Cinema has often been said to be the art of our times. “Motion pictures have exercised a profound and steadily growing influence upon society and how it is reviewed since the beginning of the twentieth century” (Noriega, 3). As stated by Dr. Chon Noriega who is considered one of the hundred most influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business Magazine, ultimately shows that motion pictures are one of the most powerful mediums that influence people’s perceptions of an ethnic group. Latinas along with other minority groups suffer from damaging stereotyping in the present day. Popular misconception can move the masses to believe what is erroneous. Then one can ask, does the truth lie in motion pictures being the reason for these misconceptions? Can studying the portrayal of Latina women in motion pictures in recent years and assessing the types of roles they take have a deeper purpose? Does an answer between stereotypes and the characters they portray exist? Filmmakers continue to redefine the Latina image with every movie made, making for characters such as the maid and the Latina temptress aid in providing movie watchers with negative stereotypes.
Hollywood movies are intended for pure entertainment value, the goal of which is to give movie watchers a few hours of harmless fun. This is not only untrue, “all stories have a point of view and an implicit meaning” that make a film have a deeper purpose. (Reyes, 3) By definition, a cliché or stereotype is “based on a self evident truth is misleading because it is one dimensionally repetitive and, more importantly, fails to find a person’s humanity” (Reyes, 5) such as, “clichés and stereotypes, in the end, are damaging because they use partial truths to give illusionary weight to the racist’s argument” (Reyes, 4). From the beginning of the 20th century Latinas and Hollywood have come together for a showdown that challenges stereotypes in an arena called motion pictures.
Filmmakers have approximately ninety minutes to introduce movie watchers to characters and establish each person’s identity to draw out a story setting. Then they must work through the plot to reach a conclusion. The Latina body has long been an ambivalent presence in the US cultural imagination, “alternately delighting, enticing, and instructing popular audiences” (Powers, 3) in such a way that Hollywood has taken notice. Filmmakers create characters to portray the ideal Latina woman by enhancing physical features. An example of such a character exists in the 1995 movie, Academy Award winner Marissa Tomei in The Perez Family, “had to gain 18 pounds and wear a bronzing product because the producer did not think she was dark or plump enough to play a Latin prostitute” (Isais, 1). Perhaps filmmakers were unable to find a Latina actress who would play the part accurately, one wonders. The audience who watches the film seldom discovers the type of mindset that producers provide while on a movie set. Hispanic magazine named it “the worst movie of the year” (Hispanic, 1995) which coincidentally made the list of best movies realistically portraying Latinos in 1995. In contrast, the same year Mi Familia won the magazine’s highest accolade for “best picture of 1995’ (Hispanic, 1995) by portraying several generations of a Mexican-American family not as stereotypes, but as an ordinary household with dreams and successes, as well as pain and heartbreaks. The irony in comparing the two films is that my Mi Familia was nominated for an Academy Award for best makeup, which was utilized to give the non-Hispanic actors authenticity.
Marlene Dermer, executive director of the Latino International Film Institute and Director of the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival, explained how behind-the-scenes prejudices are very much relevant to not putting successful Latinas on screen. She elaborates on the multiple Oscar winning film A Beautiful Mind, in which Russell Crowe plays John Nash who has a wife played by Jennifer Connelly. In the film she is inaccurately portrayed, because John Nash’s wife “was actually from El Salvador” (Wood, 3) never identified throughout the entire film with any Latina characteristics. Only resorting briefly to a handkerchief that is commonly sold to tourists visiting El Salvador as the sole reference. A step forward would have been accomplished if Jennifer Connelly character would have identified herself as an MIT physics major, Salvadorian, and the wife of a Noble Prize winner in economics. Movies have the power to change truth, “they take the real and make it into something else right before our very eyes…they give the reimagined, reinvented version of the real” (Hernandez, 23) This makes for Hollywood interpreting what it wants to be truthful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TunfILJGD9c
Through out the decades, Hollywood has perpetuated the image of the luscious Latina and imprinting her as having a sole job as a maid. At a 1994 screenwriter’s conference, Oscar-nominated Latino producer David Valdes responsible for such films as The Green Mile, Unforgiven, The Rookie and the upcoming film starring Brad Pitt called The Assassination Of Jesse James, claimed that, “I have seen a lot of Latino scripts come across my desk, but I have yet to see one I could justify taking to my people and produce.” (Wood, 5). This makes the case for Latinas to continue the cycle of stereotypes due to limited roles. In George Hadley-Garcia’s book Hollywood Hispanos he best sums up the problem of stereotyping Latinas in movies when he says, “Hollywood has not explored the world of Hispanics who are rich, educated, middle class, who are gay or bisexual or who do not speak Spanish…these people and stories have not been written yet and probably will not be written” (Hadley-Garcia, 4). Latino writers in Hollywood account for “less than 1 percent” (Geffner, 6) according to the Writers Guild of America. Thus making the case for Latinas to be portrayed poorly due to non-Latin writers relaying there first hand experiences to a script. While scripts continue to be written they do not get made, for they are taunted with the loom of never getting done or relying on the stereotype for success.
