The Representation of Mexicans in American Films - Report Example

Living in the shadow of the American Dream: A discursive analysis of American cinematic representations of ‘Mexicanization’ in, Salt of the Earth (1954), Born in East LA (1986), Frida(2002)      Mexico has long had a place in the American cultural imagination as a place of exoticism and rebellion, a place that personifies all that is ‘Un-American’. As the ‘last-frontier’  in early Hollywood Westerns, Mexico has come to symbolize the ‘end of civilisation’ for American audiences. Cortez coins the term ‘Mexicaness’ to describe the important place Mexico has come to occupy in the American cultural imagination (1993). To understand ‘Mexicaness’ and it’s place in American culture, it is necessary to deploy Post-Structualist theories of culture and representation, making reference to Postmodern theorists Foucault (Discourse) and Derrida (Binary Opposition), and Stuart Hall (Representation) “From Foucault, cultural studies has derived the idea of discourse as a regulated way of speaking that defines and produces objects of knowledge, thereby governing the way topics are talked about and practices conducted.” (Chris Barker & Dariusz Galvasinski 2001)   Intro Throughout the history of film, the cultural discourse surrounding the representation of Mexicans has been subject to alteration. The American fear of transgression of the unity and safety of its borders has persisted over many decades. Representing a vision of the ‘final frontier’, Mexico is viewed as a powerful evocation of “the other” in American psyche as opposed to the American constructed notion of its ‘self’. The paradoxical representation of Mexico in American cultural imagination is one of ‘escape and redemption, a place of danger, freedom and subversion’ (Alonzo, 2007). An exploration of Mexican films, in relation to the themes of the representation of women, cultural hybridity, the uniqueness of Mexican culture compared to the all-encompassing ‘Hispanic’ grouping, and American hegemonic discourse, illustrates that as time progresses and the social fabric becomes liberalized, Mexicans come to be represented in a new discursive light, referred too as ‘Mexicaness’ (Farell, 2005). This commodified symbol and imagery lends itself to the three dominant discourses that encapsulate this notion, including the notion of ‘the other’ and exoticism (Strozier, 2002) Herbert J. Biberman’s 1954 film Salt of the Earth acts as an expression of the counter-narrative of the culture of Cold War and McCarthysim. Cheech Marin’s 1986 film Born in East L.A. is a humorous portrayal of the struggle for identity that a Mexican faces, wherein he is made to be a fugitive from his home. The film chronicles the perceptible issues of migration and related prejudices in a satirical manner, during the Mexican identity struggles in the 1980’s. Julie Taymor’s 2002 film Frida chronicles the passionate and tempestuous private and professional life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, played by Salma Hayek. With consideration of post-colonial literary theory and the relevant historical context within which each film is placed, an insight into the Mexican culture’s struggle for acceptance and integration into the American imaged community can be gained. The films challenge the notion of the patriarchal discourse through a representation of a feminist struggle for equality and acceptance into society. While Taymor and Biberman portray women as empowered female subjects, it is interesting to note that the representation of women is clearly contrasted in Born in East LA where women are represented as exotic creatures and hence sexually objectified for the male gaze. This notion illustrates the shifting assumption of feminist identity whereby the fetishisations and sexualization of Latin women is underpinned by the dominance of Western culture and ideologies. 1. Mexican struggle + subversion of Mexican women The manner of portrayal and stereotyping that has characterized the depiction of Mexicans in American cinema is comparable to the exoticised portrayal of women. Both are caricatures wherein the women’s bodies are reduced to the status of sex objects for the delight of the male gaze or, as is the case in the latter issue, the “Lazy Mexican” construct who serves as a foil in countless westerns to flatter the intelligence and energy of the Anglo Cowboy (Garcia, Dialogo). Relate sexualisation of women to concept of exoticism, fetishism , ‘the other’. These representation highlight the discourse of power as supported theorist… Since Pedro Esquirel and Dionecio Gonzales’s 1894 film Mexican Duel, people of Mexican origins have featured prominently in the movies made in the USA (Stacy, 2002). Film representations of Mexicans as a construct of ‘the other’ have reflected the prevailing American cultural imagination; this fear of the other is exemplified in the American antagonist attitude towards Mexicans illegally crossing the border who undermined the