Afterword

Abstract

To return back to my personal experiences with pop culture, I think of Sherman Alexie’s essay titled “I Hated Tonto (Still Do)” that appeared in the Los Angeles Times.¹ After reading this essay about Alexie hating the monosyllabic Tonto figure on screen that looked like him, I ruminated on my own pop culture personification, A.C. Slater from Saved by the Bell (1989–1993). Granted, Slater did not help the Anglo character Zack Morris hunt down Latin@ banditos; however, Slater’s character still played the side-kick, and at times rival, jock who wasn’t as smart (read: tonto) as Morris. The mocha-skinned actor, Mario Lopez, was always the first character to dance or issue a physical threat, all the while performing some kind of quasi-machismo by calling female characters “mama.” Though less racist than Tonto, I resented Lopez’s A.C. Slater even though the character learned in Saved By the Bell: The College Years (1993–1994) that his father had changed the family name from Sanchez to avoid discrimination when he joined the military. Too little, too late.