Reconstruction 7.3 (2007)


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Robert Rodriguez's Mexicans in Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) / Deborah Shaw

 

Abstract: This essay, through a focus on Once Upon a Time in Mexico, asks whether Robert Rodriguez challenges well documented negative Hollywoodian representations of Mexicans, creating new characters for Latino and Mexican American audiences, or whether he merely re-presents well worn stereotypes taken from a Hollywood back catalogue of Westerns, and action-adventure films.

 

Once Upon a Time in Mexico and U.S. Culture

<1> Robert Rodriguez is the best known director of Latino origin in Hollywood; he has made much of this identity and can be seen to have invented a new sub-genre: the Latino action-adventure film, seen in his Mariachi trilogy, El Mariachi (1992), Desperado (1995) and Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). He has succeeded in aligning a Latino identity with an independent, marginal identity to attain a cult status, and the success of the first film in the Mariachi trilogy, made initially for only $7000 has made him a hero for budding young film-makers. [1] He has continued to develop his reputation as a cutting edge young director for a series of reasons. He has chosen to use high definition digital cameras in the making of Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and in subsequent films, and has become something of a spokesman for this form of movie making by loudly proclaiming its virtues in interviews; he makes films quickly, and relatively cheaply by Hollywood's standards; and he takes on many filmmaking roles himself. To give an example he wrote the screenplay, produced and directed Once Upon a Time in Mexico. He was also responsible for the production design, editing, and cinematography, and composed some of the score. [2] He also includes tips for young filmmakers on the DVD extras programs of his films, which send a dual message that anybody can make films and that he is a wizard at it. [3]

<2> One would expect the emergence of Rodriguez, the box-office success of the latter two Mariachi films and the appearance of a "Mexican" action-adventure hero to be a cause of celebration for all those interested in the ethics of representation and increased Mexican presence in Hollywood film. However, as will be seen in this study, the issue of representations of Mexicans in Rodriguez's trilogy, and in particular the latter two films is complex and problematic. This essay, through a focus on Once Upon a Time in Mexico, asks whether Rodriguez challenges well documented negative Hollywoodian representations of Mexicans, creating new characters for Latino and Mexican American audiences, or whether, decidedly, he merely re-presents well worn stereotypes taken from a Hollywood back catalogue of Westerns, and action-adventure films.

<3> Rodriguez himself has argued that his films play an important role in giving Latino audiences images of their own communities, and he claims to have created a Latino version of Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns. When answering a question on the influence of Leone on Desperado he states:

Sergio Leone movies were so larger than life and so big and so stylized - and they seemed to be so fun to make - that I wanted to try that and try it with Latin actors and Latin characters, which I hadn't ever seen growing up; I wanted to see that in an action film. And I had a feeling that if I didn't make it no one else would. So I went ahead and took the responsibility on to try and cast and use a crew of Latin talent to make a very universal picture - one that anyone can watch and enjoy but that for those who feel like they've been neglected in Hollywood, it's something exciting for us to see ourselves up on the screen. [4] (Interview with Robert Rodriguez)

While these words refer to Desperado, they are clearly as relevant to Once Upon a Time in Mexico. There are a number of interesting points in relation to representations that emerge from these comments; one is that Rodriguez accepts that the issue of representation is a responsibility that he has taken on even if he only explicitly refers to the issue of "Latin" presence rather than portrayal. Another is his juxtaposition of the terms "Latin" with "universal". This points to a potential contradiction; is it possible to make a film with characters for both a minority audience and mainstream audiences long fed on a diet of negative representations?

<4> In the few critical works available on Rodriguez's Mariachi films, writers agree that the character representations rely on stereotypes, however, they differ in their interpretation of the effects and intentions of these. Hector A. Torres believes that Rodriguez succeeds in creating positive images of Mexicans, and argues that the use of humor, parody, and intertextuality removes any ethical problems with reworked stereotypes. In his analysis of El Mariachi and Desperado Torres celebrates the creation of a parodic Mexican hero, and argues that the films "draw attention to one of the cultural and political transformations America is undergoing, its desire to be more at home with its cultura Latina" (2001, 169). In addition he claims that humor is at the root of the stereotypical representations:

In Rodriguez's cinematic universe, everyone is a greaser, Anglo and Mexican alike, and this is funny. This is dictated by the economics of low-budget filmmaking as well as other general economic considerations when you have a budget under $10 million. (Torres, 2001, 169) [5]

Torres makes an insightful point in his reference to greasers. However, there are two questionable assertions in his analysis. One is that the application of stereotype to a minority of North Americans as well as a whole cast of Mexicans is funny, and two that this use of stereotype is due to a low budget. The same stereotypes are used in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, with a range of low-life bar frequenters and Mexican drug kingpins and their henchmen, including the North American Billy (Mickey Rourke), and the psychopathic CIA man Sands (Johnny Depp), and this film had an estimated budget of $29 million.

<5> Two film reviews of Once Upon a Time in Mexico from Latin American national newspapers provide entirely opposing readings, and argue that rather than demonstrating a nation accepting a "cultura latina", the film is offensive in its representations of Mexicans. In the Mexican paper La Jornada, Leonardo García Tsao pans the film, critiquing its incoherent storyline, the acting quality (save that of Johnny Depp), and its laughable trio of Mariachis. In terms of the representation of Mexico, Tsao quips:

The vision of Mexico is so grotesque and reactionary in its abuse of clichés that the film could have been conceived by a crude gringo during an afternoon's drinking session in Tijuana. (Leonardo García Tsao, 2003, my translation) [6]

He adds that "in other times the film would have been prohibited for being insulting to our country." He is here referring to the fact that from as early as 1922 Hollywood films felt to contain insulting representations of Mexicans were banned by the government (Woll, 1980,17).

<6> In a review from the Argentine newspaper, La nación entitled "Far from the maestro Sergio Leone", Adolfo C. Martínez also roots the film firmly within North American prejudicial representations of Mexico despite the Mexican family roots of the director, and laments the director's reliance of stereotypes in the creation of the local (Mexican) baddies. He writes:

It's a shame that Robert Rodriguez, a director of much promise, remains trapped within the limitations of the most commercial productions of North American cinema. (Martínez, 2003, my translation) [7]

What is clear from these reviews written from a Latin American perspective is that, in contrast to Rodriguez and Torres's assertions, the images of Mexico are seen as foreign and coming from within a North American imaginary.

