A Million to Juan is a light hearted comedy starring and directed by Paul Rodriguez. In the film, Rodriguez’s character Juan, is an undocumented immigrant, who is struggling to obtain a green card. After his wife’s death, he is left to take care of his son Alejandro. As an undocumented immigrant, he has a hard time finding a stable job and has to resort to doing odd jobs to make ends meet. One day while selling oranges in a street corner he is approached by a man in a limousine, who hands him a check for one million dollars. Juan is free to use the money as he wishes with the condition he pays it all back in 30 days. This leaves him to figure out how to use the money best to build a better future for him and his family. Although the film is a comedy, it is evident that Rodriguez addressed many Latino stereotypes some being funny and some hurtful to the Latino community. In this blog, I chose to discuss the stereotype that Latinos are unintelligent and simpleminded. I also take a look at the stereotypical “spicy brainless Latina” played by Maria Rangel. In addition, I want to explore the idea that this film can very well be characterize as white savior film.

In this film Latinos are portrayed as being uneducated, making them appear as ignorant. Juan, who is the most thoughtful Latino in the film, aside from “The Angel” played by Edward James Olmos, who only appears a couple times in the film. Juan is not your stereotypical macho man who loves to party and drink, yet for some reason he is unable to make a smart decision when it comes to his future and the million dollar check. In the article, Latinidad and Masculinidad in Hollywood Script, whiteness in Hollywood is discussed. The article defines whiteness in terms of the characteristics that white people hold, for instance, being rational and orderly. The stereotype that Latinos are passionate and are unable to rationalize is well illustrated when Juan is feeling heartbroken. This is brought upon when Olivia breaks up with him, he gives up on his plan to own a business and returns to selling oranges on the street corner. Juan’s ignorance is also shown when he makes foolish financial decisions. For example, when Juan realizes the million dollar check is not fraudulent, the first thing he does is go on a shopping spree buying designer clothes and a luxury car. He is “too dumb” to think of the amount of debt he is accumulating.

The character of Anita, played by Maria Rangel, is one of the three major woman roles in the film. She plays Juan’s sexy Latina girlfriend. Anita is looking for a man that can take care of her financially, instead of working hard to provide for herself. She ends up breaking up with Juan because he can’t afford to give her the lifestyle she desires. A huge difference between Dolly Draper’s character, Olivia’s Smith, who is smart, hardworking, and selfless. Unlike, Anita who fails to see past Juan’s financial instability, Olivia Smith sees and nurtures his good qualities. Her look is dramatically different from Anita’s who wears an exaggerated amount of makeup, dresses is skin tight, provocative clothes that accentuate her curves. In comparison to Anita, Olivia’s make up is toned down and her wardrobe is simple and less provocative. She is the epitome of whiteness, in the other hand Anita is the perfect example empty-headed “Spicy Latina”.

One can make the argument that A Million to Juan in its own right, is a white savior film. As previously discussed, Juan is not capable of making a smart decision of how to utilize the million dollars to improve his life. This is until Olivia Smith, steps in to play a major role in Juan’s success at the end of the film. Olivia Smith is a smart, educated immigration worker, who sympathizes with the Latino community and assimilates to their culture. Before talking to Olivia, Juan goes on a shopping spree, opening credit in the most upscale, luxury stores in Los Angeles thanks to the million dollar check. After talking to Olivia, she reminds him that the money does not belong to him and he would need to pay back. She then gives him the idea to use the money as collateral to get a loan and invest in a business. Another example of Olivia coming to save the day, is when she sees the horrible living conditions Juan and rest of the tenants live in the apartment building. She immediately reports it, resulting in the landlord having to pay to fix what’s needed to better their living conditions. In the end, Olivia marries Juan and is now a successful man, thanks to her help.

Ultimately, A Million to Juan is a comedy created to suspend the audience from reality for 93 minutes and get few laughs. I believe the targeted audience were Latinos that can easily relate with the everyday struggles Juan faces. The problem is when examining the film in a more serious note, it’s hard to shake the notion that Latinos are being misrepresented by these simple minded characters and with Olivia Smith, we are reminded once again by Hollywood that we should strive for “whiteness”.