perceived safety and impermeability of the nation. Furthermore, the discursive construction of ‘Mexicaness’ and the struggle for the definition of Mexican identity (Cortez, 1993) underlines the stereotype known as “Greaser”. The greaser is a typical antithesis of the all American good guy with all of the human flaws imaginable unlike the All-American hero, characterized usually as the paragon of all things virtuous. Movies like Greaser’s Gauntlet (1914), and Tony the Greaser (1911) became known as the distinct ‘Greaser Films’ genre, further reflecting the fear of transgression as well as the concern for unity and safety of American borders. Degenerating as the term was, ‘greaser’ was used by American directors as an outlet to the interracial tensions and the problems regarding the fact that borders of national identity were subject to Americanized perceptions, contributing to the grand narrative of “Anglo dominance” and “Mexican weakness”. In the 1920s, and the 1930s, Mexican actors like Ramon Novarro and Dolores Del Rio got their share of fame and fortune in Hollywood. However, many of their roles maintained stereotypical views of Mexicans, particularly that of the Latin lover and the Latin seductress, reflecting the view that Mexico was seen as a place of unchecked sexuality; most of these were one-dimensional characters, descendants of violence prone greasers. This emphasizes the American construct of Mexico as discursively associated with promiscuity, sexualization, and immorality, a binary opposite to all that was American. This dichotomy illustrates the juxtaposition of both cultures, whereby the Mexicans represented all that was ‘un-American’. Underpinning this concept sexuality is Frida, an engaging biography of a Hispanic woman whose life encompasses all that of an uncompromising, iconoclastic artist. Reflecting the discursive notion of ‘Mexicanization’ in its portrayal of ‘feminist mystique’ (DeMente, 1998) highlights the image of Mexico as a place of rich sensuality. For example, the scene where Frida meets revered Mexican artist Diego Rivera is classic example of the objectification of Mexican women in American film. From the outset, Diego is judgmental, standing over self portraits of Frida. In a subversion of gendered norms, he enters the scene accompanied harmonically with a non-diagetic sound track blurred in the background of the shot, he immediately comes to focus, shifting the focalization onto the “male” character despite the rhetoric focused on the protagonist. Frida’s androgynous nature is reinforced through her costuming: Frida is wearing a white collared shirt, and straight black pants, which would not be seen on a female at the time the film was set. Interestingly enough, the movie extrapolates the theme of defeminization in numerous ways: Frida is shown wearing masculine clothes, she cuts her hair; the restriction of voice, the manner of subjugated dressing, are symbolic of her gender ambiguity. This subversion of femininity is highlighted in the scenes where the protagonist is seen as flirting with bisexuality - there is no trace of the stereotypical delicate senorita, rather the director foregrounds the image of the erotic nature of ‘the other’. and no sign of the erotica’s, but a direct image of the exotic or ‘the other’. The responder is positioned to view Frida as a woman who enjoys her sexuality and is not afraid to rebel experiment, exemplified through the scene where provocatively poses nude, calendar-girl style, for an admiring Josephine Baker look-alike. These discursive associations steer clear of a number of very controversial aspects of Frida’s political allegiance but as a portrayal of the woman, the representation of Frida is made out to be as one that stands on an equal footing with the men. Right at the beginning of the film for example, she shakes a friend’s hand and addresses him as ‘comrade’. This brings to light not just her political affiliations but her power as a woman of the world. Frida additionally reveals a power struggle for woman’s identity, furthering the concept of control over fate and of self. The Mexican woman also characterizes the power struggle in the manner in which Frida deals with her philandering husband, the politics of domination in the American culture and the rejection of this domination. For example, the pan camera shots of Frida and Rivera’s life in US, where they are shown attended parties and yet the inherent dissatisfaction on her face, are the an embodiment of the ideological struggle that faced many Mexicans during the Cold War.   2. Freedom and Redemption resulting in fetishism Looking at the unreleased pre-production draft of Salt of the Earth Heide’s article (2008) produces a powerful critique of anti-communism, imperialism, and the Korean War as central points of the original narrative. On 9th February, 1950, Joseph McCarthy, a senator from Wisconsin, made a speech claiming to have a list of 205 people in the State Department that were known to be members of the