<7>It can be argued that rather than demonstrating a "desire to be more at home with its cultura Latina" (Torres, 169) the film plays to non-Latino-American audiences' fears and desires towards an imaginary Mexico. It is a film that is deeply rooted within their dual perceptions of Mexicans, Latinos and Latin Americans and is unconsciously responding to a U.S. cultural and political agenda. These dual perceptions are concentrated around the cool/hot Latin culture, and hostility towards illegal immigrants. Latin culture has become fashionable thanks predominantly to the music scene through the success of artists such as Jennifer López, Shakira, Carlos Santana, Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, and Enrique Iglesias, and due to the rise in popularity of salsa dancing, Latin rap and hip-hop music. [8] Key figures in television and film are also part of this sexy Latin vibe, with the popularity of stars such as Jennifer López (again), Penélope Cruz, Eva Longoria, Eva Mendes, Salma Hayek, and Antonio Banderas. It is interesting to note that a quick search on google images for the female stars revealed a pantheon of semi-nude promotional pictures, which illustrate the degree to which the Latin body, and particularly the female Latin body has been sexualized within North American culture. A number of the male stars are also sporting naked torsos in their images, and can also be said to represent the Latin lover, although they are sexualized to a lesser degree.

<8> In the same period, there, there has been a rise in hostility towards immigrants of Latin American origins, often fuelled by politicians seeking to make political capital by taking a harsh line on this issue. [9] Lisa Magaña and Robert Short (2002) in their article on journalistic reporting of Mexican (and Cuban) immigration during 1993-1999 note that "the mainstream media press characterizations of (Mexican immigrants) [. . .] were predominately of a pejorative nature" (85), with 72.5 percent of all articles producing negative representations (93). Press reports fuel misconceptions shared by many of their readers, that Mexicans take from rather than contribute to the U.S. economy, and that they come to the U.S. to take advantage of the welfare system (70). The authors demonstrate that both of these beliefs are unfounded, with the economy benefiting from the influx of Mexicans and with illegal immigrants unable to claim benefits (70). [10] The strong anti-Mexican sentiment in large sectors of the United States population often responds to fears of mass immigration with politicians outbidding each other in their stringent-anti-immigration proposed measures (Nuala Finnegan, 1999, 312). [11] There is no sign of this sentiment abating and in October 2006 George W. Bush signed a controversial bill to construct a 700-mile fence along remote areas of the Mexican border in the south west at an estimated cost of $1.2 billion to prevent further immigration ("U.S. Border Fence Signed into Law").

<9> Once Upon a Time in Mexico manages to take from both Latin cool and anti-Mexican discourses in its representations of Mexico and Mexicans within the film. The former is seen in the casting of hot "Latin" actors, Eva Mendes, Salma Hayek, and Antonio Banderas, all cast as Mexicans in the film (only Hayek is actually Mexican). [12] Latin cool is also reflected in the fact that the Mariachi is the hero of the piece, and as well as being a man of action, is a musician and a romantic. When he is not fighting, he mournfully plays his guitar as he thinks of his beautiful wife Carolina (Salma Hayek), killed by General Márquez (Gerardo Vigil), one of the baddies. The notion of Latin romance is reinforced by the casting of real life Hispanic crooner Enrique Iglesias as Lorenzo, one of the Mariachi musicians/action heroes. [13] It is also interesting to note that Rubén Blades was originally known as a popular salsa singer. [14] He is cast as one of the film's heroes known as Jorge FBI in the credits and playing an ex-FBI man in the film.

<10> Despite these romantic, heroic, and sexy images of Mexicans, the film is full of negative representations that would conform to pre-conceived ideas of unwelcome aliens for U.S. audiences. There is a large cast of bad guys that retain some of the stereotypes long associated with Mexicans in U.S. film, while the defining characteristic of all the characters, both heroes and villains, is violence. In this Rodriguez fits within a long history of types of cinematic representations. Orellana writing of representations of Mexicans as far back as 1911-1917 comments that for U.S. filmmakers, the Mexican is characterized by violence, commenting,"for them the Mexican is a villain capable of all kinds of criminal excess" (Orellana, 1993, 10). While the violence of the Mariachi himself is glorified as it is directed against evil elements, these evil elements are all Mexican, with the exception of Sands, the rogue CIA man. Violence has thus, long been the defining characteristic ascribed to Mexicans and Latin Americans within North American culture. In the words of Néstor Canclini:

Even when our people migrate extensively and a large part of our art work and literature is dedicated to thinking about the multicultural, Latin America continues to be interesting only as a continent of a violent nature, of an archaicism irreducible to modern nationality, an earth fertilised by an art conceived as tribal or national dreaming and not as thinking about the global and the complex. (Canclini, 1998 373-4)

In keeping with this analysis, Once Upon a Time in Mexico casts a foreign eye over Mexico and confirms American fears of a wild and violent, but also backward, exotic, and corrupt country.

<11> One of the ways in which this Mexico is recreated with Anglo-American audiences in mind is in the uses of Spanish and English. To use a cooking metaphor, Spanish is used as a seasoning for a Tex-Mex dish made by a North American chain like Taco-Bell. Often characters begin to talk in Spanish before rapidly switching to English; one example of this is seen when t he Mariachi speaks to co-Mariachi Lorenzo when they meet after a long absence; Lorenzo asks him in Spanish where he has been (¿dónde has estado?), to which the Mariachi replies, "muy lejos" (very far away); he follows this with the line ¿todavia chingando? (still fucking about?), before the two switch to English for the serious business, as the Mariachi tells Lorenzo "I'm here for my guitar." There are many other examples of Spanish being briefly used to create an "authentic feel", before the same characters switch to English.

