Imagined Borders:
Locating Chicano Cinema America/America
In the book “The Ethnic Eye” chapter, “Imagined Borders: Locating Chicano Cinema America/America” by Chon A. Noriega, he describes the conflicts marks underlying conditions for the production of Chicano film and the critical discourse on them. Noriega explains the location of Chicano Cinema to the level of historic-graphic operation. He goes on to talk about Coco Fusco’s writing on Black and Latino media in the late 1980’s. Fusco’s writing talked about historical moments on “Minority” intellectual or cultural production. Noriega explains that Fusco flip flops on her position on location and this “dual location” became a methodology in which she reads against her main purpose of oppositional thinking and “minority” texts. This point makes Noriega question the function of “Chicano Cinema” within different categories which are Nationalist, and American, Pan-American to compare them in “Chicano Cinema”. Noriega also illustrates that Chicano Cinema developed not just in Hollywood and in New Latin America but through avant-garde traditions within Chicano cultural population. Noriega tells us that during the Chicano Civil Rights Movement a few Chicano students used this form of art to express how they feel. Noriega illustrates that the first Chicano film was “I Am Joaquin” (1967), and that it helped the Chicano Movement to represent the culmination of an intertexual dialogue between the movements rural and urban visionaries: Luis Valdez and Rodolfo Gonzales.
Great observation about how film is used as a canon to challenge systems of thought rooted in patriarchy. Creating a space using art to challenge Chicana/o stereotypes is by far necessary- we must tell our stories-we are not the passive people who cannot govern our own arts/literature. Like Valdez, the Chicano filmmaker, we can create spaces where Chicana/os can become a part of industries that allow “us” to create our own images and characters that do not continuously perpetuate the typical stereotypes of Chicana/os life experiences. Art, which is directly associated with producing films has been crucial when it comes to representation, especially considering Chicana/os are underrepresented at all social life. However, the images that portray Chicana/os in the stereotypical roles such as maids, mothers/wives, factory workers, gardeners, gang members, high school drop outs, pregnant teens, or in violent male roles (machismo), is rather deceiving, perpetuating a false dichotomy about Chicana/o experiences. Not all Chicana/os fulfill the negative or exaggerated stereotypes- it is very dangerous to implant these media images in people’s minds, as people begin to believe and fulfill them-whether conscious or unconscious.
Hi Amy,
I like the observation you have made on Noriega because you discussed the conflicts that Chicanos film production have to go through. He explains the conflicts in the cinema of the Chicano culture in the film industry. I think it very important to discuss how of the “minority” as intellectual. I like how you incorporate how Noriega discusses on the how the Chicano movement is uses as a way to express how one feels. It allows us be able to create our on experiences and be able to other of how we feel. It is important for us to discuss how we can create impact through our expressional language. I find it important to tell others about we chicano’s are minorities but are intellectuals.
I really liked that you mentioned the way Chicanos used their expressions in the way they told their stories in film, like in I am Joaquin. I know minorities, like Chicanos have faced many problems when trying to produce content especially when it comes to getting their films distributed for large audiences to see, but i think its huge that Chicanos keep making content expressing themselves and pushing the boundaries so hopefully one day we can have more Chicano films out there
Hi Amy,
I really liked your response and observations on Noriega’s work. Sometimes we forget about the importance of the entertainment industry in the development of important movements such as the Chicana/o one in the 1960s. For a lot of people, it may be hard to believe that ‘regular’ folk were able to develop different strategies to spread their message around. Chicana/o cinema has allowed the community to express struggles and successes to a personal perspective which have made them more relatable for upcoming generations.
Amy,
I agree with you response in regards to the reading. There is always a conflict when a minority group tries to create something that will benefit their culture, and people. Even within the poem and film I am Joaquin, several Chicanos then and now greatly identify with that poem. This is a way in which Chicanos can see that they do matter, and are important. However, because we are a “minority” group it is often time taken for granted and the work people do is not recognized creating a conflict. I liked the whole idea of avant-garde mentioned within the Chicano cultural population.