Spicy Latina



""My mom's Puerto Rican. That's why I'm so lively and colorful.""

- April Ludgate, Parks and Recreation

Latin women in media (particularly American media) are usually portrayed as sultry temptresses with fierce tempers. The old westerns and pulp fiction usually depicted them as raven-haired, olive-skinned, and red-clad, with an accent that can melt butter. Modern portrayals, however, are usually more urban.

This character is very hot-blooded and confrontational, and often times has a rough background where they had to learn to defend themselves. They usually display an almost Tsundere-ish quality of having a soft side that occasionally peeks out from their tough exterior. Expect the Spicy Latina to be a good fighter who can take care of herself, which ironically can lead to her becoming the designated early casualty. There's also a crossover with Mama Bear in some cases. The Spicy Latina can make for a great Femme Fatale for The Hero. Even if the Spicy Latina is a bit tomboyish, she will be irresistible. If not tomboyish, she's usually wearing a lot of sexy tight clothing and she would happen to be very flirty and sexual. Despite this, she is often a devout Catholic.

Important Note: just because a Latina character is attractive does not neccessarily make her a Spicy Latina. A Latina played as a down to earth Girl Next Door or a bubbly Brainless Beauty is not an example of this trope because such a character lacks the attitude and personality of the Spicy Latina. Please keep this in mind while adding examples.

Close cousin to the Sassy Black Woman, but generally more erotic (the two tropes can overlap if the character is mixed). Also see Latin Lover. Its Old World analog is the Hot Gypsy Woman. Overlaps with Badass Spaniard when she is an Action Girl. Overall, an enduring character-type, even if the characters themselves are not.

No Real Life Examples, Please

Advertising

 * A recent ad for Air Canada shows an attractive, vaguely Hispanic woman with the tagline reading something along the lines of "the sun isn't the only thing that's hot here."

Anime & Manga

 * Michiko and others from Michiko to Hatchin.
 * Nadie from El Cazador De La Bruja.
 * Basically every female character in the show other than Ellis (Canadian), Blue-Eyes (White American), and Lirio (not 'spicy') is this. Though Nadie may actually be Zuni.
 * Lara from School Rumble. While the sexiness aspect isn't played up, she's certainly a Hot-Blooded amazon.

Fan Works

 * In his long-running In Which I Watch Sailor Moon, cartoonist-critic Shadowjack has found himself reimagining shrine maiden Rei "Sailor Mars" Hino as a Latina -- complete with Spanish punctuation in her dialogue.

Film - Animated

 * Audrey in Atlantis the Lost Empire.

Film - Live Action

 * Every other role Michelle Rodriguez plays.
 * Every other role Jennifer Lopez plays.
 * Every other role Rosie Perez plays.
 * Even the animated ones.
 * Also, Salma Hayek.
 * Vasquez in Aliens.
 * Lupe Velez, who committed suicide in 1944 after having made the "Mexican Spitfire" comedies, embodies this trope in how she was presented, marketed, and perceived, let alone the way she was expected to perform in films, as evidenced by her nicknames "Mexican Spitfire" and "The Hot Pepper". She may be the Ur Example of this trope in film.
 * Carmen Miranda who was actually Portuguese-born Brazilian, but who still for a certain generation embodies that "South of the Border" attitude and personality.
 * Rita Moreno in West Side Story.
 * Flor (Paz Vega) as the Mexican (though Spanish in Real Life) housekeeper for the Claskys in Spanglish. She's actually something of a subversion of this trope in that she's an Old World-type traditionalist and somewhat boring, but she is gorgeous and (married) John Clasky is agonizingly tempted by her beauty.
 * Melina in Total Recall (also an Action Girl and Badass Spaniard).
 * Carmen in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants"

Literature

 * Nellie Gomez in The 39 Clues.

