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Excerpt from interview with PEPE SERNA

What are some of the most perpetuated stereotypes about Latinos in the mainstream media?

Latinos are always gardeners, maids, hoodlums, thugs, murderers, thieves…basically the underbelly of society. You hardly ever see professionals: doctors, scientists, professors. Hollywood doesn’t care.  They stereotype everybody in the worst possible way. They don’t raise the culture of humanity. It goes back to the Westerns: it’s the guys with white hats and the guys with the black hats. Good or bad, nothing in between.  But that’s what the world is—all the in between is where the exciting characters are in life.

What do you hope that audiences get from Man From Reno?

What I really hope that audiences tap into is that even though the leads are Japanese and Mexican-American is that stories are stories, and great stories are universal.  And hopefully the audiences will realize that this is a movie that’s going to make you think.  [There are] surprises around every corner, just like real life.  Films are usually cookie-cutter; you already know what’s coming around the bend.  They talk down to the audience, don’t really respect the audience, and hopefully the audience…will see this movie, enjoy it and realize that there’s a place in all of us to accept something that—at first glance—looks, feels, smells, tastes foreign but is in fact as American as apple pie.

The Dedication of PEPE SERNA DAY in Corpus, Christi, TX