In Robert A. Heinlein's book "Starship Troopers", Rico is the son of a wealthy Filipino family who joins the Terran Mobile Infantry almost on impulse and over his parents' objections.
At the end of the novel Rico is commanding his own platoon ("Rico's Roughnecks"), with his father, Emilio Rico, as his platoon sergeant.
who joins the Terran Mobile Infantry almost on impulse
As I recall that was revealed at the end.
shareYes, and just in passing. I missed it when I first read the book as a kid (there wasn't a big Filipino community where I lived, so I didn't catch the reference to Tagalog).
shareYeah it was very subtle. Kind of like a "surprise, I bet you pictured a white guy in your head as you were reading, but the dude was actually asian the whole time!".
shareJuan Rico is Asian? Technically so, but he likely had mixed ethnicity.
It sounds like he had some Spanish ancestors somewhere in there. The Philippines was a Spanish colony for over 300 years after all.
In any case, he would likely have looked more like Patrick Muldoon than Casper Van Dien. An actor like Michael Copon would have been a better casting choice, although he was too young for the role at that time.
*sigh* Oh look, another "look at me, I can read!" thread.
shareTrue, he was "whitewashed". But it seems like that is acceptable to most people. Unlike the billions of "Heimdall is white", "Johnny Storm is white" threads.
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All the major characters have latin-sounding names. Problematic casting that would get called out on social media today.
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