<12> Meir Sternberg has created categorizations of uses of foreign language within literary texts in his influential article written in 1981, "Polylingualism as Reality and Translation as Mimesis", and while his analysis applies to literature, the categories can be useful for film analysis. [15] The use of Spanish and English referred to here comes under Sternberg's category of "selective reproduction", that is language which "takes the form of intermittent quotation of the original heterolingual discourse as uttered by the speakers" (1981, 225). The film also relies on verbal transposition, to use another of Meir's categories, that is, the suggestion of "polylingual or heterolingual speech in and through an ostensibly unilingual medium", with the impression that a foreign language is spoken created through the use of foreign accents. In the case of Once Upon a Time in Mexico a range of Hispanic accents is used in the English dialogue by the actors, with their nature depending on the actors' national origins. Thus, Banderas and Iglesias have Spanish accents when they speak English, while Cocuy and Hayek have Mexican accented English.

<13> The film can also be seen from a North American political point of view in its focus on the power of the individual hero to save a country .The notion that democracy can be safeguarded by a few good fighting men fits into a contemporary political landscape, when at the time of writing, the Bush administration has attempted (and is failing) to impose stable democracies in Afghanistan and in Iraq. The problems with democracy in Mexico have much more to do with a long running political system, than with rogue CIA men, or individual drug kingpins, as the September 2006 presidential debacle has illustrated. While many feel that the more left-leaning candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador won the elections, the victory was handed to his conservative opponent Felipe Calderón, with the opposition claiming electoral fraud. This has resulted in mass protests and even the establishment of a parallel administration led by López Obrador. Attempts to challenge undemocratic practices in Mexico have centred around collective peaceful action, rather than on individual action heroes or soldiers.

 

Stereotypes and Once Upon a Time in Mexico

<14> Recent studies of stereotypes in culture share the view of Ramírez Berg that, "the object of the game is not simply spotting stereotypes, but analyzing the system that endorses them" (1990, 297). This is an approach also taken by Shohat and Stam who argue that an:

exclusive preoccupation with images whether positive or negative can lead to a kind of essentialism, as less subtle critics reduce a complex variety of portrayals to a limited set of reified formulae. (1994, 199)

They also warn of critics' tendency to ahistoricism in that they pay insufficient attention to changes that come with cultural and economic shifts over time, and have often ignored, "the historical instability of the stereotype" (1994, 200). Nevertheless, Shohat and Stam also argue that analyses of stereotyping have yielded important insights into the relationship between power and oppression. Studies have revealed that they demonstrate systematic patterns of prejudice and "are not an error of perception, but rather a form of social control" (1994, 198).

<15> In a similar vein, the cultural theorist Homi Bhabha links stereotypes with power, specifically colonial power, and argues that they provide:

access to an "identity" which is predicated as much on mastery and pleasure as it is on anxiety and defence, for it is a form of multiple and contradictory belief in its recognition of difference and disavowal of it. (Bhabha, 1983, 27)

These conceptualizations are useful in assessing the function of stereotypes in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. It is important, following the lead of the above-mentioned authors not to simply list the stereotypes that Rodríguez employs , but rather to highlight the complexities of some of the issues and to place them within a cultural power dynamic. The film is written and directed by a Mexican-American, and, as has been seen, claims to be made with Latino audiences in mind. At the same time, it was produced by a major studio, with a relatively substantial budget and needed to appeal to mainstream audiences for both the U.S. and international markets. It is also worth noting that while these are representations forged from within a U.S. culture, these portrayals are circulated globally with the film's international release. Thus, other national audiences are being sold images of Mexico that will often replace any experiential knowledge of the country or people.

<16> Both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences are apparently addressed, yet representations fit within predominantly "Anglo-American" discourses. [16] The representation of characters such as Barillo and Cocuy (played by Rodriguez's cousin Danny Trejo) speak to a cultural anxiety towards their "foreign" neighbours, and follow traditional audience expectations of screen Mexicans. Likewise, the heroes of the film conform to exotic and romantic notions of Latins, as will be seen. With regard to the former category, Barillo is the classic movie bad guy, a combination of the greaser/bandito long present in Hollywood films, in terms of his violence, involvement in illegal activities, treachery, and barbaric behavior (see Berumen, 1995, 25, Woll, 1980, 7-10,106-108). Yet, he is also an embodiment of the Latin American drug Kingpin found in more contemporary media representations such as Traffic (2000), Blow (2001), and the television series Kingpin (2003).

<17> Barillo is entirely dehumanized, and is no more than a heartless psychopath. He will kill any one who crosses him and tells his reluctant right-hand man Billy to chop off the teacher's hands when he makes a humorous remark that displeases him. It is worth adding here that Billy is an American crook who is in hiding in Mexico, however, there are frequent references to his distaste at the violence he is expected to carry out for Barillo, suggesting that Mexican barbarism is out of the league of most American criminals (but not Sands as will be seen). Torres notes that Barillo has roots in the real-life drug kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes of the infamous Juarez cartel. [17] However, despite some similarities, Rodriguez does not root his representations in reality, and the fact that he is played by Willem Dafoe strengthens this point. [18] In an interview Rodriguez confirms that his decision to cast a non–Mexican or even Spanish speaking actor comes from a North American tradition of filmmaking.

In great Scarface tradition I cast a non-Latin actor to play a Latin character. I remember that Willem called me and said, "You really want me to play a Mexican drug lord? I don't speak Spanish and I don't play the piano." I said, "Don't worry about it, I'll show you a couple of tricks." Sure enough, the second day on the set Willem was playing the piano and speaking Spanish. ("Once")

This typifies the director's belief that all is possible within his brand of filmmaking; however, he does not mention the fact that Dafoe's Spanish has a marked American accent. Without questioning the acting abilities of Dafoe, he is not Mexican and any Spanish speaker will note his American accent on the few occasions that he is given Spanish dialogue. This is another point that endorses the argument that this is a film seeking to appeal to a mainstream U.S. audience who will recognize Dafoe, but are unlikely to notice the problems with his Spanish pronunciation.

