‘Actlén: International Foursal of Chicano Studies Research 4.2 (Fe ‘Reprinted in Noriega, 1992: 3-20.) jo. The Z The Paycholgy of Symbolic Ans ie eek entoaingeees 5): 14-16. ico, spase-Calpe Mexicana, 1948. fosé. La raza céimica. México, D.P.: Fspass-Calp +1948, ARE ALL LATINS FROM MANHATTAN? Hollywood, Ethnography and Cuttural Colonialism ANAM. LOPEZ Editors’ Introduction Irvin Cummings’s That Rio, filmed in the early 1940s, has Carmen ‘Mirande at her most ebullient. Her co-star Don Ameche appears in an early cabaret act, dressed in a US naval uniform, and sings a precise ‘Good Neighborly’ message My friends I send felicitations To ow South American relations May we never leave bel All those comm One hundred and thirty ‘people send regards 1 you, We seem light years away from the brutal racisma of Tike Greaser’s Revenge outlined in de Orellana’s essay. From the early 30s the Good Neighbor Policy ~ an attempt ro restore production, employment and prosperity to the domestic US economy after the slump, by expanding exports to, and jon to cultural riven further shape at the outbreak of war by ffice of the Coordinator of Inter-American Aff 1940 under Nelson Rockefeller, which orchestrated economic view of Latin ‘cross-over’ stars, Dolores yhom represented ‘other’ from the late 20s to the mid-40s: from ss, 10 aloof indifference, to Mexican spitfire, to carnival of Carmen, hats and linguistic a paredic revenge on the format that Drought her notoriety and a world-wide reputation. oShe's a Latin from Manhattan can tell by her matiana ‘She's a Latin from Manhattan ‘And not Havana. [AL JOLSON in Go Into Your Dance (1935) HOLLYWOOD AS ETHNOGRAPHER OF THE AMERICAS To presume that Hollywood has served as an ethnographer of American 10 conceive of Rot as @ po rodology that unearths truths about ‘other’ c ined practice of cultural interpretation and represent ‘cipant observation.” It also means to think of Hol not as a simple reproducer of fixed and homogeneous cultures le discourses that intervene in, affirm ical struggles of a given moment. To think of a classic Hollywood Alm as ethnographic discourse is to affirm its status as an red, yet collaborative, enterprise, akin in practice to the way contem- ike James Clifford have redefined their discipline. al proxi 11 of the operations of an ideal, albeit ‘ence lies in the deployment of power +. of domination’, or the ethno- have achieved that ty where the observer! ofa framing story or encomp rfere, However, both ethnographic and cinematic texts, fourses, carry the traces of this dialogic process and of the power that structure it [ollywood as ethnographer, as co-producer in power of cule lows us to reformulate its relationship to ethnicity. Hollywood igation of mimetic ilywaod’s ethnographic discourse Li tother" of difference, sexual and ethnic ~ as an 's, Hollywood's power as ethnographer, bras been ‘he way the history of Hollywood's representations of Hispanic told privileges a near-golden moment when Hollywood appare temporarily more sensitive and produced less stereotypical, images of focus upon this period — the ‘Good ‘order to analyze the moment's ‘ood self-consciously and intentionally assumes t spher? My emphasis is red according to parameters ethnographic imperative became clear: Dolores det Ri ‘Carmen Miranda. That these as will become apparent, m ‘ethnographic and cotonial authority. ‘THE GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY: HOLLYWOOD ZEROES IN ON LATIN ERICA tr decades of portraying Latin Americans lackadaisically and sporadically ward land, Hollywood films between 1939 anc 1947 featuring Latin Amerie can stars, music, locations and stories flooded US and international markets By February 1943, for example, 30 films with Latin American themes or locales had been released and 25 more were in production. By April 1945, 84 | ave themes had been produced.’ These films | ty, most notably a sulle respect be. Tollywood was exercising some care to differentiate between the cultural and geographic characteristics of different Latin American coun tries by incorporating general location shots, specific citations of icono- graphic sites (especially Rio de Janci Foundation, and the newly Coordinator for Inter-American Aff ler. Concerns about America’s Nicaragus). Charged promote The CIAA wred the production of newsreels and documentaries for ‘bution that showed ‘the truth about the American way’ in 1941 to produce a series of 24 shorts American themes that would ‘carry the message of democracy and friendship below the Rio Grande’, sponsored screenings of films that cele- brated the ‘democratic way’ in what became known embassy circuit, and, together with the Hays Office’sfe the studios to become more sensitive t0 impetus, when coupled with the incent .ble 4240 movie theaters, was sufficient ke on the project of educating Latin America and its American audience about its Latin jan expert, began sues and portraya America’s eminently however, needs to be questioned more iF and Americans in relation to the ced? How does it differ types and its negligent od Neighbor Poly Sine were produced. ee i genre films, with Ameri roan shooting, fr tensive footage shot in example, Irving Rapper Rio de Janeiros Edward Dm ‘Buenos Aires; and Alfie or peeudo-musical formats: yn of Fran! x ita Rodriguez; Gregory Ratoff"s Carnival in and Cesar Romero; I fms were the midi ISA but wudget musical comedies set either in Latin America or in the U: ease es in addition to recognizable US stats, fairly wellknown Latin ‘American actors and 30 and ‘Almost every st eon 589 and ‘entury-Pox, RKO, and Republic specialized in ‘goo ee acm vey. or ad Carmen Manda Under conta and produced nine followed the Rockefeller layers — mericana Republic exploited contract playe for example ~ in a number of low-budget musicals 46), aced, and the number of Latin period, itis difficult to ese sucldenly welcomed Notwithstanding the m American actors contracted, by the st describe Hollywood's position ‘others’ as respectful _or_reverent.!0/Fl but not practically Thiendly, fun loving, and not deeined insulang to Latar American ee 70 \ and cars. Ulimately, Hollywood succeeded in all except, perhaps, the last category, ‘THE TRANSITION: FROM INDIFFERENCE TO ‘DIFFERENCE? ACROSS ‘THE BODIES OF WOMEN Before the Good Neighbor Policy period, few Latin Americens had achieved star status in Hollywood. In fact, mos Latin Americans of carly Hollywood cinema were played by US actors. In ‘Mexican actor Ramén Novarro, one of the few had a consistent career in Hollywood, succeeded ‘Latin lover’ modeled on the Valentino icon,!! but always connoted Mediterrancan rather than Lat threatening than men, Latin American womea Dolores del Rio and Lupe Vélez, Del Rio’s Hollywood career spanned the silent and early sound eras. Although considered exotic, del Rio appeared in a variety of films, work! ‘with directors as diverse as Raoul Walsh, King Vidor, and Orso1 After a successful transition to her place in the Holl timised by her marriage to the respected Undeniably Latin American, del with Latin roles. Hers was a vague uppe general category of “foreign/other’ tragie sensu: object of sexual fascination, register, and she portrayed, above weakness for Americ: Indian maidens, South Scas pri cesses, Mexican sefloritas, and other aristocratic beauties. Although she often ned as a repeatable stereotype, her undifferentiated sexuality was not tamed by the proto-colonial ethnographic imperatives of Hollywood's Good Neighbor period. In a @ man across a crowded sn for ever) could be articulated because itv ‘American hero. However, in the films of and pattial appeasement of the ethnically ifferentiated sexual threat of ‘otherness’ she unleashed was no longer Carlos Fuentes has remarked, del ‘hg to become a woman’,!? and. appropriate to Hollywood's constitute a perfect cinematic example K. Bhabba has described as the phenomenon of the coloni x ! differentiation necessary for the existence of c imperialist authori hat is disavowed [differe but repeated as something different ~a mutai a‘urn to Mexico in 1943 and dedicated herself (with a few ably to appear in John Ford's The Fugitive Del Rio chose t returns to Hollywood, most mnceivable in Hollywood. The impossibility in 1939-47 was, however, literally worked insatiable sexual appe- sly Dynamite (1934), her star persona ~ by engaging in much- ch Gary Cooper, Ronald Colman, and and La Zandunga (1938) - and publicized simultaneous aff a Ricardo Cortez, and marrying Johnny Weismuller in 1933, imagine 9 ‘match between scteen and star biographies: Tarzan meets the beast of the Tropics.) Vélez was, in other words, outrageous, but her nD articulated as potent was mated with and married American men, ‘The dangers of such exp teen ethnic miscegenation became apparent in RKO’s Mexican Spitire eight-film series (1939-43), simul. taneously Véles ‘cessful films and an index of the inevitability of her