Three Faces of Eva

Merskin, Debra. "Three Faces of Eva: Perpetuation of The Hot-Latina Stereotype in Desperate Housewives." Howard Journal of Communications 18, no. 2 (April 2007): 133-151.

Abstract from Author (via EBSCO Academic Search Premier):

"One of most popular network television programs to come along in years is Desperate Housewives. The show presents the intimate lives of 5 women living in a middle-to-upper-middle-class neighborhood somewhere in America. One of them, Gabrielle Solis (played by Eva Longoria) is Latina. The role appears to be a break through role in terms of media representations of Latinas. Visibility as a lead character in a highly successful television program is a rarity for Latinas. However, a critical reading of the program shows that the opportunity to advance the image of Latinas is lost as dialogue, the presentation of Gabrielle, and the off-screen life of Longoria, fulfill G. D. Keller's (1994) tripartite typology of Latina stereotypes. This study presents illustrative dialogue drawn from a textual analysis of the first season (23 episodes) of ABC's 2004-2005 prime time hit that demonstrates the persistence of the stereotype, albeit in less overt form than in the past. In addition, building on I. M. Guzmán and A. N. Valdivia's (2004) study, Eva Longoria's off-screen behavior is discussed as the similarity between that and her on-screen presence serves to reinforce Keller's Latina types."