Resumen de Tropicalizing the Netflix empire: neocolonialist renderings of Afro-Cubans on "Sky rojo" and "Toy boy"
The recent success of Netflix España as a producer of high-quality content with a global fan base has put a spotlight on contemporary Spanish society as a modern, progressive, and racially diverse, European nation-state. However, an increased visibility of racial minorities also raises questions of how Blackness and Latinidad are wielded in popular Spanish series as tools to maintain racial hierarchies. In order to flesh out these ideas, this article analyzes the representation of two Afro-Cuban characters from two of Netflix España’s most popular series, Toy Boy and Sky Rojo. This cross-examination of two Black characters, male and female, will demonstrate that colonialist ideologies persist in the Spanish media. A close reading of these two series reveals how racist tropes are refashioned in a contemporary setting and how AfroLatinidad becomes commodified for a Spanish and global audiences. Thus, Spain reasserts itself as a racially distinct and superior society, while Cuba lingers in the shadow of the former Empire. By exposing these neocolonialist methods used in Spanish productions, this article will uncover the methods used by the popular media to mask racial inequality and silence the voices of racially marginalized communities.
