Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales has been doing wonders as of late for representing the Hispanic and Puerto Rican community. In the recent PlayStation 5 gameplay demo, the Puerto Rico flag featured prominently and the bustling market afterwards touched on the country's culture and dishes. It was an important moment for many and the video embedded above is a perfect example of that.
Following on from the gameplay reveal, Insomniac Games has tweeted out a new Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales PS5 screenshot to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. It features the protagonist himself in front of the Puerto Rico flag taking a selfie, and you can check it out below.
Remember, folks: representation matters. Do we have any Hispanic Push Square readers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 22
Very nice to see. Miles draws from both his African-American and Puerto Rican heritage throughout his comic series and they both influence his character in different ways. It’s good for children of all backgrounds to have heroes that are just like them, we can all be heroes no matter where we come from or how we are born.
I was gonna say Hispanic Heritage Month is in September but turns out it straddles both months.* Learn something new everyday. Seems like it's just traditionally observed in September around these parts as Mexican Independence is in the same month.
*In the US anyway.
A Hispanic reader here. Love that screen shot.
Especially since I am from Puerto Rico. Born and raised.
@DualshockInfinit Check here https://status.playstation.com
I wish we didn't just have a month dedicated to Hispanic Heritage honestly, there are so many different rich sub-cultures, but I'll take what I can get I guess as a Tejano. Having said that, good to see a Latino taking center stage in a video game! I can only think of Sebastian Castellanos as another.
Representation matters! I didn't have a lot of it growing up, although as a funny story, I did think Tony Stark was Mexican because of his moustache when I was a kid.
Shout out to my fellow Hispanic readers!
@nessisonett You are absolutely right I didn't even look at the article, I just hit the newest article and expected it to be about the Playstation, like it has been happening all day. I was insensitive, and I saw the video and was touched to see this guy surprised to see his culture represented. I deleted my comment and will look for help elsewhere, thank you for your input.
@Constable_What Good point about the generalisation of sub-cultures. There’s definitely a tendency to try to fit cultures into specific ‘boxes’ to make them easier to digest. While it makes it easier to spread the word, some intricacies can be muddled or lost. It reminds me of how somebody being described as ‘Native American’ could refer to rather a lot of different tribes, all with distinct cultures and traditions!
@DualshockInfinit No problem, I’ll delete mine too but just ask in the forums!
As a puertorrican, seeing Puerto Rico representation puts a smile on my face. Wished we could get more games that taps on the puertorrican culture.
@nessisonett Yeah I agree, Hispanic Heritage is very similar to Native Heritage in that regard, and there's even overlap. I understand, because there are so many different Hispanic sub-cultures, but it's confusing in the Southwestern states because I could easily say I'm Mexican-American, but I've never step foot in Mexico. My family are original Texans, but if I say Tejano, I have to explain what that is outside of the state of Texas usually.
That's human nature though regarding labels and things. We tend to categorize things as a species.
A slight tangent, but I think cultural exploration and appreciation will be made easier now that most have access to the internet. I went to the Tejano Music Festival in San Antonio, and saw two really cool bands there. One from Japan, and one from Germany and they were really good and are pretty popular there.
That's pretty crazy to me seeing my culture, that I consider kind of obscure being recognized on an international scale. Representation matters, but I would also say recognition matters just as much.
@nessisonett Now if only America Chavez was written as compellingly
@TheFrenchiestFry I like America in the Young Avengers run but her solo series did feel like it was written solely to fuel angry fan letters. I disagree with the reasons people gave for hating it but it was a deeply flawed series. I’ll stand by the new West Coast Avengers, it was stupid but at least fun.
This is awesome! I love seeing broad swaths of races and ethnicities in games. This is why Horizon: Zero Dawn is hands down one of my most favorites.
Being part Puerto Rican, it's nice to see heritage/culture being represented within many forms of media. I do hope to see more in the future. Much appreciated, Insomniac.
How many groups are there representation months for in the States? Genuine question, not American so i have no idea. I only knew about Black history month and Pride month.
It's a thing officially in Canada only since 2018. No wonder I didn't know about it.
Mexican guy here and to be completely honest I dont understand the appeal of these different heritage months. They seen like a pointless excuse to appeal to people's emotions in my opinion.
@Constable_What It can certainly be confusing, specially in regards to sub-cultures, as you say. To put an example, even in Mexico alone (btw, I'm Mexican, so I'm talking by experience), depending on the region where you come from, things like culture, traditions, food or even people can be very different.
I'm from the northwest, and here we have a ranch/vaquero culture, love to eat tons of grilled red meat and are used to the desert heat (and pride on it xD), among other things that Mexicans of the central or southern regions of the country don't share with us.
On the other hand, there are things that foreigners consider representative of Mexico that, to be honest, are not representatives of my version of Mexico at all. For example, the Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos), the rainy jungle landscapes and the pyramids of ancient civilizations (I've not seen a pyramid in my life). It's weird, because I feel more at home watching an Old West movie than watching something like Coco (even if that last one was made to be representative of a Mexican tradition), and I guess that say a lot about the differences that exist among Mexicans of different regional and cultural backgrounds, and by extension, of Hispanics in general, with far more cultures and sub-cultures.
P.D. English is not my first language, sorry if something looks weird.
@MAntonioLimon Personally with Pride Month, I feel that the end goal is to not need it as our culture and history would be synonymous with society as a whole. However, until then, a dedicated month where we celebrate those things helps to draw attention and spread it. Just looking at how popular Pride has become in the last few years, it’s encouraging and shows that it’s done great work to normalise and integrate our culture. I imagine this is the same concept, just like with Black History Month.
@Armnd Your English is great. It's certainly better than my Spanish, and probably better than a lot of people who speak it as a first language!
You know, you put things in perspective with that comment! Even Americans in general have sub-cultures, like sub-cultures within sub-cultures, within sub-cultures kind of stuff. It's safe to say, as a species, we've both generalized and been generalized.
For isntance, I've never thought of Mexico to be filled with jungles or pyramids, because the closest I've been is Nogales, and it's as dry and dusty as Tucson is. They have crazier drivers though.
@MAntonioLimon It definitely is, you're right, but that's fine. People do a lot of pointless things, but it's all relative.
People are not rational things, they're emotional, and even then if you experience more negative emotions you're not making rational decisions.
Personally, I think it's fine in moderation like with everything, and we're all have the right to participate or not participate of we want.
And too be fair, I only know about these months when people tell me. I thought Hispanic Heritage month was in May! Lmao
Puerto Rican here, I love Miles as Spider Man. Looking forward to playing this on my PS4!
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