American Communist Party. The list of names was not a secret and had been in fact published by the Secretary of State in 1946. For the next two years McCarthy's committee investigated various government departments and questioned a large number of people about their political past. Some lost their jobs after they admitted they had been members of the Communist Party. Biberman was one of the few investigated and found guilty of the crime. The story of Salt of the Earth is a complex negotiation between the needs and desires of two disempowered groups – the blacklisted Hollywood socialists and a Mexican-American union with a history of fighting for equality. This power struggle is used an allegorical representation for blacklisted artists whereby the struggle for identity that occurred between the mine owners, the Anglos and the mine workers mirror the changing image of a ‘greaser’ to an existentialist struggle that characterized Mexican life in the US. Through a series of vista shots in the day, that encapsulated a mining town and the background voice of Esperanza – the filmmakers underline the racial prejudice – the scene begins with the way of life for a Mexican woman and the full vista shot of the mine with the words in the background “The Anglos changed the name to Zinc Town. Zinc Town, New Mexico, U.S.A.” Yet despite all of its controversies, the film is an antithesis ofimperialism?, a mirror of the resistance to American cultural imperialist discourse and nationalism against the racial domination that was a way of life for most Mexicans. From a feminist perspective, Salt of the Earth is a blend of ‘passion, poignancy and restraint’ (Neve, 1992)and demonstrates powerful female activism and. For example, during the hunt scene, the impersonal statement made by Esperanza, “I don't want to go down fighting. I want to win, have you learned nothing from this strike?” exposes the discursive notion regarding the feminist rebellion and power struggle. The camera work is unobtrusive and scenes have been shot more in the visual tonality of the realistic story being photographed. For example, the director employs the use of characterisation where, Ramon is shown holding and polishing his rifle and yet the weakness of his character is apparent, while the frail woman standing near him is depicted as being strong and assured that they would win. Interestingly, the scene displays Ramon’s side profile while his wife and her sense of assurance even in her doubts are given better display through the zoom shot. From a feminist perspective, Frida is potrayed as surrealist representated, including a Mexican artist, communist and bisexual woman, hence supporting the discourse of ‘Mexicaness’ in American imagination.Frida as a film is filled with the colorful symbolism and traditional Mexican culture that characterize the artist’s work. Taymor utilizes numerous zoom-in and pan shots to achieve her purpose. For example, in the opening scene, the camera pans a beautiful Mexican garden, scattered with exotic animals such as, monkeys and peacocks. “An exoticist perspective constitutes ‘the other’ as the domesticated and known other, positing the lure of difference while assimilating its object to the circuits of consumption (of ideas, experiences, objects, images, and so on). It constructs the other, or projects otherness, from the point of view of the hegemonic same, the known, the familiar” (Young, 2009). Abruptly, a narrow wooden bed floats in, borne like a coffin out into the street on which lays the elder Frida; she is portrayed in a serene state, complete with costuming and regalia. This imagery effectively transposes the enormity of Frida’s suffering onto the canvas; allowing the complexities of life to be successfully reflected in her work, bereft of explanation or external interpretation. Finally, Taymor's artistic representation of a Dadaist collage of Diego as King Kong, ‘taking New York by storm, with Frida-painted paper cut-outs of the couple dancing through, is almost too remarkable for the tea-totaling naturalism that it interrupts’. The intricate interaction between Frida’s art and her life is highlighted through Taymor’s use of fantailed allusion and animation. For example, the animations following the accident, “show how art-initiates life axon in a self-reflexive equation.” The French woman flag shot is an allusion to Mexican and American culture unity and division. It posits a historical connection between the Spanish based colonialism of Mexico with the French woman serving as an allegorical figure for Western colonialism in East LA. Interestingly, the French woman is a unique juxtaposition of the national flags of Mexico and the US. This is reinforced through the focus on the green-white color palette (alluding to the colors of the Mexican flag) highlighting the struggle for Mexican liberty and freedom in an American dominated society. There are primarily two aspects to the depiction of the power struggle in ‘Salt of the Earth’: that of the struggle of