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Carmen Redefines Family on “The L Word”

Carmen is even-keeled and, well, hot. But more importantly, as a Latina, Carmen inches the show ever closer to portraying the true diversity of lesbian identities. Southern California is largely Latino, so it’s especially encouraging to see this attempt to represent local demographics in a show about Los Angeles lesbians.

In her first episode Carmen reveals that she’s the daughter of “some kind of Mayan medicine man” who died in a motorcycle crash before her birth. Later episodes refer to her Latina heritage more indirectly: In Episode Six the wardrobe department gives her a T-shirt that reads “Everyone loves a Latin girl” while the sound department doctors the show’s theme song with Spanish lyrics and congas for one of her scenes.

Carmen’s heritage is also mentioned on the official L Word website, which proffers the character’s decidedly Latino last name–de la Pica–and, lest there be any confusion, refers to her as a “Latina beauty.” No other character’s ethnicity is referenced in their bio.

It is unreasonable to expect Carmen to represent all Latina lesbians, even if she bears that unfair burden in many viewers’ minds as the show’s only Latina character. Nevertheless, representing Carmen’s heritage without trivializing or fetishizing it is a serious responsibility, and the t-shirt and the modified theme song tread on very thin ice in this regard. We can only hope that if the show’s creators finally write in an Asian American character (currently a conspicuous absence considering the L.A. setting), they will have the sense to go about it thoughtfully rather than spicing up the theme song with a gong.

Despite a few gaps and missteps, the L Word succeeds in representing lesbian diversity, in terms of ethnicity at least, better than any other television series ever has. The addition of Carmen is a positive step, and viewers have reason to expect further improvement.

Shahi, the actor who plays Carmen, has hinted that her character’s ethnic background will be addressed more extensively in season three. On the show’s website Shahi explains, “In the second season, you really don’t get to know that much of Carmen’s story–her own personal background. My storyline is intermixed with those I’m in relationship to. It’s not until the next season that we’re actually going to go into Carmen’s life and explore what it’s like being a gay Latina, and get to see her own family.”

Carmen’s family roots have been evident from the start. Even if relatives aren’t trotted out on camera until next season, they have already been introduced into the storyline in Carmen’s first episode. Soon after she mentions her father, we learn that Carmen presumably lives with her mom: Shane tracks Carmen down on the set of a music video and says she hopes it’s OK that Carmen’s mother said where to find her. When they’re making plans to see each other later that evening, Carmen suddenly remembers she is supposed to visit her grandmother–a commitment that supersedes certain sex with Shane.

If a woman on the show turns down a chance to hop in bed with Shane it’s worth noting her reason. Clearly we’re meant to see that family is very important to Carmen–perhaps to bolster her character’s Latina identity.

The only other women of color among the show’s lead characters, half-sisters Bette and Kit, are also the only other characters to have blood relatives play a part in their daily lives. Dana’s country club parents are only summoned to the set once their daughter is about to get married and is seeking their blessing, and we only see Alice’s mother briefly in the first season. The rest of the gang could be lifelong orphans for all the audience knows, so Carmen’s family-mindedness is particularly noticeable.

Carmen serves to redefine the group’s sense of family, both original and chosen, while posing a new challenge within the tight-knit family the characters comprise. She complicates the relationship between new best buddies and roommates Shane and Jenny, who grapple with their respective relationships to her and reveal new complexities within themselves along the way.

On Carmen’s first “date” with Shane the latter is making out with someone else and telling Carmen, “Look, I just want to enjoy myself tonight.” Jenny’s mouth is pleasantly inactive on her first date with Carmen, courtesy of Guinevere Turner’s brilliance in writing a “silence assignment” from Jenny’s writing instructor into the script. But differences between Jenny and Shane abound, making Carmen’s taste in women seem rather eclectic.

While Carmen seems to share only Brigitte Bardot fandom with Jenny, she and Shane have more than just cruel haircuts in common. With Shane Carmen enjoys passion that’s marked, literally, by a pulsating woofer as they get into it within the first hour of laying eyes on each other. It’s hard to imagine Carmen playing Too Hot–the sexy game she invents on the fly with Shane–with someone who responds to her “superluva costume” (the snug tank and undies she’s wearing when she first meets Jenny) with “I like it. It’s nice.”

Carmen and Shane also share a penchant for using Jenny to disguise or displace their feelings for each other. Carmen’s initial interest in Jenny is so suspect that it seems to be entirely a product of Shane keeping Carmen at a distance despite obvious mutual interest. And Shane’s nonchalance toward Carmen is more calculated than her characteristic casualness toward the women she sleeps with. She puts so much effort into talking Jenny and Carmen up to each other that at one point Carmen tells Shane, “Don’t try to hook me up.”

Shane materializes in most of Jenny’s scenes with Carmen, and much of Carmen’s actions toward Jenny are reactions to Shane. Carmen only makes a move to kiss Jenny for the first time when she knows that Shane, who has just rebuffed her, will witness it. Carmen decides to head out with Jenny to get more beer precisely when Shane starts kissing some girl on the couch in their apartment. When Shane and the twins she has brought home for the night walk in on Carmen and Jenny in the kitchen, Carmen decides to call it a night mid-makeout. The next morning, Carmen tries to explain away the buzz kill but Jenny points out that Carmen is still hung up on Shane.

For Carmen, Shane lurks in the background even when she isn’t physically present.

Carmen is clearly threatening to Shane, challenging her aversion to love and commitment. Shane tries to keep Carmen at arm’s length, but it seems that Shane’s m.o. has never before been put to the test, and falling for Carmen poses a definite challenge. Shane is clearly enamored, and this throws her off balance–as evidenced by her certain discomfort when she sees Carmen and Jenny share that brief kiss that in all likelihood is performed expressly for Shane’s benefit.

That first kiss between Carmen and Jenny is an obvious ploy for Shane’s attention and an attempt to mirror her apparent indifference. But Carmen is not one to play games, and she doesn’t let Shane get away with any either. Within a few episodes she confronts Shane about how the affection “we sweet simple folk” show is genuine, and that Shane had better learn how to handle it before people like Carmen give up on her entirely. Shane’s inability to accept affection is even more apparent when she responds to Carmen’s speech, and to the whole love triangle, by taking way too much Oxycontin and winding up with a black eye and an existential crisis.

While she sends Shane into a tailspin, Carmen manages to bring out a lighter side of Jenny. When it comes to Carmen, Jenny is less of a tortured soul and more the shy kid stumbling into possible love.

The time Jenny spends with Carmen is practically the only time she isn’t giving off the tiresome it’s-so-hard-to-be-Jenny vibe that has continued to mark her character since the first season. Jenny’s coolness quotient and general likeability have risen this season simply by association with Shane–and Carmen, as Jenny and Shane’s shared love interest, provides a primary conduit for this connection.

Any apparent inconsistencies in Carmen’s character can be chalked up to the fact that it’s still her first season on the show. Her character’s development meanders as those creatively responsible for the various episodes–so far this season, four writers and six directors in eight episodes–experiment with how Carmen will evolve on screen. She seems to be a straight shooter but then she also seems to be playing Jenny only to get at Shane. While her interest in Jenny seems calculated for this purpose, Carmen takes it further than would seem necessary if she is merely trying to front.

But regardless of where and how the pieces eventually fall, Carmen is consistent in her ability to shake things up on set, with no sign of letting up.

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