Anna Taggaro

Infobox soap character
colour = #A7B0C1
name = Anna Taggaro



caption1 = Daniella Alonso as Anna Taggaro
first = I Will Dare
(episode 2.05)
last = The Lonesome Road
(episode 2.18)
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age =
born =
death =
occupation =
title =
siblings = Felix Taggaro (brother)
romances = Darby (former love interest)
Lucas Scott (ex-boyfriend)
children =
relatives =
episode =
portrayer = Daniella Alonso
creator = Mark Schwahn

Anna Taggaro is a fictional character portrayed by Daniella Alonso on the WB drama television series "One Tree Hill". The character became the first recurring bisexual character of color on television.cite news | first=Sarah | last=Warn | title=One Tree Hill's Anna Finds Courage--and Romance?| publisher=AfterEllen.com | page=1-3 | date=2005-04-18 | accessdate=2007-08-24 | url=http://www.afterellen.com/archive/ellen/TV/2005/4/onetreehill.html]

Character

Anna is first introduced as a girl who saves Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) during one of Felix Taggaro's (Michael Copon) games.cite episode|title=I Will Dare|series=One Tree Hill|credits=Mark Schwahn (writer) & Thomas J. Wright (director)|network=The WB|airdate=2004-10-19|season=2|number=5|minutes=42] It is then revealed that she is Felix's sister. She falls for Lucas and they start hanging out together, much to her brother's annoyance. Their relationship becomes strained when she tries to sleep with him at prom night and he says that he is not in love with her. It turns out to be true, as he leaves her for Brooke Davis (Sophia Bush). She then becomes quite angry with him, but not for the reason everyone suspects.

Anna is actually struggling with her bisexuality and feels that Lucas helped her "stay straight" as she was afraid rumors would start again about her, which was why she had left her former school. She then falls romantically for Peyton Sawyer (Hilarie Burton), but her feelings are not shared by the latter. Mouth McFadden (Lee Norris) also knows due to her having asked him to erase a part of her time capsule video, where she revealed her sexuality. Towards the end of the season, her former girlfriend comes to Tree Hill and motivates her enough to not only tell her parents about her sexuality, but to also go back to her former school, no longer hiding herself.

exuality inconsistencies

Although some viewers assumed Anna to actually be a lesbian, "One Tree Hill" creator Mark Schwahn made it clear in a 2005 interview with AfterEllen.com that she is bisexual: "When asked why he chose to make Anna bisexual, instead of a lesbian, Schwahn's answers are both pragmatic and philosophical. On the practical side, making her bisexual let the writers keep Anna's past a secret, while maintaining some semblance of authenticity." Schwahn explained that in order to hide what her journey was going to be, she was presented as a potential romantic interest for Lucas. "I thought if she was strictly a lesbian character, that would be really out of nature for her, and a little disingenuous to lesbians," he said.

From a philosophical standpoint, Schwahn felt there was more territory to explore with a bisexual character:Cquote|There’s still more of a bias towards [bisexual] characters. I see support groups for people on both ends of the spectrum, but none for people in the middle. I just felt like this character, seemingly without a country, was a very compelling character. I really felt for her dilemma, and when you connect emotionally to a character, it opens up so many avenues for a writer to write. I was really rooting for Anna and I felt like that was the best way to go.

Part of the viewer confusion over Anna's sexuality may have resulted from the fact that the show used the words "gay" and "bisexual" interchangeably, with Anna sometimes referring to herself as one, and sometimes the other. But, as Schwahn told AfterEllen.com, Anna's use of the word "gay" was meant to make a strong statement, not to deny her bisexuality:Cquote|Her use of the word 'gay' instead of 'bisexual' wasn't meant to imply that Anna is not bisexual. If I had known the word bisexual was more taboo, we may have gone in that direction. For me, it seemed like Felix was so homophobic, that for her to say 'I’m gay' to him felt even stronger for her.

References