<18> Cocuy, named after the devil or bogeyman in Latin American folklore (Lankin) is another Mexican bad man, also surrounded by an entourage of nameless killers, who are picked off by the Mariachi. He is the evil counterpoint to the beautiful hero, mirroring him in a distorted way with his poetically ugly face, his long hair, and dark leather jacket, a hard man's version of the Mariachi's suede black jacket. He clearly borrows from the figure of the greaser in terms of lack of moral integrity and treachery (he betrays his U.S. paymaster Sands to Barillo), his status outside of the law, and the fact that he kills anyone who stands in his way, reveling in his badness. However, he is also a comic book creation, and his comic book features are reminiscent of those of the misunderstood underworld figure of Marv (a heavily made up Mickey Rourke) in Rodriguez's graphic novel-inspired feature Sin City (2005). [19]

<19> The reworking of stereotypes seen in the Mexican bad-guys is partially obscured by the fact that the heroes, are also Mexican. The Mariachi and his small band are "sons of Mexico", to use the Mariachi's words to the President, when asked who he is. The Mexican President, played by the prolific Mexican actor Pedro Armendáriz, is a noble man who attempts to battle the corruption and violence that surrounds him. The other heroes are the pure hearted, humble guitar makers.

<20>Nevertheless, while a heroic character, the Mariachi is constructed from the material of previously seen Latin screen types, which Rodriguez recycles and adapts. He is a fusion of the Latin lover, the gay caballero, and the musical Latin entertainer . Much emphasis is placed on the Mariachi as lover as well as fighter. [20] There are a number of close ups of him playing his guitar as he remembers his partner Carolina. In one sequence he lovingly strums his guitar and there is a cut to a flashback of the Mariachi and Carolina in bed; he looks on her lovingly and sings to her as she half-sleeps. This moment is interrupted by the arrival of Márquez and his troops and the two manage to escape in true action hero-heroine style all to a salsa soundtrack. Carolina is truly the Mariachi's ideal partner as she is an object of desire as well as being an action-heroine who can accompany him in his exploits. The flashback ends with the two of them jumping away from a trademark Rodriguez explosion as the bus they have escaped on crashes into a gasoline truck. There is then a cut back to the Mariachi who comes out of his reverie, visibly shaken. The film connection between the Latin lover and the Latin action-hero is seen in the fact that his actions are initially motivated purely by revenge for the murder of Carolina.

<21> The Latin action-hero in Rodriguez's films has its roots in the figure of the gay caballero from the 1920s, embodied in the characters of the Cisco Kid and Zorro (see Keller 1994, 60, and Curtis, 1998). These Anglo-American filmic characters were Robin Hood-style popular heroes. Zorro would typically fight for the Mexican poor against a brutal mestizo villain (Berumen, 1995, 9). The Cisco Kid according to Keller:

stressed the amorous side of the gay caballero, a charming brigand who prized a beautiful woman as a gourmet savors a vintage wine. (Keller, 1994, 62) [21]

Rodriguez indeed cites Zorro as the original source for his Latino hero. In an interview he states "I was thinking I could try to create a Latin hero, kind of along the lines of a ZORRO or something like that" (Connor n.d). It is also worth noting that in his two most recent incarnations Zorro was played by Antonio Banderas, with Banderas coming to stand for the Latin lover/fighter in contemporary Hollywood. [22] His Mariachi in Once Upon a Time in Mexico has both the romantic elements and the physical prowess of the gay caballero, and he even comes to embody the social crusader seen in the various incarnations of Zorro. The fact that el Mariachi's fight for revenge transforms into a fight for the people of Mexico and the spoils of battle are given to the guitar making villagers, reinforces the image of the caballero who fights for the simple folk against evil Mexicans.

<22> In addition, Rodriguez's Mariachi updates the figure of the musical Latin entertainer popularized in Hollywood film in the 1930s and 1940s. Woll and Miller (1987, 246) note that this character came to prominence in the war years when Hollywood was attempting to create more sympathetic Latin characters during the time of the Good Neighbor Policy. Hollywood was responding to an interest in Latin American economic markets and to the popularity of South American music and dance. The musical Latin American character for a time replaced the Latin bandit with a new stereotype. For Woll and Miller "the Latin might no longer have been a bandit, but now he was holding a guitar and crooning the melodies of his native land" (1987, 247). [23] It can be argued that the popularity of contemporary music by Latinos and Latin Americans in the U.S. is itself an updated version of the samba craze that seized America in the 1930s and 1940s.

<23> Rodriguez's Mariachi is a killer crooner who started life as a musician first and an action-hero second. In his genesis the Mariachi in the first film of the trilogy becomes a killer because he is mistaken for a killer. He initially acts in self-defense, but the film sets the scene for his transformation in the two subsequent films. The theme of revenge is established as El Mariachi ends with the hero's girlfriend callously shot by the film's villain, el Moco. Using artistic license the Mariachi's hand that was shot through by el Moco is restored by the final film. [24] What is disturbing is that as the Mariachi develops throughout the trilogy and grows in super-hero status he becomes more violent and by Once Upon a Time in Mexico the identities of the musician and the professional killer are entirely merged. Throughout the films Rodriguez creates links between guitars and guns to highlight this fusion of identities. At times guitar cases store a full arsenal of weapons, at others a guitar. In the opening scene of Once Upon a Time in Mexico Bellini tells Sands a mythical version of the Mariachi's power; in his story of a bar fight between our hero and Márquez's men the Mariachi's guitar functions as a weapon. Later on the three Mariachis prepare to take on Márquez's forces holding guitar cases. Lorenzo's guitar case shoots fire at his enemies, while Fideo's (Marco Leonardi) acts as a remote control bomb. In all ways then there is a self-conscious fusion between the musician and Latino action-hero.

