Representation Matters in Christmas With You Starring Aimee Garcia and Freddie Prinze Jr.
About ten years ago, a friend of mine said, “They never make movies about people like us unless it’s about our trauma or a white person growing. Why can’t we have happy endings, too?”
It was true; all my favorite movies were helmed by white people, and the few that weren’t were about trauma. The rest of the time, we were in supporting roles as best friends, maids, taxi drivers, gangsters, or terrorists. Sometimes the story was about us, but it wasn’t really about us; it was about the white teacher who changes our lives, the white writer who is inspired by us to tell our stories for us. It still centered on a white person’s journey of growth.
Growing up, I didn’t think much of it. I knew it wasn’t right, but I couldn’t picture a different world where my story didn’t center around my proximity to whiteness. The little breadcrumbs I’d been given in terms of representation seemed to suffice. When people told me I should change my name to fit into the industry as an actor, I simply thought, “that’s how it works.” But I also thought that there would be space for me, that somehow I’d be the exception to the rule, like Freddie Prinze Jr., who is of Puerto Rican descent. I could pluck my eyebrows, pass as white, and make rom-coms.
It was also around this time that Freddie Prinze Jr. took a step back from acting, saying that working on 24 with Keifer Sutherland made him want to quit. Whether it’s by choice or by lack of work, it just doesn’t seem to be a coincidence anymore that very talented actors who are people of color get pushed out of the industry. I’ve recently felt a similar desire to quit acting after attending drama school in the UK, where spaces need decolonization. I imagine working on a show where people of color are depicted in a violent manner would create a space that is not welcoming, regardless of personality clashes. There is a strong correlation between who we have empathy for and our exposure. The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media found in their research that viewers often empathize more with white characters due to repeated exposure to positive white stories in the media. Counter that with data from a 2018 study by the SAG-AFTRA Foundation that found MENA actors were portrayed as violent characters 78 percent of the time. Therefore imagine the impact representation in the media has on our cognitive growth and perception of both ourselves and others.
Therefore it becomes absolutely vital that we create more content that depicts people of color sharing our stories. Freddie Prinze Jr. is now making a slow comeback and becoming more vocal about his want to play characters that share his Latino identity. That is exactly what Christmas With You manages to do. The story follows pop superstar Angelina (played by the absolutely stunning Aimee Garcia), who exists in a solitary world after the loss of her mother. Finding herself aging out of popularity and facing pressure from her record label to put out a Christmas song, which is the last thing she wants to do, she makes an impulse decision to visit a teenage fan named Christina (Deja Monique Cruz), dragging her loyal assistant along with her (Zenji Williams). They get stuck in a blizzard and spend the evening with Christina, her music teacher father Miguel (Freddie Prince Jr.), and chaotic fun Grandma Frida (Socorro Santiago). This dinner scene is poignant, with Angelina rediscovering her Latina roots through food. It’s also a very American one. In our diaspora, as people of color, one thing that brings our families together is sharing our food. Food becomes a running theme throughout the film. Also, knowing Freddie Prinze Jr.’s love for cooking, it is, as per usual, refreshing to see an actor bring a part of themselves to the role. Aimee Garcia also gets a chance to do that with her love for music and dancing. Acting might embody another, but it’s also an act of storytelling and a chance to tell our own stories. This is a Christmas tale full of heart that centers on healing. Director Gabriela Tagliavini creates a world where Latino characters can exist, telling their own stories. In our bodies, we may experience microaggressions, which Angelina certainly does, but it’s not centered around her trauma. This movie doesn’t exploit trauma or normalize an existence where people of color face violence. These characters can live in a world that sees them spending time with their families, falling in love, standing up for one another, creating art together, and, most importantly, having their happy ending.
Seeing movies like this reminds me that there is a place for people of color to tell their stories. Our art can be vessels toward change. What we do on screen is only an extension of what we bring to our communities, and Christmas With You does that both in the story and through being that story. The act of seeing another human and coming to a place of love and understanding is so powerful. A movie like this might seem light and silly, but it can still carry a lot of weight. It’s a reminder that we shouldn’t accept breadcrumbs of representation. We can have the whole loaf.
Christmas With You is streaming now on Netflix.