Through out the decades, Hollywood has perpetuated the image of the luscious Latina and imprinting her as having a sole job as a maid. At a 1994 screenwriter’s conference, Oscar-nominated Latino producer David Valdes responsible for such films as The Green Mile, Unforgiven, The Rookie and the upcoming film starring Brad Pitt called The Assassination Of Jesse James, claimed that, “I have seen a lot of Latino scripts come across my desk, but I have yet to see one I could justify taking to my people and produce.” (Wood, 5). This makes the case for Latinas to continue the cycle of stereotypes due to limited roles. In George Hadley-Garcia’s book Hollywood Hispanos he best sums up the problem of stereotyping Latinas in movies when he says, “Hollywood has not explored the world of Hispanics who are rich, educated, middle class, who are gay or bisexual or who do not speak Spanish…these people and stories have not been written yet and probably will not be written” (Hadley-Garcia, 4). Latino writers in Hollywood account for “less than 1 percent” (Geffner, 6) according to the Writers Guild of America. Thus making the case for Latinas to be portrayed poorly due to non-Latin writers relaying there first hand experiences to a script. While scripts continue to be written they do not get made, for they are taunted with the loom of never getting done or relying on the stereotype for success.
Actress, singer, dancer, and star of the Academy Award winning movie West Side Story Rita Moreno is one of the most accomplished Latinas in the entertainment world. She is the only Latina who has won an Emmy, Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award. With such high accolades, one would argue that she is the paragon of a Latina actress. In Luis Reyes and Peter Rubie’s book Hispanics In Hollywood, Moreno is quoted as saying, “We played roles we were given no matter how demanding they might have been” (Reyes, 34) which makes for Latina actresses to take a role that is given to them instead of showing dissatisfaction. Throughout numerous American mainstream films, Latina women have portrayed a recurring character of the infamous maid. Rita Moreno puts it best when she once said, “It’s really demeaning after you’ve won the Oscar to be offered the same role over and over again” (Reyes, 31). This exemplifies the attitude of Hollywood sticking to a character that best shows the Latina ability to act. An example of such a character common in mainstream films is the maid.
Incorporating an image of a Latina domestic worker in films seems to occur in mainstream films so seemingly that movie watchers accept it as to associate Latinas to work as maids. An example is 1996 Romeo and Juliet, starring Leonardo Dicaprio where a Latina domestic worker that is referred to as the nurse. Her sole function is to “take care of Juliet by giving her baths, making her bed, running errands, and being the go-between for Juliet and various other characters” (London, 4) in effect, this character can be seen as Juliet’s personal maid. More importantly instead of the English pronunciation of Juliet’s name becomes “one of the stereotypical markers of Latina women in film, their accent” (London, 7) attaching an immediate stereotype that Latina women can be recognized by their form of speech. Which began to appear in the 1930’s when the audio component was becoming the norm in films. Instead of the English pronunciation, the “nurse pronounces j like an h, which is standard practice in spoken Spanish” (Wood, 7) immediately making the audience identify her character by her pronunciation. Even if there is no visual cue, “many Americans could recognize the accent as foreign” (Wood, 3) because it sounds unfamiliar to English speaking Americans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTvSWrnR6KA
Another example, is in the 1991 movie Father Of Bride, the rich family that Steve’s Martin daughter is marrying into has a Latina maid who is seen briefly in two scenes. Her importance to the plot is “simply to showcase how nice her employers are and to demonstrate their wealth” (Hernandez, 17). This shows the relative unimportance of a Latina character that is portraying a maid who has no lines in the movie. Similarly in 2002 Maid In Manhattan starring Jennifer Lopez, plays a maid in a ritzy hotel who dreams of management, but fears her ethnic background will keep her from realizing her ambitions. Interestingly, according to Variety “both Sandra Bullock and Hillary Swank were considered for the role” (Variety, 2002). One can ask one self why Hong Kong Director Wayne Wang saw more potential in Jennifer Lopez playing a more accurate depiction of a maid who happens to be Latina. Such a character as a maid provides a sharp contrast to the other highly utilized character; the Latina temptress.
