Beverly Hills Chihuahua is Disney movie that was released in 2008, and as you will see it is not only packed with Latino and white stereotypes, but it is also similar to the movies Born in East LA, and  Real Women Have Curves.  It is about a spoiled chihuahua from Beverly Hills named Chloe (Drew Barrymore).  Chloe’s owner is a rich successful white woman named Viv (Jammie Lee Curtis).  Viv is called away on business and she has her niece Rachelle (Piper Perabo) watch Chloe. Rachelle is a typical young adult who is very irresponsible, and according to Chloe can’t even hold a job.  Rachelle ends up taking Chloe to Mexico and loses her.  Chloe goes through a lot in this movie but in the end she is rescued with the help of admirer Papi (George Lopez) who is also a chihuahua. His Character is a little love struck Latino, who is always trying to get Chloe’s attention.  Papi’s owner is Viv’s landscaper, Sam (Manol Cadona).

From this brief description you can already see the movie has it’s typical stereotypes.  Viv a rich white woman from Beverly Hills, her niece is an irresponsible rich kid, her landscaper, or as Rachelle, and Chloe refer to him and Papi “just the gardener” is….you guessed it Latino!

As I previously mentioned the movie is similar to Born in East LA. In fact the plots are almost identical. Chloe’s character is much like Rudy’s (Cheech Marin).  Chloe is technically Mexican American, since she is a chihuahua from Beverly Hills, and Rudy is also Mexican American.  Both of these characters end up trapped in Mexico and their only goals is to get back home, and they face many struggles in trying to get back. While in Mexico Chloe is placed in a kennel with other dogs, and they begin to speak to her in Spanish, just as the passengers on the bus did to Rudy when he was being deported. Both characters say they do not speak Spanish and the rest of the group seems appalled.  In the kennel one of the dogs asks Chloe “don’t you speak any Spanish?” She asks, “why would I?” And he replies “hello because you’re a chihuahua mija!!”  This is a stereotype that many Latinos face, it is assumed because they are Latino they should know how to speak Spanish even if they were born and raised in America.  To add to that stereotype it is sometimes assumed Latinos do not know how to speak English. This is also shown in both movies. In Beverly Hills Chihuahua Rachelle tells Sam to get Papi, but she assumes he does not speak English, and she attempts to to talk to him in some form of her own Spanglish. Sam does not correct her but later it is revealed he speaks perfect English.  Rachelle gets upset that Sam “made” her look stupid by letting her think he only speaks Spanish and he points out she didn’t need any help from him.  This also happens to Rudy a few times in the movie, for example when he speaks to the border patrol and when he first meets Jimmy. The white characters are shocked he speaks English so well. 

The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit is a film based on a play written by Ray Bradbury.  Bradbury was born in Illinois, but he grew up in East Los Angeles.  Growing up in East Los Angeles influenced the plot for his play.  Bradbury stated he grew up around Mexicans in East Los Angeles, and witnessed so much poverty. In fact people were so poor it was not uncommon for family members, includnig his own, to share clothes. This is where he came up with the plot for the play (John Cribbs, 2011).  In 1974 Stuart Gordon, the director of the film saw the play and wanted to make it a movie, but this did not happen for many years.  In 1998 Disney decided to produce the film, but it was given a budget of five million dollars and was released straight to DVD.

The film takes place in Boyle Heights,  and is about five men who form a friendship when they all decide to pitch in $20 each to purchase a shiny bright white suit which they all can wear.  While it seems odd that five grown men would have to each pitch in $20 to share a suit they have good reason. For starters none of them had $100 of their own to spare, in fact two of the men were facing eviction, and another was homeless. Never the less with the last bit of money each of them had they purchase the suit, which they refer to as “the wonderful ice cream suit.” This is no ordinary suit and it is thought to make the dreams of the wearer come true. While this is not the claim of the shopkeeper, through out the film you see how their dreams, which are nothing extraordinary are fulfilled.

The first night each man gets to wear the suit for one hour…

The first to wear the suit is Dominguez (Esai Morales). Dominguez, is the stereotypical Latino who wants only to be recognized bay all the women in town, he gets his wish and a parade of women follow him while he sings and plays his guitar through Mariachi Plaza.

Next up is Villanazul (Gregory Sierra) who is a poet and has a passion for politics. His dream is for people to listen to his poetry and his political views. While he is wearing the suit he attends a rally where a political figure is speaking, the crowd parts and the speaker steps off his soapbox, and Villanazul takes his place.  Villanazul does not speak, yet the crowed applauds.  Then the crowd is about to disperse, but Villanazul begins to recite a poem, telling the crowd they need to cross “the river” meaning the LA River, and get out of East Los Angeles.  While he is giving his speech scenes are shown of him crossing the LA River, and then the crowd following him into Down Town Los Angeles, which could symbolize the more affluent part if Los Angeles. This scene reminded me of a some of the movies we viewed in class, such as Real Women Have Curves, Born in East LA, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua  (my second blog post).  It reminded me of these movies because in each of them there are scenes where the Latinos come together and empower each other to embrace who they are, as opposed to assimilating completely into the American culture.

Martinez (Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez aka Clifton Collins Jr.)  is next to wear the suit, and his dream is to be noticed by crush.  He goes to her house and stands outside asking the suit to bring the girl to him.  She finally comes out and notices something white and bright she puts on her glasses and sees that it is Martinez.  She is not only in awe of his suit, but also loves his white smile “with so many teeth.” She agrees to go out with him when he gets to wear the suit again in six days. One interesting fact about Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez is that he was actually born Collins, and he used Gonzalez Gonzalez to pay respects to his grandfather Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, who was a also an actor.  This is interesting to me because Clifton did the opposite of what many Latino actors do, he changed his name to sound more Latin as opposed changing to sound more American.

Gomez (Joe Mantegna) who also falls into a stereotypical Latino male, because he is a conman, wears the suit next.  Technically he has no dream, but his intention is to runway from Los Angeles and run off to El Paso with the suit.  When he is on his way to the bus station he realizes he is in the wrong and decides to go back to his friends. Mantegna was the only one out of the five who was not actually Latin in real life, and I must say his acting and accent did show this.  His acting reminded me of West Side Story his accent was overly done, and he was also painted in “brown face.”  Mantegna was in the original play, so perhaps that is the reason he was cast in this role.

Last to wear the suit is Vamanos (Edward James Olmos) who is the homeless. Vamanos is cleaned of all his filth and placed into the suit. This character posses many stereotypes of Latino males, he is wild, clumsy, smokes drinks and loves to eat greasy tacos.  For fear he will ruin the suit he is the only one who is given as set of rules to follow.  He is told not to fall down, not to smoke, not to drink, not to eat greasy tacos, and not to go see fat Ruby (Liz Torres) at the Red Rooster because she wears to much makeup (which are stereotypes of Latinas) and it may get on the suit. Vamanos breaks every rule and it seems the suit will be ruined but in the end it is saved.

The film displays many the typical stereotypes of Latinos, which include poverty stricken, conmen, smokers, drinkers, taco eaters, and who care about nothing else but women. While the suit really had no powers it seems to make each of the men so invincible that all of his dreams come true. Which brings the question of do clothes really make you feel different? Martinez says they do and and says with the suit they can be whoever they want, and they are the ones giving the orders, he also says it will be sad if they ever get rich because they will all have their own suits, and their friendship will not be the same.

The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit Trailer