Handy Manny: Latino Role Model or Stereotype?

In this show: Happy Birthday to Andrea and Lucy, Tools for thinking about Disney’s “Handy Manny”

Special Thanks to : Kevan Miller for the station ID.

Music: Happy Birthday by Craymo

Podcasts Mentioned: Just One More Book

Websites Mentioned: Latin_Know, Vivir Latino

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Produced by Andy Bilodeau

To read the show transcript click on ‘more’ below.

Show #9 Transcript
How’s it going? It’s good to have you back on Show #9 of the clip Podcast. As always I’d like to start off by acknowledging those of you who have commented on the show or contributed to the show. Thank you to Kathleen Fay and Kevan Miller in particular for their support and for contributing station IDs which I will air in the next couple of shows and the Bailey’s Critical Literacy Study Group for contributing to a future show.

I also want to say hello to Carolyn Burke in Bloomington Indiana who recently had double knee replacement surgery…I’m thinking of you Carolyn.

Finally, belated birthday greetings to Andrea of the Just One More Book Podcast as well as her daughter Lucy.

Happy Birthday by craymo

Today I’d like to focus on a new show being released by the folks at Disney in the next couple of weeks…Handy Manny.

Station ID
Midtro
Music Bumper

Have you heard of Handy Manny?

Gary Marsh, President, of Disney Channel Worldwide states “Handy Manny is an exciting addition to our preschool programming line-up, offering an authentic multicultural perspective, humor, and valuable messages about friendship, community and working together,”. “Led by Wilmer Valderrama , Fez on that 70’s show, it is rich with creativity, heart and intelligence. Preschoolers, parents and caregivers the world over are sure to embrace this unique new series.”

Disney claims that “Handy Manny” is designed to infuse preschool viewers with the confidence to take on challenges and try to work them out, most notably interpersonal relationships. Playful and filled with humor and quirky, relatable characters, the episodes reinforce core early-learning concepts while also emphasizing pro-social and emotional themes including getting along with friends and family, helping others, and trying one’s best.

Disney further claims that,
“Handy Manny” teaches preschoolers simple Spanish words and phrases by putting them into a real-world context - such as Manny saying “abuelito” when referring to his grandfather. In addition, the series introduces everyday aspects of Latino culture, including certain holidays and the importance of family. “Handy Manny” will also resonate with young Latino viewers, thanks to its authentic portrayal of culturally-relevant characters and customs.

Now, of course I’m really hoping that this show is able to do all that Disney claims it is capable of doing…time will tell. So let’s keep tabs on the show and see how it unfolds.

From what I’ve Googled in each episode someone contacts Manny the Handyman to do some repair work at which time Manny formulates a plan of action and gets to work. While doing this work he apparently relies heavily on his helpers, a bunch of talking tools. There is Pat a bumbling Hammer, Turner a grumpy screwdriver, Felipe an ambitious screwdriver, Dusty who plays the role of the maternal Saw, Stretch a perfectionist tape measure. Then there is Rusty a fearful Wrench, and Squeeze, a curious pair of pliers.

If you or your kids or kids you know happen to watch the show, here are some things I’m wondering about that may offer you a perspective on viewing the show.

The first thing I’m wondering is whether the show is simply a new take on a long-standing stereotype?

I’m also thinking about what it would mean to read or view the show through the lens of an existing show. I’m thinking here in particular about Bob the Builder. If you rub one show up against the other for instance you’ll notice that where Manny, a latino character, has a cast of tools that fit into a tool box, Bob, a white character, has a construction company filled with machinery and equipment. Handy Manny’s theme song focuses on the phrase “we’ll fix it right” or something close to that while Bob’s theme song asks the question “Can we build it”…the reponse being.. “Yes We Can”.

There is also an interesting comment cross-posted on Vivir Latino and Latin_Know that you could use to read or view the show. I’ll link to these sites on the shownotes.

Here’s what the post says,

Why is that television believes children can get down with Spanish while adults cannot? For whatever reason, prime time TV (with rare exceptions like Freddie Prinze’s “Freddie”) doesn’t want to bother with bilingualism, even though Latinos are a perfect demographic: 600 billion in buying power, median age of 26, average household size of 4 members, yadayadayada…

There’s a huge rise in the use of Spanish and bilingual dialogues in mainstream children’s television programming. We’ve posted before about Dora La Exploradora, but she’s not alone.

But now PBS Kids’ has more Latino offerings. ‘’Dragon Tales'’ was revamped last year to highlight Latino issues and include Enrique, an immigrant who is Puerto Rican and Colombian. ‘’Jay Jay the Jet Plane'’ added a new bilingual plane named Lina.

At a time when Freddy Prinze’s dad was the only “bilingual” character on TV, “Sesame Street” was emerging as the only multi-cultural option for children. The same seems to be happening now. Why?

Census 2000 showed that Latino communities are the nation’s fastest growing — and the biggest five-year Latino age group is infants to preschoolers.

Next time you think about how liberating it is that your kids have more Latino cartoons to watch, think also about whose dollars they are after: yours via your children. Smarter than targeting you outright, no?

So hopefully I’ve left you with some tools or perspectives with which to view the show.

Outro

Tags : audio, classroom, Disney, education, elementary, handyman, podcast, role model, school, stereotype