the sexes and the class struggle. The discourse of power as depicted in the films exists on numerous levels-the struggle between the Mexicans and the Anglos, the struggle between men and woman, and the struggle within the community of the mineworkers itself. The struggle between the Anglos and the Mexican has been depicted as a long drawn one, which it historically has been, while that which exists between the two genders is shown as that which has been a recent development and is still evolving with the passage of time. The underlying power discourse in all three films is with respect to the communist ideology given the fact that Salt of the Earth was a direct retaliation on part of the film making team. Although the NAFTA agreements gave a new twist on the immigration issues whereas Frida represents an express commitment to communism in a time characterized by ideological rift. There are primarily two aspects to the depiction of the power struggle in ‘Salt of the Earth’: that of the struggle of the sexes and the class struggle. The discourse of power as depicted in the films exists on numerous levels-the struggle between the Mexicans and the Anglos, the struggle between men and woman, and the struggle within the community of the mineworkers itself. The struggle between the Anglos and the Mexican has been depicted as a long drawn one, which it historically has been, while that which exists between the two genders is shown as that which has been a recent development and is still evolving with the passage of time. The underlying power discourse in all three films is with respect to the communist ideology given the fact that Salt of the Earth was a direct retaliation on part of the film making team. Although the NAFTA agreements gave a new twist on the immigration issues whereas Frida represents an express commitment to communism in a time characterized by ideological rift. The discourse is similarly presented in Salt of the Earth. For example the statement that Stanley Aronowitz made in 1973 could have been written to sum up the theme of discourse of power in Salt of the Earth: “The contradiction of working class struggle today is that it must recognize the demands of different oppressed groups ... and simultaneously strive for a unified class identity that transcends the prevailing system.” The depiction of the holders of power in the final sequence, both in the script and camera shots of the film and the depiction of the struggle from the viewpoint of the American film maker emphasizes the coalescence of the various struggles, especially the forging of a “unified class identity”. Therefore, it can be concluded that even though the movie aims at addressing certain issues, there have been prejudices that it has been working with from the outset.   The dominant theme in Salt of the Earth is that of the neo-imperialism that the Anglo-Saxon capitalist exertion over the mine workers who were traditionally Mexicans. The scene where the mine workers confront Barton is significant as it presents two distinct socio-economic groups, the struggle of the mine workers who represent the plebian proletariat and the arrogant attitude of the owners who represent the bourgeois upper class. This contextual mirror of the directors concerns, reflects the prevailing proletariat struggle for fairness in the workplace against the rising support for communism in Mexican culture. The scene begins with a long shot of the workers in the day, the focus is on the movement as a collective whole towards the administrative building symbolizing the unity. The changing angle of the scene each time Barton blocks the mobs’ path shows the kind of conflict that rears between the two classes-the rulers and the ruled. Furthermore, the characterization inherent in the text exemplifies contrasting personalities in terms of gender discourse. In contrast to Frida and ‘Born in East La’, Ramon is not represented as a tragic theory whereby his character reflects a impulsive, cocky nature that thrives on impulsiveness. His wife Esperanza (whose name is symbolic of hope) displays a character of strength, power and assertion e.g. in the scene where she unites with other women and screams in unison against authoritarian rule. Frida illustrates America’s cultural and social imperialism over Mexican citizens. In one particular scene, Diego Rivera a valued cultural and political figure in Mexico is commissioned to paint a mural in the Rockefeller museum. In Mexico, Diego is presented as apart of the bourgeois class however when Diego moves to the United States he is represented as the plebian, proletarian. Costuming is an integral element of this scene. The naturalized Mexican Diego enters the frame in work clothing and paint on his attire while Rockefeller an American is wearing an expensive grey shaded suit illustrating his importance in society. Whilst Diego is valued for his artistic talent in the United States, his painting is of a political nature and is quick to be told by Rockefeller his place in society. Frida highlights a Mexicans class struggle in the United States through the idiom “ if you lie with dogs, you shall expect fleas.”    