A Million to Juan

Ana S. Q. Liberato , Guillermo Rebollo-Gil , John D. Foster & Amanda Moras (2009) Latinidad and masculinidad in Hollywood scripts, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 32:6, 948-966, DOI: 10.1080/01419870802334549

This film, Girlfight is about a young woman’s struggle to fit in the mold of what society a woman should be in Brooklyn, New York. It is written and directed by Karen Kusama. It stars Michelle Rodriguez as the main character Diana Guzman. Its a coming of age film that exposes the main character’s deep and trouble feelings about her life’s struggles with dominating men like her father, Sandro Guzman played by Paul Calderon. Her mother committed suicide, and Diana thinks it was because she was trying to get away from her physically and verbally abusive father. Diana is on a road to self destruction by having a bad attitude, lack of self-discipline and getting into fights in school, getting close to being expelled from school. Her younger brother Tiny is forced to go to boxer training by their father Sandro because it will make him be more of a man and protect himself. One day when Sandro asks Diana to go pay for Tiny’s boxing lessons , she herself became interested in the sport but her father would never allow her to train. Diana takes it upon herself to steal money from her father to train. Her trainer Hector is reluctant to train her and tells her she can have better things to do time. Diana is insistent and he agrees to train her. He realizes that Diana has real talent and powerful punches and takes her training seriously. Boxing started to give Diana an outlet for her anger and rage, it also started to help her develop some  self-discipline.

The other trainers were against female boxers fighting in the ring, but her coach believed in her and put her to fight in the ring anyway, she even fought males and beat them. This encouragement and development of her self-esteem enabled her to start caring for other people and get into relationships with other boxers. Her father found out about her fighting and told her she was not allowed to box and she was no good at it. She physically fought her father and moved out of her home but not before confronting him about what he had did in the past to her mother. She returns to the ring and fights her boyfriend and fellow boxer, Adrian Sturgis. He did not want to fight her at first, but then realized he had to and when he did, she won him and this built more respect between them as fighters.

The adversity Diana had to overcome in the male dominated wold of boxing was commendable. She took on a challenge she believed she can beat, One of the first signs at the boxing gym she saw was “Boxing is Brain Over Brawn” . This was a sign to her that she would be able to fight these young men in the ring, and although she may not win them all, she was still a challenge and not a “wussy” girl. In Girlfight, Diana is a rebellious teenage girl, but she is also strong, both physically and mentally. She just needed positive role models in her life to bring out all the good qualities she had to offer and this film shows us that not all Latino women are poor, helpless victims. Latino women commonly have been in films as either weak victims or over sexualized vixens and it is very nice to see a woman be portrayed as strong physically as a man and be able to kick their ass and at the same time still show her softer side when she was with her boyfriend. In the reading Towards a Latinidad Feminista:The Multiplicities of Latinidad and Feminism in Contemporary Cinema, Baez describes that this film was compared to the male dominated film series, Rocky(pg 117). I do see some similarities in both films, however this story line is stronger and more powerful because no one expects a woman, especially a Latina to beat a man in the boxing ring. We think of women being the weaker species, but its not always the case as it is shown in Girlfight.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210075/?ref_=nv_sr_1

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Towards a Latinidad Feminista:The Multiplicities of Latinidad and Feminism in Contemporary Cinema (2007)  Jillian Baez

Director Gregory Nava creates a film about the mass violent killings of factory women workers in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, a maquiladora border. This drama is based on true events, and Nava was very interested in this story. He created a film that keeps you on the edge of your seat, anticipating what will happen next. The women in the film work in poor conditions, long hours, and inadequate wages. This film has a connection to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which contributes to the poor treatment of the factory workers. To learn more about the North American Free Trade Agreement, there is a documentary called Maquilapolis:City of Factories, which tells the story of how women in Mexico are being affected by this agreement.

