A blue superhero is the talk of the town, but not for the reason you may think. This insect’s story doesn’t just involve fighting crime, but also the importance of culture and family. The movie “Blue Beetle” shows Mexican American culture in the form of an action-packed superhero movie we all know and love.

The film follows Jaime Reyes who is played by Xolo Maridueña as he struggles to find a job after graduating from college. He ends up working with his sister Milagro Reyes, who is played by Belissa Escobedo, at Kord Industries. There, Jaime meets Jenny Kord, played by Bruna Marquezine, who entrusts him with the alien technology the scarab. The scarab, also known as Khaji-Da voiced by Becky G, chooses Jaime as the new Blue Beetle, but the CEO of Kord Industries isn’t too happy about that. Victoria Kord, who is played by Susan Sarandon, desperately wants Khaji-Da back and will do whatever it takes to do so.

“Blue Beetle” is the first superhero movie directed by, written by and starring Latinos. This is huge considering how much our community enjoys going to movie theaters; in 2020 alone we made up 29% of movie goers. Although we’ve had Latino superheroes in the past such as America Chavez from “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and Cisco Ramon (Vibe) from “The Flash” we’ve never seen a movie starring a Latino superhero, until “Blue Beetle” came along.

Physics teacher Clifford Gerstman explains the sense of family that the movie emulated.

“One of the things I can tell you about what little I know about the Latino culture is that family is extremely important. They’re one of the few cultures left on earth that really promotes, you know, you be with the family, the family takes care of everybody and so I appreciated that because I thought that was pretty accurate,” Gerstman said.

Alongside the accurate portrayal of family, the movie also has much of its dialogue in Spanish. Yuri Lara, the certificated learning and achievement specialist at Santa Ana Unified School District, understands the importance of language. She took her children to see the movie and saw how they connected to the film.

“They have a connection to the Spanish language as their first language and so I think they react differently. They were laughing a lot; they were cracking up to George Lopez,” Lara said.

Additionally, Lara explains that there was another language in the movie that is also significant to Latinos and indigenous people of Guatemala.

“We heard more than just Spanish in that film, we also heard K’iche’ and that’s the Mayan language,” Lara said.

Although “Blue Beetle” is a great movie that shows the structure of a Mexican American household, as a superhero movie its concept isn’t new at all. It has your typical guy whose life isn’t all that great until he meets someone who gives him powers and transforms his life into something amazing. However, the film does bring the family aspect of it all that a lot of superhero movies don’t have.

“Blue Beetle” is a great Mexican American superhero film that deserves more attention than it’s getting. Professor Teresa Gonzalez teaches Chicana/o Studies at Santa Ana College and she believes that more people should go see it.

“I want to have more Latinos supporting other Latinos, that is major,” Gonzalez said.