerto Rican parents in New York, also said that she has received excited letters from Latinos encouraging her to continue “representing the Latin world in such a wonderful way.” She believes, especially in light of the current anger and resentment over the issue of Latino immigration, that the show can play a role in defusing prejudice.

“I’m thrilled to be a part of something so important because this is the first time that I know of where a Latino family has been portrayed so nicely, as just a regular family with ups and downs,” she said. “Hopefully, people will look at it, and it will open their eyes to see that we are all so much alike. Yes, we are rich in culture and tradition, but we’re all just regular people. We’re not all gang bangers and drug dealers. There’s this whole middle class all over the United States that works hard, and the show in its way even says that if you’re lucky, someone in your family could even fall in love with us.”