‘Jane The Virgin’ Star Andrea Navedo Talks About Breaking The ‘Sexy, Hot Latina Stereotype’

When “Jane the Virgin” first started, it seemed like Andrea Navedo’s character Xo Villanueva was nothing more than a hot-blooded Latina who had an unplanned pregnancy when she was still young. But as the show progressed, Xo began to display some of her better traits. She is a good mother and daughter who went out of her way to protect those she loves. She also dreamed of becoming a singer, but when her dream panned, she picked up the pieces of her life and decided to open her own dance studio.

Inevitably, she and her daughter Jane (Gina Rodriguez) broke down the Latina stereotype in Hollywood. “Xo can’t be painted as a perfect character. That’s one of the things I love about her is she has flaws and weaknesses and to me that’s a dynamic character, not a one-note character like you usually see — the sexy, hot Latina stereotype,” Navedo told Latina.

Toward the end of Season 2, she even slept with the nemesis of her beau. What happened next was another unplanned pregnancy. “I wasn’t happy about the choice but I accept her, flaws and all, and once I thought about it that way, it was easy for me to do,” Navedo said of this development.

Showrunner Jennie Snyder told The Wrap that they decided to let Xo abort the baby because it would be wrong for her to keep it. “If Xo were to have that baby, that would be a really strong message that I did not want to send — which is that a 40-something woman who has raised a child and doesn’t want a baby should have it anyway,” Urman said. “And we had a character in the house that thinks quite the opposite. I think that lets us have a discussion about it, instead of discounting that point of view.”

“Jane the Virgin” Season 3 airs every Monday at 9 p.m. EST on The CW.