By Lisa Cisneros –

Latina actresses in mainstream Hollywood have been severely limited for decades in the roles written for them and how they are portrayed on screen.  They are maids (fiery and exotic or matronly, but maids nonetheless), who barely speak English, man-crazy sluts waiting for the next married man they can sink their blood of the Virgin red nails into or they can be – the spunky cop.

That is the spunky cop who doesn’t back down and can make a man freeze just because she’s hot.

And rest assured she’s always hot. Just because these ladies are fighting crime doesn’t mean they don’t take time to pull themselves together before they grab those big nightsticks and head out for duty.

Daphne Rubin-Vega in “Wild Things,” Michelle Rodriguez in “S.W.A.T,” Rosie Perez in “Pineapple Express,” Jennifer Lopez in “Angel Eyes,” and lest we forget Eva Longoria Parker in “The Sentinel.” Because you know, the first time I saw all 5 foot 2 inches of Eva Longoria Parker’s size zero behind, the first thing I thought was, “That woman was born to play a tough Secret Service agent.”

Rachel Ticotin has made a career of portraying cops in films and on television like in “Falling Down,” “Con-Air,” “Crime and Punishment,” “Where the day takes you,” and most recently “Lost.”

Think about it? When was the last time you saw a movie and the female law enforcement side- kick that wasn’t a Latina?

We’re still maids. Let’s not forget “Spanglish” and the awful “Maid in Manhattan.”  J. Lo please, you’re killin’ me.

I’m not trying to put down cleaning women, sluts or police officers.  Working as a cleaning woman is a respectable job and whom some may call a slut, others may call free-spirited.  I certainly respect law enforcement and cops are great- when you need them.

But is that all there is for Latinas in Hollywood?  Are they forever burdened in these roles? Where are the doctors, lawyers, journalists, professors, CEO’s, architects and analysts?  For Pete’s sake, Denise Richards played a nuclear-physicist in “The World is not Enough.” A hot nuclear physicist, but a physicist just the same!

I think it’s great that that Hollywood finds Latinas to be beautiful as well as tough and strong, women who can hang with the boys and look good doing it.  When they portray these officers they certainly aren’t meek.

I respect that Latinas have been bumped up to the more respectable role of law enforcer, but why does that role almost always have to be filled by a Latina?

Why is it never an Irish woman or an Australian woman or just an American woman? My point is the role is not usually filled by someone of an Anglo look. Does Hollywood find the job too dirty or gritty for a white woman? Would a white woman never consider a career in law enforcement?

It’s up to Latinas to create strong, educated and powerful roles for themselves.  Hollywood is controlled by middle-aged and elderly men who couldn’t separate a Latina woman from a stereotype if she served it to them on a plate of tamales.

Let’s encourage all Latinas interested in the arts and film to take control of their destinies.  Because everyone knows you should never send a man to do a woman’s job.