Live Action TV

 * Ana Lucia Cortez from Lost, not coincidentally played by Michelle Rodriguez.
 * Mad TV parodied this with Debra Wilson and Nicole Sullivan playing latinas Melina and Lita in a recurring skit.
 * Angie, George's wife on George Lopez. His mother Benny fits as well, not so much the attractiveness.
 * Ria Torres from Lie to Me fits this trope to a T.
 * Rosie Perez (sense a trend?) played one on Law and Order Special Victims Unit, in an episode where her son was molested by her husband (whom he actually met while she was homeless).
 * Ugly Betty is a very intentional aversion of this trope, although her sister Hilda plays it straight, as did Salma Hayek when she guest-starred.
 * Pilar Zuzua in Weeds.
 * Judy Reyes as Carla from Scrubs.
 * Lampshaded on Scrubs when a new Latina nurse is described as "spicy". The Janitor then calls her "A young Carla".
 * A fair few of the characters on the Miami-based Dexter, most notably Lt. LaGuerta. Miguel Prado counts too once you factor in all the Ho Yay.
 * Vanessa from Six Feet Under.
 * Alex from Degrassi the Next Generation.
 * And now Bianca, Alex's spiritual descendant.
 * Santana Lopez on Glee.
 * Noah's Arc: Despite being male, Ricky fits this trope, being aggressive and somewhat confrontational, flirtatious, highly sexual, and displaying the Tsundere-like inner kindness every so often.
 * Trina on Victorious, her sister Tori not so much.
 * Your mileage might vary if Daniella Monet, who plays Trina, is this too or not.
 * Maritza Cruz on Third Watch.
 * Theresa Russo, the Hot Mom on Wizards of Waverly Place.
 * Salma Hayek in her guest appearances on 30 Rock.
 * Gloria on Modern Family.
 * Gabrielle, played by Eva Longoria Parker, on Desperate Housewives. The character is decidedly "spicy" even without the stereotypical accent.
 * Charo, the Coochie Coochie girl.
 * Nadine Velasquez as Catalina on My Name Is Earl.
 * Adrian Lee of The Secret Life of the American Teenager. The actress playing her, Francia Raisa, is this too.
 * A gender-flipped example of the trope at work in a show's ads: the TNT show Hawthorne, a medical drama, advertised it's first season with somewhat somber music, though occasionally featuring a gospel choir. Then for season 2, they added Latin singer Marc Anthony to the cast. All of a sudden, the ads are filled with exciting salsa music and the ad's narrator promises "Things will be heating up at the hospital!"
 * Food Network used to feature Ingrid Hoffman, hostess of "Simply Delicioso" in this role. The show can still be seen in re-runs on Food Network's spinoff channel, the Cooking Channel.
 * Romeo's first-season girlfriend Sophia on The Steve Harvey Show.

Music
"Redhead senorita, lookin' dead, came and said, "need a bed?" in Espanol..."
 * The nameless "pretty Mexican girl" of "Mexican Blood" by Thin Lizzy.
 * The White Stripes gives us (from "Icky Thump"):


 * Bear in mind that Jack White regards redheads as the hottest thing ever.

