Growing up in the 80s and 90s, we weren’t exactly spoiled for choice when it came to Latino TV role models. Luckily, TV’s gotten better at casting more diverse actors, but we still have a long way to go. Here, we rounded up TV characters we’re inspired by and would actually let our children watch. Check them out and tell us who your onscreen idol is.
Mario Lopez, Saved by the Bell: Back in the 80s/early 90s, everyone was crushing on dimpled cutie A.C. Slater, the jock of the tight-knit group of friends this series centered around. Slater was a wrestler, quarterback, and basketball player who passed up a wrestling scholarship to the University of Iowa to attend Cal U with best buds Zack, Screech, and Kelly. Slater’s ethnicity is addressed in an episode from the show’s sequel The College Years, revealing his father changed his last name from Sanchez to Slater so he could get into the military.
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