<24> Female characterizations are less prominent in the film with the focus on masculine heroes and villains. In the case of the characters of Carolina and Ajedrez (Eva Mendes), Rodriguez does, to a degree, move away from old Hollywood filmic types. Neither fit neatly into the categories of the "cantina girl", often a dancer in a cantina who falls for the Anglo hero (Keller, 1994, 40), the vamp, or the virginal self-sacrificing beautiful señorita (Keller, 1994, 42-48). They are, in line with their Hollywood predecessors, beautiful, dark (but not indigenous looking) alluring objects of male desire, and Ajedrez certainly has elements of the Latin spitfire, the dangerous erotic and exotic Hispanic woman. Nevertheless, in the creation of these characters Rodriguez borrows more from recent Hollywood films and hispanizes the action-heroine/action-villain of recent U.S. films such as Lara Croft (starring Angelina Jolie), and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), which features Demi Moore playing an action villain to contrast with the three heroines.

<25> While Rodriguez takes his Mexican characters from a long cast of North American types, mixing and matching along the way, he does something very different with his North American characters. It is well documented that negative Hispanic stereotypes have often been used to create a sense of Anglo-American superiority (see Berumen, 1995, Orellana 1993, Woll, Ramírez Berg, 1990 among others). When writing of the effect of Hispanic stereotypes in Hollywood film Ramírez Berg claims that they reinforce "the cleanliness, sobriety, sanity, overall decency and moral rectitude of the WASP" (Ramírez Berg, 1990, 292). However, this all changes in Once Upon a Time in Mexico where North Americans no longer save the day, protect poor Mexicans from bandits or civilize Mexicans, as they have done in earlier Hollywood films set in Mexico.

<26> The principal American character is Sands, played to his camp extreme by Johnny Depp. Sands is a caricature of a CIA man gone bad. He wears comedy disguises, such as false moustaches, and he sports one T-shirt with an "I'm with stupid" slogan, and another with the acronym C.I.A boldly emblazoned on it. Humor is also seen in Sand's dialogue. At one point he asks Cocuy if he is "a Mexi-CAN or a Mexi-CAN'T?" a joke, which was used on the promotional advertisements for the movie. His dialogue throughout is ridden with clichés, seen in this introduction he gives of himself:

My name is Sheldon Jeffery Sands. I work for the Central Intelligence Agency. I throw shapes. I throw shapes, I set them up, I watch them fall. I'm living la vida loca.

Critics may be tempted to see political commentary in the American who sees Mexico as his playground and gets involved with a coup against an honest President, attempts to get rich from his scheming; however, although Sands clearly inverts heroic U.S. types, he is an individual comedic creation who represents himself. As the well known film critic Edward Buscombe (2003) notes he is seen working entirely on his own and there is no suggestion of any government involvement in his activities.

<27>He is another fantasy comic book character who cannot be seen to be representative of the C.I.A. as a whole or U.S. foreign policy. This is reinforced by the fact that one of the central good guys, Jorge FBI, is a retired FBI man. When speaking of Sands' genesis Rodriguez again cites Leone as an influence, saying that he wanted his character to be like one of the epic characters of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Applebaum). He explains that Sands began life as a drawing of a man with no eyes:

I did it (created characters) by drawing. I drew the man with no eyes and the man with no face [Willem Defoe's character], and I thought, "OK, now we're getting into very iconic territory." That was important because a guy with a guitar case full of guns is incredibly iconic. (Applebaum)

Rodriguez approaches his filmmaking much like a comic book artist, and his characterization borrows from the comic book and film tradition. [25] He says that Batman movie villains influenced the character of Sands, and they are more interesting than the hero (Applebaum). While he does not state which villain, he is presumably thinking of Jack Nicholson's Penguin in Tim Burton's Batman (1989). To emphasize this Depp plays Sands with the excess and camp of Nicholson's Penguin. As the film progresses he becomes more and more like a comic book character fused with one of Sergio Leone's heroic villains. He has computer generated bloodied holes behind his shades after Barillo has had his eyes gouged out. He fights to the death taking on Barillo's men despite his blindness dressed like a fetishist cowboy in black leather waistcoat and black jeans and shirt, with two gun holsters, all to a score that is a pastiche of Morricone, as Buscombe (2003) has noted.

<28> Depp's character is an extreme version of a tourist in Mexico, from the way he dresses to the fact that he can behave the way that Rodriguez's bad guy Mexicans do with none of the checks imposed by the "civilized" U.S..Throughout the film he murders anyone who irritates him with complete impunity. For example, he murders the cook of his puerco pibil (a well-known Mexican dish of slow-roasted pork) as it was just too good. What would be pathological behaviour from an American CIA man becomes normalized in a Mexico where violence is seen as part of everyday life. [26] This representation plays into another reading of Mexico by North Americans; that is of a tourist land where they can indulge in behaviour that would not be sanctioned at home. While clearly, this is an exaggerated representation and tourists are more likely to indulge in alcohol and sex than murder, this still speaks to a popular image of a land without limits and controls, where Americans can give free reign to their desires.

 

Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Generic Borrowings

<29> Rodriguez thus creates an American villain from within the comic book genre and recycles and reinvents Mexican stereotypes from a range of filmic periods. However, Rodriguez is as eclectic in his borrowings from American film genres and genres popular in the U.S. as he is in his borrowings from types. In his film there are influences from swashbucklers (seen in his Zorro-style hero), comic book film adaptations, the Spaghetti Western, and the Hong-Kong action movie. Spaghetti Westerns have already been mentioned, but to summarise, from these he takes larger than life iconic heroes and villains, secondary greaser types, a Morricone inspired soundtrack, state of the art weaponry, highly stylized and violent fight sequences and a pre-modern setting. He also takes the title of the film from Leone, clearly an overt reference to Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). Buscombe (2003) notes that Rodriguez is not interested in the political left wing leanings of many Spaghetti Westerns and is most interested in a plot focused on revenge and greed. While there is parody in the use of the stylistics and characterizations of excess, this is, in fact a form of homage, rather than subversion or critique.