3. Cultural hybridity One of the other landmark films in the study of Mexican representation is the humorous and the successful Born in the East of LA (1987). Albeit true that one might not find a specific similarity or a comparison point between the pathos filled depiction in Salt of the earth and the slick and funny Born in the East of LA, the movies are similar in as much as they portray the struggles of a community being dominated by another one and looking for an identity. The film is focused primarily on the issue of intercultural misperception, when a US Immigration and Naturalization officer assumes that a young Mexican American needs a green card because he ‘looks’ Mexican and ultimately deports him to Mexico when he fails to producer the card (Landis, Bennett and Bennett, 2003). In film as well as social history, the main issue is acculturation: to what extent should a native minority assimilate into or separate from a dominant mainstream? The nature of the narrative is loose, this in fact mirrors the protagonists’ own ambiguous nature as a citizen. Both ‘Born in East LA’ and ‘Frida’ encapsulate the concept of ‘tragic hero’ relating to Aristotelian Theory of Tragedy. Both Rudy (‘East LA’) and Frida are represented as psychologically and mentally suffering. Frida traumatically suffers in the accidental scene and Rudy suffers in his attempt to assimilate with the culture. Thus both texts similarly position the responder to pity the protagonist, through emotions of empathy and sympathy. There are a number of scenes in the movie that challenge the stereotype that characterized Americanized view of Mexicans. The establishing shot, for example, is the one that challenges Hollywood conventions of the barrio, initiating a shift from the public to the private space, as the source of Chicano representation in Hollywood cinema. The films begins with a shot of the LA skyline, pans to the left to east LA, tilts down and-through a series of dissolves-comes to rest on a house beside a church. The last scene where Rudy leads a massive multicultural, multinational assault on the border visualized the worst Anglo- American fear about illegal aliens swarming across the border taking their jobs and draining welfare funds. These associations are undercut by Marin by the visual codification of the scene. For example the satirical ‘laid back’ body language of Mexican characters in the film is complimented through the usage of diagetic and non-diagetic soundtrack to represent Mexicans ‘care-free’ attitude as acceptable in contemporary American society. This notion in film obscures the true representation of a Mexican and categories both Latin Americans and Mexicans as a single homogenous ‘care-free’ race.   The struggles as depicted in Born in the East LA are more streamlined when compared to the subtle depiction if Salt of the Earth. The struggle in the latter is for identity, for a place in one’s own home and the search for individuality and realism. A man is deported to Mexico, because of the fact that he cannot produce an ID card despite the fact that he does not even speak Spanish. The usage of comedy and of humor is clear-cut and belies the strong racist underbelly that characterizes the theme of the film. The scene of deportation, when the protagonist is confronted with real Mexican “illegals”, as a key-scene expresses the dilemma of Mexican-American identity: the scenes where he is called “pocho”, (a slur used to describe a Hispanics) by the Mexicans is an expression of this struggle. This shows the struggle of the protagonist between his identity as a Hispanic and as a citizen of USA, where he is not being accepted by either, rejected on the basis that he belongs to the ‘other’, and the humorous play is where he is unable to understand Spanish even with his given background. The play of appearances is introduced early in the film, from the cinematically encoded perspective of the white agent, Rudy looks or appears to be ‘Mexican’. Rudy is thus the signifier for the dominant culture’s content of a drug peddler; his appearance and the close shots of the mannerisms embody the stereotypical dark skinned cartel drug runner. The film therefore positions the responder to engage in the dominant trends of valorization and question hegemonic racist aesthetics. Movies about the Mexicans in general and the Chicanos in particular are bound to be based on some levels of cultural hybridity given the fact that the very culture of the two countries are vastly intermingling and the fact that states like Texas and California were part of New Mexico until the last century itself. How is one supposed to demarcate the cultural originalities of the Texan drawl or the California way of travel, who is to say what came from where…the hybrid nature of post colonial culture therefore is the conceptual that can prise open rational