Why "Elena of Avalor" is the Hispanic Princess We Need but Not the One We Deserve

Earlier this week Disney released its design for their first Latina princess ever. Corks were blown off of campaign bottles, parades filled the streets, and the media celebrated this leap in pop culture diversity. All for basically no reason at all. The initial problem here is that we are waaay past due for a Hispanic princess; however, there are enough flaws with Elena of Avalor that Disney should consider going back to the drawing board with this one.

The special irony here is that just like Latinos in the real world, Elena too is being marginalized in her land far far away. Unlike the first Arabic princess, the first African American princess, or the abundance of white princesses Disney has released,  Elena's debut will not be on the silver screen, but on the children's show Sophia the First.  Sadly, Elena is nothing more than a supporting role in a show where her appearance is likely going to be swept under the rug and forgotten. 

Also, in a statement made by a senior vice president of Disney Junior, Nancy Kanter, it was revealed that "All [Sophia] characters come from fantasy lands that may reflect elements of various cultures and ethnicities but none are meant to specifically represent those real world cultures." Meaning, the actual culture of Latin Americans will not be represented along with Elena, which is arguably what gives the introduction of the character purpose. It isn't about the quotas or the skin color, but the accurate representation of individuals who are being underrepresented in society. When it comes to this standard, Disney is completely missing the mark.

There has been talk about Elena getting her own spinoff series in 2016, there is still room to be pessimistic. After all, it is very likely that creation was not a part of the original Sophia blueprints, but to rectify a PR mishap when Disney Junior originally announced Sophia the First and producers labeled the series's obviously Caucasian main character, Sophia as Latina. Whatever the case is, the introduction of Elena is far from the break through that it is being presented as. Yes, it is great that Hispanic children will be presented with a character that they can finally relate to at 9:30 am/8:30c, but will Elena dolls get a spot on Disney Store shelves? Will there be Princess Elena Halloween costumes, lunch boxes, or backpacks? Will there be a Princess Elena at Disneyland? The answer to all of these questions, more than likely, will be no. So why should we be celebrating this as a victory?

The bigger question is, what does this have to do with privilege?

Disney is a corporation whose main audience is children. It may be cliche to say that these kids look up to these princesses as role models, but it's completely true. And yes, they do look for princesses they can identify with. In the beginning of the year, I started my first job as a childcare worker at a learning center where many of our students are underprivileged minorities. 

As one of my girls began to show off the princess sticker book she got for Christmas, she made a remark that there were no big stickers of Princess Tiana and seemed deeply disappointed by this. Children can sense these disparities early on. According to an "animation census" released by Buzzfeed 71.% of Disney Princesses are Caucasian. 


White children are given a mass of princesses they can look to based on the loose argument that most fairy tales are based off of European characters. Meanwhile, children of color continue to wait....and wait....and wait.

Disney needs to be more diverse. There's no doubt about that, but garlanding a minor character in a minor series is not going to cut it. I say go big or go home. Anything that falls short of "big" this late in the game in unacceptable. Here's to hoping Disney, along with other animation studios, start to become more brave with their character designs and more accurate with the society they represent. None-white people are not make-believe, so we should really stop acting like it.