Professional Wrestling

 * For a Spear Counterpart, in the WWF Eddie Guerrero sometimes called himself "Latino Heat." He and Chyna were (Kayfabe) seeing each other for a while, with her specifically liking him for his "Spicy Latino Heat."
 * WWE Diva Lita (who had a Mexican grandparent) was originally this as Essa Rios's valet. After her falling out with Rios, she dropped the Latin shtick to become Matt Hardy's high-spirited girlfriend.
 * WWE usually plays this down for both sexes in recent years. The characters often come off as being ambiguously Latin. Take Melina, for example. Before her Heel Face Turn, she was depicted as dark-skinned, slutty, and confrontational, but otherwise "Anglo." Similar cases can be made for Paul London and Eve Torres. The Bella's Mexican background is mostly ignored in favor of their Italian roots, Costa Rican Rosa Mendes is about the only one playing this straight.
 * Subverted with Victoria (now Tara in TNA), who was part-Puerto Rican; and with Paul London, who was part-Mexican. Completely inverted with Kerwin White (who was actually, of course, Chavo Guerrero) and then really inverted with Shelly Martinez. The latter appeared in (WW)ECW as "Ariel," a Gypsy fortune-teller. After being "bitten" by Kevin Thorn and "turned into a vampire", she became startlingly "white" (as in albino, which is to be expected from an "undead" creature). Of course, after leaving WWE, the pale makeup vanished and Martinez played this trope completely straight in TNA as the mannish yet somehow alluring "Salinas."
 * Another WWE Latina who completely reversed her image was Nidia Guenard, who was romantically paired with Jamie Noble in a "trailer-trash" gimmick. She even affected a stereotypical "hillbilly" accent to sell the part (unlike Noble, who really is a hillbilly). In Real Life, Nidia was a Puerto Rican of French descent - making her WWE character a non-spicy Latina!
 * Lilian Garcia. She was accused of "passing" for Anglo over latina even though she's from Spain. In Real Life she has released an album of Latin pop music and cooks spicy Castilian food at home, and toward the end of her career she began announcing Hispanic wrestlers more accurately than she had before ("Rey Mysterio" to "Rrrey Meestairr-eeo!", for example). Affirms her Spanish roots, but Latina refers to people from Latin America.
 * Former TNA Knockout Tag Team Champion Sarita has embraced this since her Face Heel Turn.
 * May be a case of Fake Nationality as Sarah Stock is Canadian though her pre-TNA fame came from wrestling frequently in Mexico.

Stand Up Comedy

 * Anecdotally, every single Latina girlfriend Pablo Francisco has ever had.

Theatre

 * Anita from West Side Story stands out from the other Shark girls (already a fairly spicy lot) by virtue of sheer spice. She has the most exuberant choreography and catchiest songs of the entire show.
 * Mimi from Rent is the Spicy Latina meets The Woobie. Meets some heroin.
 * Taz from Starship is a parody, often using random Spanish words that make no sense in context.
 * In Damn Yankees, Lola takes on this persona in an attempt to seduce Joe.

Video Games
"I think I need a bigger gun.
 * Marisol from SSX Tricky.
 * Being voiced by Patricia Velasquez doesn't hurt, either.
 * Cynthia from Silent Hill 4
 * Isabela from Dead Rising. Confrontational, Rough background, Good fighter and all the way around Hot.
 * Catalina from Grand Theft Auto San Andreas.
 * Ashley in Mass Effect is canonically Hispanic. She's also the toughest and best-armed person on your team, shamelessly flirts with Male!Shepard if you pay any attention to her at all, and has a habit of snapping at important people without thinking first.
 * One of the selectable voices for the main character in Saints Row is definitely this. Below are a few examples.

I dare Ultor to try and stop me.

I got the biggest balls in this whole city. That's right I said it.

I sure wish I was killing something about now.

You can never have enough guns, that's what I always say.

Sobriety tests are for pussies."

Webcomics

 * Monica Villareal in Wapsi Square. And she's half-Irish too. What a combination.
 * Araceli from Out There is an aversion to the trope. She's more shy and vulnerable than the other two (white) female leads, and usually dresses more conservatively. Less of a tomboy as well. And a Lesbian, if that means anything.
 * Sherry actually fits the trope reasonably well, notwithstanding the fact that she's not a Latina.

Western Animation

 * An oddball example would be Hawkgirl on the Justice League animated series. She's from the planet Thanagar, not Latin America, and speaks perfect English, but fits much of the trope. And (like all other Thanagarian characters on the show) she's played by a Hispanic actress, which was a conscious decision, to give them a slightly "alien" sound.
 * A more literal example would be Fire, who also shares the same voice actress as Hawkgirl.
 * Courtney from Total Drama is Latina according to Word of God and is a noticeable Tsundere.
 * Cheerleader Liz Allan on The Spectacular Spider Man, particularly after she's been defrosted. Just check out her perky cheer pose when she appears on the opening credits.
 * Done literally in South Park season 7 episode 5 "Fat Butt and Pancake Head" with a parody of a parody (you read that right) of Jennifer Lopez, "played" by Cartman's hand, performing the song "Taco Flavored Kisses".