Dominican Body Snatchers

When I saw melanin-gifted actor Tristan Wilds among the cast of the "90210" revival, I was poised to hit the save-get key I have for TV programs and films that address their unbearable whiteness by adding a token.

At least "South Park" not only cut the pretense by naming their Franklin-equivalent character Token, but Chef was always the repository of all common sense and sexy cool.

But looking over info about Wilds, who plays Dixon Wilson, a "troubled youth" adopted into the safe bosom of a white Kansas family that moves to BH (which is supposed to explain his presence in lilly-white land), I ran into an intriguing factoid: turns out Tristan's mom is Dominican, and he grew up in Staten Island (tip of the hat to Remolacha for pointing me to the NYDN story on Wilds).

Which gives me a perfect point of entry for a subject I've been meaning to hit for some time -- the Hollywood invasion by stealth Dominicans. Turns out that over the past couple of decades there's already been a bunch of us in prominent and/or critically-acclaimed roles.

The catch is, most of these performers have not come out of closet as Dominican, either because there is some embarrassing/painful family situation involved (usually absentee fathers) or because most of the people involved are dark-skinned enough to read as Black, and interviewers rarely ask what kind of Black they are. So they pass as Black or "biracial."

I'm not counting here people like Zoe Saldaña, Dania Ramírez, or Michelle Rodríguez, my favorite f'ed up Dominican halfie (who can never shake off rumors of hiding other parts of her identity). It's pretty clear they are Latin, and whenever anyone asks, they acknowledge their Dominican roots.

And though Alfonso Ribeiro, aka Carlton Banks, whose big break came as a 12-year-old in The Tap Dance Kid, has always been open about his Dominicanness, he is so strongly associated with the African-American milieu of "Fresh Prince" that no one ever remembers he's a carajito from Washington Heights (his wikipedia entry identifies him as Trinidadian).

Here I mean more folks like amazing chameleon Sarah Jones, who I hear has been slowly embracing the Dominican heritage she was disconnected from most of her life.

The top stealth Dominican? None other than favorite sci-fi antihero Vin Diesel. He has never acknowledged any Dominican blood, but the first tip-off was the amount of time he has been spending down in Sto. Dgo. in the past couple of years, the film school he has funded and been involved with there, and his god-awful promo spots for Leonel.

My sources claim that his biological father is Dominican, but I have never had enough time (or inclination, or motivation) to confirm. He definitely has a tiguerazo vibe about him, and it would explain my otherwise irrational attraction to his meaty charms.

Know about any other "stealth Dominicans"? Out 'em.

[pix of Tristan Wilds from 90210news.com; pix of Token, Alfonso Ribeiro with Michael Jackson and Vin Diesel liberally clipped from sites with very long urls]

Comments

[Kiko Jones]

How 'bout the late Merlin Santana ("Stanley" on The Cosby Show, "Romeo" on The Steve Harvey Show), Manny Perez (Third Watch, 100 Centre St), Julissa Bermudez from BET, DJ Roger Sanchez.

Halfies:
Rap impresario Irv Gotti, Kid Creole, actor Miguel A. Nuñez Jr. (Juwanna Man).

Btw, all Dominicans know legendary designer Oscar de la Renta is one of their own, but most Americans don't. And John Lithgow's dad Arthur--a Shakespearen actor--was born in DR.

[w&w]

re: tokenism on 90210, i heard an NPR piece that mentioned there is also a persian character among the main cast. the show went on to say that iranians comprise 40% of the beverly hills public school student body. which made me think: can you imagine what would have happened had the producers been brave enough to make, say, 4 out of 10 main characters iranian. what a reflection/representation of BH/US that would have been! if only...

[Caro]

To boot, the Irani character is played Michael Steger, who's part Ecuadorian.

Funny enough, a show like "Sarah Connor Chronicles" gives a truer picture of half-Latino LA than upper-class fantasies like 90210. (Don't get me started on "Gossip Girl")