Despite the many advances that minorities have made in the cinema in recent years, “Latina actresses still take on the roles of the dark skinned lady” (Reyes, 18) and other stereotypes with strong sexual connotations from the induction of cinema. It is often debatable whether or not the roles of the Latina women have undergone dramatic changes since the days of early cinema. Latinas “have traditionally been forced to accept a narrow range of roles that depict them as a sexual commodity or as a comedic and senseless individuals” (Noriega, 36) both of these roles where common throughout early cinema. Latina actresses allowed themselves to be typecast into demeaning roles because of a lack of better opportunities for them. By occupying these roles, “characters were only perpetuating stereotypes they were given the impression that it is acceptable to be portrayed in this way” (Hernandez, 43). Dolores Del Rio became the first Latina superstar that had numerous roles to play. Because the Mexican actress, “fit the mold of an exotic…she was casted in trendy films” (London, 9) gave way for her to become a superstar and a box office success. In the 1933 film Flying Down to Rio there is a scene in which there is a white women at the table that states “what do Latin women have below the equator that we don’t have” Such statement shows that Dolores Del Rio was able to promote the Latina woman as a desirable image that continued to be sought after.
In 1933, Photoplay magazine conducted a search for “the most perfect feminine figure in Hollywood…the winner was 28-year-old Mexican actress Dolores Del Rio” (Wood, 9) Latina actresses were hardly thought to be at the height of glamour in Hollywood in the 1930’s. Instead of moving beyond the stereotypical representations of Latinas, Hollywood continued to reinforce the same images. In a recent article in the New York Times calls “Latino Style Is Cool. Oh, All Right: It’s Hot” (La Ferla, 2) clearly utilizing the same notions that where relevant eighty years ago. In terms of films, “these representations create conditions for mass audiences to visually consume assumptions of Latin culture that may not be accurate” (Noriega, 24) this makes the audience begin to believe the image is real.
Rita Hayworth whose real name was Margarita Cansino is another actress whose popularity increased, “only after she received a Hollywood transformation in the 40’s” (Wood, 8) this made for an actress to personify sex appeal justifying an image that Latina women can attain. In the The Hispanic American Almanac, Nicolas Kanellos writes that it wasn’t until Hayworth married businessman Edward Judson, “who helped her see the Hispanic image limited her to work as a cinematic loose woman,” (Kanellos, 7) that she immediately changed her image. She was transformed from a “dark lady to an auburn-haired love goddess” (Kanellos, 2) which makes for a consistency between Del Rio and Hayworth symbolizing a sexual persona. The desirability of Latina women to be stereotyped as overtly sexualized characters persists because the need for it exists.
Numerous recent films present the Latina continuing the stereotype that existed in the tradition of Del Rio and Hayworth. Latina women become the object of our consciousness or unconsciousness mindset. Applying Laura Mulvey’s idea that, “going far beyond highlighting a woman’s to be-looked-at ness, cinema builds the way she is to be looked at into the spectacle itself,” (Mulvey, 9) makes for Latina women to be objects for cinematic gaze and sex appeal. These two characteristics are immediately apparent in the 1997 film Fools Rush In starring Salma Hayek and Matthew Perry. Hayek wears a loose white top that hangs off the shoulder, “appears in snug mini-skirts, heels, and revealing tops” (London, 8) Furthermore, she meets Perry’s character and sleeps with him after their first date. In this film Hayek is portrayed as the seductive, fun, and highly sexualized Latina. Interestingly, this same image of the Latina temptress is documented all through cinema. According to Margarita De Orellanas article, “The Circular Look”, “Mexican women were frequently portrayed this way in American films from 1910-1940’s” (Orellanas, 11). She argues that, “generally speaking, the beautiful señorita sports a long dark hair and long eyelashes which underscore her capacity for seduction with a look…her shoulders are bare, and she wears Spanish folk costume with tight waist and raised breasts.” (Orellanas, 4). The need to provide a Latina character continues to be relevant today, as it did 80 yrs ago.