http://www.pbs.org/pov/maquilapolis/film-description/

Lauren Adrian(Jennifer Lopez), is a reporter for the Chicago Sentinel, who is of Latino descent, but does not portray this. For example, she highlights her hair blonde. Editor, George Morgan(Martin Sheen), sends her to Mexico to investigate the homicides of women that work in the factories, and particularly a recent victim of rape and attempted murder. Lauren arrives in Mexico, and contacts a previous co-worker, Diaz(Antonio Banderas), and they join together to report on this story. Lauren quickly learns that the United States government, and the Mexican government play a corrupt role in these murders, and why they are going unsolved. Lauren risks her life for this story by going undercover, for the justice of the murdered victims and for Eva Jimenez, the victim that escaped. Lauren also addresses her true identity that she has blocked out for so many years, and states the truth, that she comes from a family of farm workers from Mexico. Laurens story never gets published, due to the fact of the Free Trade Act and its connection to the U.S. and Mexico for political and financial gain

This film focuses on strong Latina women, compared to many other Chicano films that emphasizes on the males, such as American Me. This film helps to break the stereotype that Chicano women are not just maids, and has a feminism aspect to it when portraying the Chicana and her true role in society. In Jillian Baez’s article, she discusses recent Latina films and how they have evolved from the 20^th century and its stereotypical roles, and how they are rising to more feministic roles, such as in the films, Selena, Real Women Have Curves, and Girlfight. She also states that these kinds of films are showing audiences what a real Latina woman is and her real feministic characteristics. Not the made-up stereotypic version that Hollywood has made money off of for so long.

I have three favorite scenes in this movie that relate to this class and this article about Latino stereotypes, and the role of Latina feminism in contemporary films. The first scene that I favor is when Lauren states to Diaz that she wants to go undercover as a reporter, and he returns with how are you going to be undercover, you have blonde hair. A later scene in the movie, Lauren is connecting with her true identity and colors her hair brown so she can go undercover, and look more like a Latina. One of the last scenes is Lauren telling Juan Batto, who she had a romantic relations with, and has also disappointed her, that he was a really bad ****. This film actually failed in the box office, and had many negative reviews. However, I feel that this film sent a message to viewers about the successful breakthroughs that Latina’s are having in Hollywood, and it tells the truth about the harsh acts that Latino/Latina encounter in Mexico.

Baez, Jillian Towards a Latinidad Feminist: The Multiplicities of Latinidad and Feminism in Contemporary Cinema Baez

www.imdb.com/title/tt0445935

http://www.pbs.org/pov/maquilapolis/film-description/

In the film entitled “Water and Power” Senator Enrique Murciano  known as (Water) and LAPD policeman Imdb Nicolas Gonzalez  known as (Power) both find themselves in the midst of a shakedown in the criminal underworld of Los Angeles. Water and Power happens to be the nicknames of the two Latino brothers who both climb the ranks to success in Los Angeles. However, their success came with a price which ended up being responsible for the suicide of one brother. Their father who worked for the Department of Water and Power once told them as young boys, quote “nothing is consistent in Los Angeles but the river”. Symbolically speaking, could it be  possible that their father was warning them that everything has the ability to change except water and power? Think about it, a river never stops flowing, neither does water and power who could not exist without the other.

Many Latina/o films fall into the genre of exploitation. For instance,  Latin/o/a film directors began to create movies that captures the lives of Latino/a communities in East  Los Angeles; and whether the stories were fictional or non-fictional several were filmed in  East Los Angeles which has been know for gang violence. In Latin/o/a cinema, many films contained sex, violence and romance which in part describes the term “Mexploitation” in Latin/o/a cinema. Exploitation films can be described as films that were primarily for economic purposes with the expectations of success by exploiting a trend.   For example, in the film “Machete”, directors used political scandals, bribery and  police corruption which mirror the generic conventions of exploitation in film.  According to the article entitled “The Border Crossed Us Here”, writer Zachary Ingle affirms that many Latina/o films have stereotypical plots usually centered around drug trafficking, scandal or corruption. In “Machete” Director Robert Rodriguez conventionally provides a film surrounding immigration, political compromise, sex and corruption fitting the genre of Mexploitation.