<30> In addition, Once Upon a Time in Mexico is highly influenced by John Woo's Hong-Kong action films, and can be seen to fit within the generic conventions of new brutality films as defined by Paul Gormley (2005). [27] For Gormley such films are "concerned with the dynamics of sadism and masochism in the viewing experience" (193). Another characteristic of the new brutality film are the films' approach to characterization. In his analysis of Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) he argues that the character of The Bride "is not individuated in the sense of psychological depth or realism. The character works more as an emblematic figure of revenge" (192). This could have been written for the character of the Mariachi, and again demonstrates how Rodriguez is working within a particular strand of North American filmic culture. [28]

<31> Gormley uses Bordwell's analysis of Woo's Hong Kong films to show how the new brutality films eschew traditional Hollywood editing processes in the representation of violence. Previously films cut away from violence to progress the narrative; however, in contrast, Woo follows a "pause-burst-pause" rhythm with the focus on violent images and the narrative secondary to the violence itself (2005, 191).

<32> Rodriguez has made no secret of his admiration for Woo, and has said:

When I saw my first John Woo movie, I thought, "Hey, I want to be Chinese." Not that they're any different from me, it's just the way he portrayed the heroism on screen. They could have been green for all anyone cared. And that's what I want. I want people who watch this movie to go, "Hey, I want to be Latino." (Salem cited in Torres)

He is here referring to Desperado, but the comments apply equally to Once Upon a Time in Mexico , and provide an insight into how Rodriguez conceives and creates his characters. He applies broad ethnic brushstrokes, with little concern for specificities. He does not mention the specifics of a Hong Kong identity, just subsumes them within the label "Chinese"; likewise, his Latinos are one people, and are represented as either heroes or villains, with no national cultural identity beyond the stereotypes already mentioned.

<33> In terms of visual style and narrative structure, Once Upon a Time in Mexico has a number of the hallmarks of a John Woo film such as Hardboiled ( Laat sau sen taan, 1992 ). The narrative of the film is built around a series of violent set pieces, elegantly choreographed, and all with a high body count. There are many scenes involving explosions and fires from which the heroes emerge relatively unscathed, but which kill the villains; there are a number of two handed gunfights, and the weaponry is fetishitically sophisticated, with guns of an exceptional and unrealistic power. The films share a cool hero who as well as single-handedly defeating the villains is also a musician. Inspector Yuen (Tequila) (Chow Yun Fat) plays the clarinet in a jazz bar, while el Mariachi is a virtuoso guitar player. Both films also have a cast of psychopathic villains who take sadistic pleasure in violence and murder. In addition, and following Bordwell's analysis, Woo's use of the "pause-burst-pause" rhythm can be applied to the film. Quiet scenes of a melancholic Mariachi mourning Carolina or of Sands' scheming are followed by long and violent fight scenes. The highly contrived and anti-realist plot is little more than a pretext to stage the series of elaborate action sequences that make up the main body of the film.

 

Mexico in Once Upon A Time in Mexico

<34> It has been established, then that both through the use of generic conventions and characterization the Mexico of the film is seen through a foreign lens, despite Rodriguez's Mexican roots, and belongs to a Hollywood tradition of an imaginary Latin America. The director has said of the trilogy and of Once Upon A Time in Mexico in particular: "none of these movies are real. It's not a real Mexico . . . it's still a fantasy film" (Brian Z, 2003). Because the film is rooted in fantasy and eschews realist modes of representation does not mean that the stereotypes are of less concern. As Shohat and Stam have said the fact that "films are only representations does not prevent them from having real effects in the world" (1994, 178), even if these effects are impossible to measure accurately. It is, they argue, 'veristic idiocy' to suggest a complete separation between representation and 'the real' (p.179). While viewers can find escapism in a fantasy Mexico built from a pile of intertextual bricks, images of erotic and dangerous Mexican women, romantic and heroic Mexican men, and a host of violent and evil greasers, all these elements serve to reinforce images which bear no relation to their neighbors, both those in the U.S. and those south of the border.

<35> This lack of relationship to the real Mexico has been criticized by Buscombe, who states:

The one source from which Rodriguez doesn't borrow is the real Mexico, with its deep-seated economic inequalities and social injustices, its political struggles between a landless peasantry and a powerful entrenched oligarchy. You'd have to be a real independent to take on that. (Buscombe, 2003)

When considering Rodriguez's Hollywood Mexico it is worth developing Buscombe's analysis and considering in what other ways the film ignores present day Mexican realities. Rodriguez's Mexico is not urban, industrial, or in any way modern and does not suffer from pollution (unlike the present day Mexico City), or enormous inequalities of wealth. Only old towns and pueblos are seen, imbued with the beauty of its colonial architecture with most of the film shot in the pretty colonial town of Guanajuato. There are no shanty towns, and no images of a wealthy business class. It is interesting to note that the majority of contemporary Mexican films have an urban setting and are frequently set in Mexico City, while most American films of the same period set in Mexico locate the action within a rural, traditional setting. Films such as The Mexican (2003), Traffic (2000), and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) all feature rural or small town Mexico, while many of the most internationally successful Mexican films of recent times such as Amores perros (2000), Violet Perfume: No One is Listening (Sistach, 2001), Battle in Heaven (2004), and Duck Season (2004) are set in Mexico City.

<36> This responds to another desire of U.S. audiences to see Mexico as not just a lawless and violent place, but also a romantic, "more authentic" other, far from the depersonalized realities of modern consumerist cultures. This is embodied in the other heroes of the film, the nameless guitar makers, the "pueblo mexicano", pure-hearted Mexican villagers who are artisans. The fact that Banderas' Mariachi is first seen "for real" (after a mythical introduction to him as a man of legend) among the guitars and the guitar makers in his home village helps to establish him as folk hero, again in the style of Zorro. From the point of view of Mexican film, the focus on the city speaks of a desire to present a modern, urban nation, an image which is entirely at odds with Rodriguez's vision.

