Mexican-American ‘Primos’ Creator Calls Controversy ‘Pretty Traumatizing’

Disney Channel’s upcoming animated show “Primos” is facing backlash for allegedly “not caring” about accurate Latino representation.

After the trailer dropped last week, a wave of social media users called out the new series for being stereotypical.

The show centers on a 10-year-old girl named Tater whose 12 cousins move in with her family for the summer. Throughout the theme song, Tater and her cousins sing: “Oye primos, why you all up in my face?” Giving a “roll call” of their names: “Cousin Bud, Nacho and Lita, Tere, Tabi and Tonita, Scooter, Lotlot and Gordita, Nachito, Chacha, and Cookita.”

The backlash to the show was swift, with people calling out everything from the town’s name to the cousins’ nicknames.

Disney has reportedly pulled the show’s promo material from social media. However, Mexican-American “Primos” creator, Natasha Kline, is finally responding to the criticism. Writing, “The story of ‘Primos’ is important to me. Because it’s my story.”

The backlash to “Primos” began last week after Disney Channel posted the show’s trailer

Disney posted the show’s trailer on June 13, inciting a wave of backlash. While the trailer is still on Disney Channel’s official YouTube page with a turned-off comments section, they reportedly removed it from their social media pages.

One Twitter user wrote that the “Oye primos” part of the theme song (which should be “Oigan primos” in grammatically correct Spanish) was “hurtful.” They also referenced the cousin named “Cookita,” which sounds similar to “Cuquita”— a name for female genitalia in many Latino countries.

Another imagined the show’s creators “trying to feel the Latinxs vibe” and “trying to speak in Spanish in the studios.” Clearly they didn’t know the creator, Natasha Kline, grew up in a Mexican-American family that echoes the show.

Yet another pointed out the “grammatical error” in “Oye primos,” naming cousins “Gordita” and “Cuquita” (which Disney spells “Cookita” in the official lyrics), exhibiting “wrong stereotypes” of Latinos, and calling the town the “racist” name “Earthquake Heights.”

The issue with the town’s name? As a Twitter user argued, the name serves as a reminder of Mexico’s devastating earthquakes, including the one in Mexico City in 1985, which killed an estimated 10,000 people.

Another pointed to the telltale “sepia filter” in the “Primos” trailer. Why? People have often called out this yellow filter as a racist way of depicting and othering Mexico in shows like “Breaking Bad.” Here’s an example:

One Twitter user even critiqued the depiction of many Latino family members in one home. They wrote, “Can ya’ll stop with the big ass Hispanic family in a little house stereotype?”

Natasha Kline, the show’s creator, is Mexican-American

However, the issue with the critiques is that the show’s creator actually lived the experience shown in “Primos.” As per Deadline, Kline based the series on her childhood in an extended Mexican-American family.

She said in 2021 that “Primos” drew inspiration from “childhood summers spent with [her] cousins under one roof,” calling it a “wonderfully hectic setting.”

“As a kid, I didn’t see myself or my culture represented onscreen,” Kline recalled. “So I’m excited to share my family dynamic through these new Disney characters and stories.”

“Primos” creator says the backlash to her show has been “traumatizing”

Yesterday, Kline posted a response to the backlash on Instagram, including cartoon drawings to depict how she felt.

The creator wrote, “Wow. What a week… The… uh… conversation happening around ‘Primos’ is something I could never have predicted.”

“The negativity has been… well, to be honest, pretty traumatizing,” Kline described. “It made me doubt myself, my project, my intentions.”

The exec illustrated examples of terrifying comments including, “I want to kill you.”

In another slide, she illustrated carrying all kinds of pressures like, “You don’t count,” “You aren’t enough,” and “You don’t have the right,” describing how she has heard messages like those her whole life.

She explained, “When I look at the community I live in, that I was raised in, here in Los Angeles… I’m reminded of my truth.”

Kline also seemed to hint at the controversy behind the series’ alleged “sepia” filter. Kline recalled thinking as a child, “The sunset makes everything look yellow right now.”

Towards the end, the creator said, “I’m proud of the place I’m representing….proud of the people in my life who are referenced in this project.”

“I’m proud and excited to represent something that maybe hasn’t been seen in animation yet.”

She ended her message with, “The story of ‘Primos’ is important to me. Because it’s my story,” including a photo of herself quite similar to the main character, Tater.

Many people are echoing Kline’s response, saying, “It be your own people destroying your dreams”

On TikTok, creator @fernandacortesx posted a video about the controversy, saying, “Honestly, I didn’t think it was that bad.”

One user commented on the TikTok video, “It be your own [people] destroying your dreams.” Another wondered, “It may be grammatically incorrect BUT what if … it’s a part of it all? Like… my Spanish is all messed up.”

Yet another wrote, “I understand [why people] are upset but like this is also my experience and many [people’s] experiences, especially the girl who wants her space.”

While one said the trailer was “a little cringe,” another commenter wrote, “Wow some [people] are doing too much she made a Disney show based on her life experience and they all robbed her of having her show air on Disney+.”

On Twitter, Mexican animator Jorge R. Gutierrez wrote, “We all have different backgrounds and I can’t wait to see ‘Primos,’ a series inspired by Natasha’s life.”

Actor and writer Jenny Lorenzo also found an issue with the backlash. She questioned, “Why is it that when a Latina production of any kind portrays poor or working-class experiences, it’s labeled as ‘stereotypical’?”

“I come from a low-middle/working class background, and my writing mirror that reality,” she continued. “Similar to the criticism faced by ‘Primos’, deemed “stereotypical” for depicting a multigenerational household under one roof FOR THE SUMMER.”

As Lorenzo put it, “Maybe let’s reexamine what we consider a stereotype.”