modernist discourses that make secure a priori knowledge of the world of the other. Hybrid identity in fact is not fixed but an unstable constellation of discourses (Hayward, 2000). Thus syncretism and transculturalism are manifestations of hybrid cultural types. This refers essentially to the bringing together of many diverse cultural traditions into one per-formative text like a film or a play. The latter refers to a cross-fertilization effect between two cultures whereby traditional cultures migrate from one to another. The contact between the two cultures is mediated by the hybrid culture and refashioned in order to produce a third text. Interestingly, enough the hybridization of cultures as manifest in the three films discussed in particular, are focused primarily on the Mexican or the Spanish cultural ethos, if only to portray a part of it in negative light. One of the reasons for this might be that a depiction of the Hispanic culture would satiate the curiosity that the “mainlanders” have for how Mexicans are represented . This has not found open acknowledgement in the film industry but there is a definite acceptance of the manner of style and dressing, of Spanish as a language and the themes of Mexico in the work that the industry produces. So in Born in the East of LA, a Mexican, drives Volkswagen and cannot speak Spanish at all, in Frida, the painter can have the big American dream and yet she finds ultimate absolution and satisfaction in the single exhibition in her homeland. The nationalism that is portrayed in a production that is so Hollywood in every other sense, would probably be the greatest style of hybridization there could be. The music by Bruce Springsteen, an all-American icon in Born on the East of LA is another example of this hybrid production trend in US cinema. The hybridization of techniques is also with regard to technique, the long shots and the technique of the filming and editing like the music that aids narration in Born in the East of LA. Frida, embodies the strength of the female, with illusions to the blue bird gripped in a hand suddenly takes wing; a container of gold dust explodes after the scene of the accident. Hybridization is also inherent in the manner of the representation of unity that is inherent in Ramón’s statement in the end scenes of Salt of the Earth, where he says, “Now we can all act together.” Conclusion Therefore, the texts challenge the dominant cultures authority to ‘distort and fetishize’  the Mexican image. However, there are still many nuances of the representation of Mexicans in American films that need to be foregrounded. Evidence seems to suggest the notion that the biases that characterized these representations in the latter part of the 20th century have been removed but despite the progressive nature of the trend one cannot state with certainty that the aspects of stereotyping have been lessened. The Post-Modern thought in Hollywood has raised the significance of a critical representation of the Hispanic Mexican, but whether on not, the stereotypical Mexican image has been eradicated, is open to much subjectivity and further debate.  Reference: Alonzo, J, 2007-10-11 ‘The Mexican Presence in "Duel in the Sun’ and the American Western" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association, Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Philadelphia, PA Barker C and Galvasinski D, 2001, Cultural studies and discourse analysis: A dialogue on language and identity, pub, London Sage, Vol viii p192 Cortes, Carlos E, 1993, Chicanos in Film: History of an Image, pub, Chicano Cinema: Research, Reviews, and Resources. 1985, Ed. Gary D. Keller. Tempe, AZ: Bilingual Review/Press, pp94-108 De Mente B L, 1998, There a word for it in Mexico: The complete Guide to Mexico thought and action, pub, McGraw Hill Publication, pp214-219 Farell C, 2005, Michael Foucault, pub, Sage Publications, pp21-25 Garcia A, pub, Dialogo, accessed July 30, 2009, < http://condor.depaul.edu/~dialogo/back_issues/issue_6/casting_out.htm> Hayward S, 2000, Cinema Studies, pub, Routledge, pp271-27 Heide M, 2008, From Zorro to Jennifer Lopez: US-Latino History and Film for the EFL-Classroom, pub, American Studies Journal, Vol 51, Spring, 2008 Landis, D., Bennett J. M. And Bennett, M. J. (Eds.) .(2004) The handbook of intercultural training (3rd ed). Pub, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Neve B, 1992, Film and Politics in America: A Social Tradition, pub, Tripod Films Association, London, accessed August 26, 2009, < http://film.society.tripod.com/nzffs/bib-salt-of-the-earth.htm> Stacy L, 2003, Mexico and the United States, pub, Marshall Cavendish Books, pp326-327 Strozier R M, 2002, Foucault, subjectivity, and identity: historical constructions of subject, pub, Wayne University Press, pp79-83 Young R J C, The New Exotic? Postcolonialism and Globalization’ Conference, pub, University of Otage, accessed August 26, 2009, < http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/32310> Read More