<37> The Mexico of the film is used as an exotic backdrop; providing a colourful setting on which to stage the violence, in what can be described as action-adventure tourism. To provide one example, the denouement of the film takes place amid the backdrop of the Day of the Dead celebrations. Impressive shots of enormous papier maché masks of the dead held up by those taking part in the procession and other colourful images of Mexicans celebrating the festival are rapidly cross cut with Márquez's coup preparations. The scenes merge a little later as the coup enters the site of the presidential palace where the Day of the Dead procession is taking place. While this makes for a wonderful backdrop in some of the most impressive scenes of the film, the spiritual and cultural significance of the Day of the Dead for Mexicans is entirely undeveloped, and death is reduced to the picking off of all of the bad guys by the Mariachi heroes. [29]

 

Conclusions

<38> Rodriguez's film contains a number of seemingly conflicting images of Mexicans and Mexico that have been explained here by exploring dominant images of Mexicans and Latinos within the U.S. cultural and political landscape. These can also be said to stem from both historical and contemporary intertextual representations and are taken from a broad range of generic influences. The imaginary Mexicans in Once Upon a Time in Mexico are rooted in fears of violence and crime that have come with immigration and negative media reporting, while also conforming to images of the erotic other: the sexualized and romantic Latin lover, both male and female. Rodriguez's Mexico is a tourist land where Americans can eat fine food in restaurants, be free of restraints and indulge in excessive behavior. In keeping with the tourist vision, it is also a romantic, "more authentic" other, far from the depersonalized realities of modern consumerist cultures. What is most disturbing about Rodriguez's representations is that, on all levels, he reinforces images of violent Mexicans, creating enjoyable spectacles of violence.

<39> Rodriguez may have asserted his pride in his Latino identity, however, his mainstream Mariachi films bear no relation to either Mexican or Latino experience. A number of filmmakers have made films that deal with these experiences, many most effectively, including Ken Loach (Bread and Roses, 2000), Peter Sollet (Raising Victor Vargas, 2002), Tommy Lee Jones ( The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada 2005) and Gregorio Nava (Mi familia, 1995 Bordertown, 2006). Rodriguez, however, prefers to remain in the realms of a fantasy Mexico that conforms to Anglo-American audiences' prejudices and fantasies.


Works Cited

Applebaum, Stephen, "Robert Rodriguez: Once Upon a Time in Mexico", <http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/09/19/robert_rodriguez_once_upon_a_time_in_mexico_interview.shtml> (5 February 2006).

Bhabha, Homi, "The Other Question - The Stereotype and Colonial Discourse". Screen, . 24, no.6 (1983): 18-36.

Brian Z, "An Interview with Robert Rodriguez", (July 25, 2003) <http://uk.filmforce.ign.com/articles/430/430561p1.html> (7 February, 2006)

Buscombe, Edward, "Border Control", Sight and Sound (October 2003), http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/10 (10 Februray 2006).

Connor, John "Interview: Robert Rodriguez, filmmaker", http://www.exposure.co.uk/makers/inter1.html (8 February, 2006).

Curtis, Sandra R., Zorro Unmasked: The Official History (New York: Hyperion, 1998).

de Orellana, Margarita, "The circular look: the incursion of North American fictional cinema into the Mexican revolution: 1911-1917", in John King, Ana López, and Manuel Alvarado, eds., Mediating Two Worlds. Cinematic Encounters in the Americas(London: British Film Institute, 1993) 3-14.

Eisenstadt T. A. and Thorup, C. L., Caring Capacity versus Carrying Capacity: Community Responses to Mexican Immigration in San Diego's North County (Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, San Diego: University of California, 1994).

Flanagan, Martin, "Process of Assimilation: Rodriguez and Banderas, from El Mariachi to Desperado," Ixquic: Revista Hispanica Internacional de Analisis y Creacion, 3: (December 2001) 41-59.

García Canclini, Néstor "Remaking Passsports: Visual thought in the debate on Multiculturalism",in Nicholas Mirzoeff, ed., The Visual Culture Reader (London and New York, Routledge, 1998) 372-381.

García Tsao, Leonardo, 'Por una puñeta de dólares' <http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2003/10/31/09aa1esp.php?origen=opinion.php&fly=2> (8 Februray, 2006).

Gormley, Paul, The New Brutality Film: Race and Affect in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema, (Portland: Intellect, 2005).

Hutchins, John, "Robert Rodriguez of Sin City Interview" <http://www.ugo.com/channels/filmtv/features/sincity/robert.asp> (9 February, 2006).

"Interview with Robert Rodriguez" <http://www.godamongdirectors.com/rodriguez/faq/sony.html> (5 February 2006).

Lamkin,Elaine, "Grindhouse, Sin City 2: Star Danny Trejo" <http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/feature/211> (8 February, 2006).

López, Ana, "Unspeakable images Are All Latins From Manhattan? Hollywood, Ethnography and Cultural Colonialism", in Friedman, Lester D.,ed., Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American Cinema (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991) 404- 424.

Magaña, Lisa, Short, Robert, "The Social Construction of Mexican and Cuban Immigrants by Politicians" Review of Policy Research, Volume 19, issue 4, (December 2002) 78-94.

Martínez, Adolfo C. "Lejos del maestro Sergio Leone" <http://www.lanacion.com.ar/Archivo/Nota.asp?nota_id=530081> (7 February, 2006)

Martinez , Jose, "Interview with Robert Rodriguez", Creative Screenwriting, (Winter, 1995): 15.

Negrón-Muntaner, Frances, Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture ( New York: New York University Press, 2004).

"Once Upon A Time In Mexico", Scr(i)pt (September/October 2003) <http://www.johnnydeppfan.com/interviews/script.htm>.

Padilla, Felix M., "Salsa: Puerto Rican and Latino Music", The Journal of Popular Culture, volume 24, issue 1 (June 1990): 87-104.

Paz, Octavio The Labyrinth of Solitude: Life and Thought in Mexico, transl. Lysander Kemp (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985)

Perriam, Chris, "Two Transnational Spanish Stars: Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz", Studies in Hispanic Cinemas, volume 2, issue 1 (September 2005): 29-46

Ramirez Berg, Charles, "Stereotyping in Films in General and of the Hispanic in Particular", The Howard Journal of Communications, vol. 2, no. 3 (Summer 1990): 286-300.

Salem , Rob, "Perpetual 'Latin Lover' Turns Dangerous Hispanic Hero gives Desperado a 'different kind of heat,' says director," The Toronto Star, final ed: (25 August 1995) D1.

Shohat, Ella and Stam, Robert, Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Mass Media, London and New York: Routledge, 1994.