Gang violence mixed with police corruption is no stranger to the streets of Los Angeles and once again the plot in the movie “Water and Power”  highlights this truth. Nicholas Gonzalez who plays the role of Power, finds himself in hot water because of his use of drugs and the compromises he establishes with drug dealers. His inability to handle power becomes the basis for a dangerous web of corruption that spun out of control. Both brothers realized that something within their careers went terribly wrong as they faced the complexity and corruption that came along with their personal success and power. another example of film in Latin cinema that touches on exploitation is the movie entitled “Zoot Suit”. In Zoot Suit, director Luis Valdez uses a character named “Pachuco” to help identify and outline Hank’s (main character) sub-conscious; Hank was fighting for identity and acceptance in a hegemonic society. Once again, Zoot Suit, Water and Power, and West Side Story all share common themes surrounding identity, crime, and corruption.

The movie Water and Power depicts how Latina/o films portray two brothers. Both brothers were public role models who soon learn they have to answer to much bigger fixers and powerful leaders in the city. In many Latina/o films, whites are casts as ones having the money and power along with self-interests. Water and Power is well directed by Richard Montoya who was also the co-producer of the film. After watching the film I can basically see how power where corruption is involved can be the downfall of success. This was the case for two Latino brothers who grew up on the East side of Los Angeles.

Unfortunately their success came to a tragic end, as one brother commits suicide after realizing he was engulfed in the middle of a complex underworld combined with drugs. His brother, the “Senator” Enrique Murciano tried everything to save his brother, but it was too late. For example, “Water” went to his superiors asking for help. His intentions were to get  help for his brother hoping to spare him from further trouble. Ironically, instead of getting the help he needed for his brother,  “Water” was forced to get on his knees and wash the  feet of his superior.  The movie exploits two Chicano brothers whose characters are corrupted by sex,  greed, and violence.  The film also suggests how stereotypes in Latino/a cinema continue to convey sublime messages of corruption and negativity for Latin/o people. For instance, in the end, drugs and corruption basically destroys “Power’s” Imdb Nicolas Gonzalez ability to reason and his desire to live.

IMDB Water and Power

Imdb Nicolas Gonzalez

Enrique Murciano

Twitter @boyd_annielois3

As a teenager I can vaguely remember watching the George Lopez Show. This show is about a Chicano who works in a factory in Los Angeles and the trials and tribulations he and his family face. What was most memorable about the show was the use of Spanish, English, and Spanglish. This was not a regular occurrence as most shows can be considered Eurocentric. Upon examining an episode, I began to see the many stereotypes portrayed/perpetuated about what it is to be a Chicano living in the US. This episode in particular, and I am sure many other episodes, show the Latino as disrespectful, lazy, dumb, incompetent, joker who does not care for his health or the law.

The episode I chose to dissect goes by the name “George Helps Ernie See the Cellu-light”. This punny title sums up the episode nicely. Ernie is put into a predicament when he crashes the forklift at the factory. Ernie had recently gained weight. This increase in weight gave Ernie a bigger belly which obstructed the steering wheel on the forklift and led to him comically/ironically ram into the factory’s vending machine. After this occurrence George’s boss threatens to fire Ernie and only allows him to stay employed on the condition that he lose weight.

While the plot plays out there are many stereotypes portrayed/perpetuated throughout the scenes. Georges mother works at the factory where George is a Manager. This does not stop him from disrespecting his mother calling her “lazy” and a “bat” among other insults. In the opening scene he sees his employee/friend sleeping when he should be working, feeding the stereotype that Latinos are lazy. Ernie is also portrayed as an incompetent worker when he clumsily wrecks the forklift. Ernie exhibits poor self control determined by the amount of weight he has allowed himself to gain. George, although he is portrayed as a hard-working man who worked himself from the bottom to the top, he still answers to a white man who is of higher rank within the company. The way in which that white man speaks really contrasts the way all the other Latino’s speak in the series; while he speaks with good pronunciation and no accent the Latino characters speak comically broken English and George stumbles multiple times on words. It almost seems that every word spoken by the Latino actors is meant to be comedic.