Mexican actress Salma Hayek, who has been nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Frida, “faced difficulty breaking into Hollywood as a Mexican with an accent and without working papers” (García, 3). Hayek found her disadvantage as a step to crossover from daytime soap operas to mainstream Hollywood films. Perpetuating the stereotype of the luscious Latina in 1995 film Desperado playing opposite of Antonio Banderas. Indeed, she continued down the path in making a cameo in 1996 film From Dusk Till Dawn, appearing in a seductive dance number in where she wears a bikini, a headdress, and an albino boa constrictor. Hayek epitomizes her sexuality while visually exaggerating her persona as being Latina. The Mexican actress created a stunningly provocative “moment in the film with barely a line of dialogue” (García, 5). In which she feeds the perception of Latina women being desirable. That is why the movie Frida took more than ten years to make “no studio was interested in the project…we shopped the project around exhaustively around town” (Wood, 4) says Nancy Hardin producer of Frida. If it was not for Hayek’s contribution of producing and starring in the movie it would have been difficult for the film to be successful. This film provided the Hollywood studio system to have the ultimate control over a portrayal of a Latina stereotype, or a historically significant Latina character. Hayek has said “executives at the studios have a hard time giving me roles of smart women” (Menard, 2) this makes for executives to rely on stereotypes for box office success.
Hollywood continues to promote the image of the Latina stereotypes, but as actresses like Hayek succeed in serious roles like Frida, more Latinas will reap the dividends of that success. Hayek has also according to MGM chief operating officer Rick Sands, “will be running her own production label called Ventanazul…which will acquire, develop and produce Latin themed material” (Variety, 2007) in the hopes for portraying Latina women minus the stereotype. Another example is Puerto Rican actress Rosie Perez who decided to become a documentary filmmaker “out of frustration” (Variety, 2007) also takes the lead to make her appearance behind the camera. This currently reinforces that Hollywood only responds when it is beneficial to box office success. On the contrary a recent example is when Gill Botello set up meetings with top Hollywood producers, she states, “they would say to my face, Latino stories, Latino Actors just don’t sell in entertainment” (Botello, 1) making a stance of ending stereotypes. Armed with up to date information from the Academy of Motion Pictures Art and Sciences, Botello demonstrated how stereotypes contribute to poor attendance. Botello responded to the producers “That’s interesting, because over the last fifteen years the Latino projects that have been placed in theaters that didn’t give us much of stereotypes such as maids have made over $250 million” (Botello, 3). This gives relevance that change is eminent upon accepting the stereotypes of women.
The Premier Weekend Club is a national non-profit organization that mobilizes public awareness of films that go against the stereotypes of Latin representation in films. A recent article from the Premier Weekend Club was published on a Latin magazine claiming that, “40 million Latinos in the United States spend close to $400 billion on goods and services and $1 billion at the box office a year” (Wellburn, 4) which makes for Latinos to be key players in the evolution of the stereotype. Upon the statistics the truth is concealed that the Latina stereotype is revamping. Salma Hayek says, “I think things have changed very little for Latin women in Hollywood “ (García, 7) there is much more that needs to be done to change the stereotype of Latina women in mainstream Hollywood films. According to the Screen Actors Guild, “white actors account for more than 76% of roles…while those of Latin origin are given 4.9% of roles” (SAG, 2003) Currently Latinos make up “47% of L.A. county” (SAG, 2003) yet are so vastly underrepresented in the entertainment industry. The first step in fixing the problem is to put Latina women in positions of influence through out Hollywood. Only then can Latina women obtain control of who is casted and what films get made.
Movie watchers have always resorted to theaters for answers, “the celluloid of the Hispanic stereotype is almost as old as the film industry itself” (Noriega, 17) Only by showing that recent Hollywood films become filters for interpreting the early 20th century do stereotypes exist for Latina women. Whether it was Dolores Del Rio, Rita Hayworth, Marissa Tomei, Jennifer Connelly, or Salma Hayek, Latina women have been portrayed in Hollywood films because of the need for actresses to polish their craft. The truth often twisted by, “capturing a moment out of context and presenting it as common reality,” (Noriega, 14) best exemplifies that although movies teach us partial truths, they also hold the ability to manipulate the truth.
A new generation of Latina women is following the footprints of the previous Latina actresses that have paved the way. Previous Latina actresses have overcome the existing obstacles of ignorance and stereotypes. Numerous talented Latinas are producing films and entertaining audiences, which is a unique form of storytelling that will change movie watching as the 21st century approaches. The entertainment industry will realize that Latina actresses are moving away from the stereotypes and into roles that convey truth. Latina actresses are moving away from acting and into directing and running their own production companies. They are no longer waiting to perpetuate the stereotypes for survival. Hollywood has begun to adapt to Latinas that are taking leadership positions in precluding the stereotypes. Indeed Hollywood is learning a lesson from the eighty years of creating stereotypes. The lesson is success derives from telling a compelling story to a broad audience. By giving the audience the ultimate ability to decide what is a success, there is a strong hope that Latina representation in cinema will advance.
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