Sternberg, Meir, "Translation Theory and Intercultural Relations", Poetics Today, volume, no. 4, (Summer-Autumn, 1981): 221-239

Torres, Hector A., "Chicano Doppelganger: Robert Rodriguez's First Remake and Secondary Revision", Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies, 26, no. 1 (Spring, 2001): 159-70.

Torres, Hector A., "Once Upon Time in the Southwest: Castration Anxiety and Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi and Desperado",  <http://swsemester.unm.edu/resources/RobRod_Trilogy.doc> (7 February 2006).

"US Border Fence Signed into Law", http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5408148.stm, (5 October, 2006).

Woll, A. L. The ¸Latin Image in American Film. Revised edition (Los Angeles: Latin American Center Publications, University of California, 1980).

Woll, Allen L and Randall M Miller, Ethnic and Racial Images in American Film and Television: Historical Essays and Bibliography (New York: Garland, 1987).

 

Notes

[1] Buscombe (2003) notes that, in fact, Columbia spent another $1 million on the film before it was released. [^]

[2] It is worth noting with regard to this that that he does in fact, have many assistants in all departments as the credits indicate, contrary to his stated claims, which may be of interest for critics and proponents of auteur theory to discuss. [^]

[3] Inside Troublemaker Studios and Ten Minute Flick School: Fast Cheap and in Control (2004) are two short films that Rodriguez directs and which feature among the DVD extras of Once Upon a time in Mexico (2004). [^]

[4] He reiterates this point in an interview in the journal Creative Screenwriting (1995) when asked, 'do you have a problem being tagged as a Hispanic director?' He replies, 'it's not a bad thing. It doesn't interfere with business. For Hispanics it's important to have role models. It's something for them to latch onto. I know it was important for me to claim someone who had Spanish blood in them as a role model. It's good for people." (Jose Martinez, 1995, 15). [^]

[5] Business Data for Once Upon a Time in Mexico (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285823/business). [^]

[6] La visión de lo mexicano es tan grotesca y retrógrada en el abuso del lugar común, que la película pudo haber sido concebida por un gringo zafio durante una tarde de borrachera en Tijuana. Leonardo García Tsao (2003). [^]

[7] Es una pena que Robert Rodriguez, un realizador que prometía mucho, quede entrampado en la grilla de las producciones más comerciales del cine norteamericano. [^]

[8] For a history of salsa music in the US, see Padilla, 1990, for a study of the Latino influence on American culture, see Frances Negrón-Muntaner (2004). [^]

[9] This issue is dealt with by Lisa Magaña and Robert Short in their article, " The Social Construction of Mexican and Cuban Immigrants by Politicians" (2002). [^]

[10] The authors note that 'there are approximately five million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., making this population less than 2% of the total U.S population' (79). Of these just over half of all undocumented immigrants originate from Mexico (ibid.). [^]

[11] See also Eisenstadt and Thorup, cited in Finnegan. [^]

[12] Antonio Banderas is Spanish and Eva Mendes is a Cuban-American born in Miami. [^]

[13] Iglesias' father is the famous Spanish singer Julio Iglesias and his mother, Isabel Preysler is from the Philippines. He spent his first years in Spain but moved to the US when he was 8. [^]

[14] For more on Blades' role within the history of US salsa see Padilla 1990. [^]

[15] I am grateful to Carol O'Sullivan for this source. She uses it in her paper, "What do they think this is, a foreign picture?: Representing language difference in popular film", delivered at the Film and Media Research Group at the University of Portsmouth (2005). [^]

[16] 'Anglo-American' is a catch-all term and clearly non-Hispanic audiences are much more multi-cultural than this term suggests. However, I am referring here to the political and social establishment and mainstream. [^]

[17] See Torres, http://swsemester.unm.edu/resources/RobRod_Trilogy.doc, p. 28 of article. [^]

[18] Carillo Fuentes was reported to have died during plastic surgery, however, many believe that he faked his death and is still alive. [^]

[19] Sin City is based on Frank Miller's comic book, and he is credited as co-director of the movie. It is also worth mentioning that Rodriguez worked as a cartoonist before becoming a director. [^]

[20] Woll (1980, 26) notes the fact that the Latin lover was rarely associated with Latin Americans in the 1920s, with Latin used most frequently to refer to the Italian Rudolf Valentino (1980, 23). It was not until the late 1940s and early 1950s that Latin Americans became associated with the Latin lover through the careers of Fernando Lamas and Ricardo Montalbán. [^]

[21] The first Zorro film was made in 1920 and was based on Johnson McCulley's short story 'The Curse of the Capistrano'. Social justice was at the root of the story as Zorro frees the people from the tyrannical Spanish governor (Keller, 1994 61). [^]

[22] For more on Banderas in Hollywood, see Perriam, 2005. [^]

[23] See also Ana López's chapter in Friedman for exotic representations of predominantly female Latin Americans in the war years (1991, 404-424). [^]

[24] The Mariachi is still wounded in Desperado and cannot play his guitar properly. [^]

[25] See Hutchins for an interview with Rodriguez relating to Sin City in which he discusses the similarities in directing and drawing cartoons. [^]

[26] His words are: 'It's so good that when I'm finished, I'll pay my check, walk straight into the kitchen and shoot the cook. Because that's what I do. I restore the balance to this country.' Rodriguez includes his recipe for puerco pibil in the DVD extras. [^]

[27] Films he includes in his analysis are: Falling Down, Boyz N the Hood, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. Gormley argues that new brutality films, and in particular films of Quentin Tarantino 'mimed the affective power of black culture in the white cultural imagination' (190). Rodriguez can be said to adapt this approach and assigns the sign of violence to his Latinos. [^]

[28] Tarantino and Rodriguez are known to be extremely close in terms of a working relation, how they approach filmmaking, and influences. The two are currently co-directing the horror film Grindhouse (2007); he appeared in Rodriguez's From Dusk til Dawn (1996) as an actor and wrote the screenplay, and had a small role in Desperado. [^]

[29] For a discussion of the significance of the day of the Dead for Mexicans see the seminar discussion by Octavio Paz in his Labyrinth of Solitude, 1985). [^]

 

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