I understand that this show is meant to be a comedy but it seems as though most of the comedy is based off of the many character flaws found in the Latino characters. This is all well and good but when there is a lack of representation of Latinos in television and the only thing you see about Latinos in television programming is how all these characters are flawed in some way, those images become imprinted into the American psyche. What is even worse than that is when Latino viewers begin to believe the programming and accept it as reality.

George Lopez Show

George Lopez Show: “George Helps Ernie see the Cellu-light”

The Mexican is a film about a pistol named “The Mexican”. The pistol, which is believed to have a curse, is highly sought out on the black market. Throughout the film, many locals recognize the pistol and each one recalls a different story behind it. Although they are different, they all possess similar themes. Ultimately, it is revealed that a poor gunsmith, made the pistol. It was supposed to be a wedding gift for a nobleman who sought to marry the gunsmith’s daughter. The protagonist, Jerry Welbach who played by Brad Pitt, is assigned to acquire the pistol for his employer Margolese, Gene Hackman. Months before, Welbach crashed into Margolese while he had a person tied up in the trunk. Since Margolese went to jail and it was technically Welbach’s fault, Margolese forced Welbach into a life crime. The film follows Welbach’s journey as he attempts to acquire the pistol. For the purpose of this blog, it is important to recognize the portrayal of Americans in a Mexican setting as well as the roles of Mexicans and Mexico.

When Jerry Welbach arrives in Mexico, he waits to receive his rental car. He is given a Chrysler but Welbach insist on renting something a “little more Mexican”. The customer service agent proceeds to speak in Spanish telling Welbach that he knows nothing about Mexico and Mexican culture except Speedy Gonzalez. He then gives Welbach an El Camino and warns him in Spanish that he going to get himself into a lot trouble in Mexico. Later when Welbach friend goes to Mexico to aid him, he also asks the customer service agent for something more Mexican. This film does a great job at identifying the notions that Americans have towards Mexicans and Mexico. Mexican and Mexican culture has hardly had its spotlight in American media. Speedy Gonzalez is perhaps the only icons that every American can identify to Mexicans.

The primary settings of the film take place in some of the most dilapidated parts of Mexico. These destitute settings not only make one impose characteristics on the characters living there, but it also reinforces the idea of widespread poverty in Mexico. Media has a compulsive tendency to portray Mexicans as violent criminals uneducated, drug dealers or extremely poor. Since the characters against Welbach possess some of these attributes, it is extremely easy to believe they are the bad guys and cannot be trusted. When one first views this film, it is inevitable to assume that the groups of Mexican locals trying to retrieve the gun are criminals. However, in the climax of the film, it is revealed that the group of men was actually doing it for an honorable purpose.

In one particular scene, a corrupt officer puts Welbach in jail after seeing blood on his passenger seat. The officer later releases Welbach but keeps the pistol. This perhaps is another highly believed stereotype. Although his actions were indeed corrupt, this is a reoccurring theme in films involving Mexican officers. Later, the cop sells the pistol the pistol to a local merchant for an undisclosed amount. Then Welbach and his assailant, Ted, try to retrieve the pistol. Upon entering, Ted immediately draws his weapon and proclaims “I no f*** around. Comprende? Gun. Gun. Loaded. Bang. Bang. You dead.” The merchant responds with disdain “Do you have a speech impediment?” There is a common idea to believe that Mexicans and Mexican Americans are incapable of speaking proper English. Again, these ideas are highly formulated through the Mexican representation in media.

(Sorry for the blurry video it was the only one I could find) This is the official story behind the curse of “The Mexican”.