I feel like after sons the writers were so happy they didn’t have to keep writing diversity in lmaoo, like sons covered bunch of different gangs so there was lots of racial diversity but Mayans is mostly brown people(which is how it should be if not all) and all the white people they could find. Like I’m sorry but the whole cast of side characters looks like a snow bank. Sons did a good job of showing you how diverse the people in proximity with them were. In Mayans the only people within reaching distance are white. Like there’s no one else around to interact with(other than that cop and Juan Denver I guess).
So, I have thoughts about this because I've seen it said a couple of times and I feel like people aren't really seeing the bigger picture, so buckle up because it's long.
The main one being that Elgin James had nothing to do with SOA. Mayans is in the same universe as SOA, but it's not the same story. It's a different culture telling a different story, with a different focus, due to different experiences in this country. A difference is also that Kurt was the one responsible for the creative process regarding SOA. So all of the racism, sexism, rape culture, transphobia, homophobia was from Sutter's vision, not Elgins.
Now. The 'diversity in SOA was never really there for diversity. It was there for plot. The Grim Bastards were there to make it seem like the club wasn't as racist as it actually was because "Hey look, we have black friends" talking about their long-established history while simultaneously talking down on them. The 9'ers, same shit. Prentinging to be cordial, only to try and pin them for something they didn't do because they played into the angry black man stereotype, Clay's exact words. Weston was a white supremacist. We know that. Anyone who watched for 10 minutes knew that. That was well established for his storyline. It really wasn't necessary for Sutter to make Weston's chest tattoo a part of the costume design, but he did.
Then they had "relationships" with the Mayans back and forth all the while calling them Spics. So is that added diversity, or is one more avenue for Sutter to include white men looking down on those around them who aren't white?
Then there was the Triad, same thing, Chibs' character references them by calling them "r*ce m*nkeys" so again, was it diversity because they wanted to show diversity and create that atmosphere? Or diversity because...you get the idea.
So that's one thing from a writing standpoint. Sutter was going for a shock value based show that was going to give white Americans a hard on and it did. What better way to bring shock value than to be racist at every turn presented and play on bigotry? Elgin is trying to tell the stories of what Latino MC culture is like along with what the Latino experience is like in this country period. He's not trying to shock the viewers or be named the most controversial show; he's storytelling.
Then there's the fact that communities usually tend to have people within them that look alike, and the smaller the town, the truer that is. People will naturally congregate together with those they have the most in common with. The bigger a city, the more diverse. The smaller a city, usually the more uniform their demographics are. So then speaking on demographics, let's get into demos for the areas that the shows are based around. For the record "Charming" doesn't exist, it's a fictitious place for SOA, however, its general real-life area where it was shot at is San Joaquin County, California. So let's look at the demographics for that location.
It's got a fair bit of diversity in the sense that it's spread out. Disproportionate sure, but the demos are relatively spread out. So the diversity that we see in SOA having been filmed in San Joa county is relatively accurate. The Mayans in that 42.0%, 9'ers and Grim Bastards in the 8.3%, The Triad in the 17.4%, etc.
Now let's look at Calexico, which is the bordering town between the Mexican and Californian wall where Mayans is based.
Not much diversity. Why? Many of the people who live in the Calexico area are Mexican and other Latinx people who have immigrated from Mexico and are just trying to get by and live better lives. Many stay in that area so that it's easy for them to go back and see their families, sometimes at the wall itself if either side is unable to cross. Calexico isn't really a place where people just...go. People that are there are usually there because again, either their family has been there and they never moved, or they're staying there to be closer to their loved ones across the border. There are always exceptions, but that's the basis. So you've got the Latinos that live there...and then you have border patrol and the police force that get their rocks off by going after Brown people for a living. Those are the main two groups present. So Mayans, like SOA, has stuck to being realistic in regards to showcasing the demographics and population in which their shows were filmed. Charming was realistic to San Joa Valley and Mayans to Calexico.
So all of that being said, I don't really understand why Mayans keeps being put under a microscope. I mean xenophobia is why, but I don't get why it can't just be enjoyed and had to be directed when SOA checked every morally void box there was and just got a pass. Mayans MC is scrutinized more than SOA ever was and it just gets a little frustrating after a while. I think it's amazing that Elgin and the cast were given the ability to tell these stories that so many of us in the Latinx community understand and resonate with, and they do it beautifully, but it always seems like there's a reason people want to drag it. I'm not saying that's what you're doing, but that's what keeps happening and it's bothersome. Mayans is supposed to be a spin-off of SOA showcasing life for a Mexican American MC and that's exactly what it's doing. It's doing what it set out to do, and some people are still tearing it apart for things that are realistic.
The diversity on SOA was performative so it could get people talking about it, just like Venus' inclusion was performative. Mayans isn't trying to do that. It's taking Latinx men and women and showing their lives within the Latinx community and the struggles that we face within that community. It's giving Latinx viewers something of our own, but it gets dragged like never before. We're just trying to enjoy this piece of representation that we were given and it's being clouded and tainted by the constant criticism that I never saw SOA get and frankly still doesn't get outside of this community it seems. I don't really know what else to say.