failure, Vélez portray ican entertainer, Carmelita, who falls in love and marries ~ after sedi legitimate Anglo fiancée — anice New England man, Much to the dismay of his propei is (foundering) advertising career, and her ie for offspring. Although the first couple of installments the series was described as increasingly redundant, ‘absurd’ by the press and was cancelled Latin American ‘otherné sarily stated, the question thatthe series posed could no longer be because there were no ‘good-neighborly’ answers. The ethnie proble the series ~ intermarriage, miscegenation and integration ~ could not be exp! ate, Ironically highlighting this fictional and ideological question, Vélez, out of wedlock and five me ‘pregnant, committed suicide in 1944. Neither del Rfo nor Vélez could be re-created as Good Neighbor et for their ethnic and sexual power were not assimilable within Hollywood's ew, ostensibly friendly, and temperate regime. Del Rio was not ethnic enough and too much of an actress; Vélez was to0 ‘Latin’ and untameable. Ke ethnographic imperative, ethnic and sexual good neighborliness and ads into the resistant to an American. What Hollywood's good neighbor re was the articulation of a differ dispel the fear or attraction of miscegenat its submission to a conquering American mi THE PERFECT ‘GOOD NEIGHEOR’: FETISHISM, SELF AND ‘oTHER( Hollywood's lust for Latin America as scious attempt to translate and tam« and market ~ and its self-con- isturbing radical (sexual1 the recognition of difference (or lack) entails ~ are sical comedy genre. Incorporated in Americans were simultaneously, ive func- wmplexity, is the ical comedy form in ) and supplemental Hollywood version of Latin jshism and disavowal typi- 16 This exercise of coloni discourses, fh sucreal clarity, the scenario of Hollyw il fantasy and the problematics of ethnic representation in a colonial or context”? Tn these films, Carmen Miranda funet ‘uncanny fetish, Everything about her is surr different regime: from her extravagant hat ‘costumes, and five-inch platform shoes to hes she is an d by het wnounces at the end of her first there's your Good y. Come on, honey’ scavered’ by Hollywood ‘as is’, that is, after her status asa ‘more than 300 records, 5 films~ including her sound feature ~ in American tours) brought her to the New York stage, where her six-minute performance in The Strets of Paris (1939) + into ‘an overnight sensation chance repertoire, ype costumes) was transformed Of lasinidad by a series of films that ‘placed! her in locales as ‘Louise in the Canadian Rockies, Havana, or Buenos Aires Mer validity as ‘Latin American’ was based on # rhetoric of visual and Je excess — of costume, sexuality, and musicality ~ 1 ‘ver on to the mode of adress of the films themselves. Of co swere produced at Fox, its supe process to different hese flms are also almost painfully colorf ther inseribe Latin ‘Americanness as tropi ertainer in Brs nm ite of knowledge. rototypical example. The film begins by edit, narrative-cstablishment intzoducing the lure of montage sequence that situates travel to Latin America as a desirable sight. seeing adventure: snow on the Brooklyn bridge dissolves to a brochure of xe cruises to Havana, to a tourist guide to ‘Cuba: The Holiday Isle of the ‘Tropics’, to a window display promoting ‘Sail to Romance’ cruises featuring ' in an all-expenses-paid tour of Havana wi executive John Payne. once ensconced in the most the sights by John Payne. They ta Payne's lecture from a tourist book, although it bores Faye to yawns, serve asa voice-over narration for the visual presentation of ‘Cubans at work’: ‘Hundreds of thousands of Cubans are involved with the production of this important commodity ...’ These three sequences serve important narrative of the film’s ethno- and documentary work, although the featured native ent Rosita Rivas (Miranda), is neither Cuban nor speaks Spanish. sly, all the Fox films depend upon Micanda’s performative ity as ‘good-neighborly’ ethnographic dis- lots ~ often remakes of prior masical succes Wving some kind of fin English tune, and is handed the keys to the city by the camera tracks back to reveal the stage of a nightclub, an Anglo audience to rod Neighbor Policy and whom she instructs landseapes, but she remains the same from film to film, purely Latin ‘American, Whether the action of the film is set in Buenos Aires, Havana, the Canadian Rockies, Manhattan, or a Connecticut mansion, the on-screen 75and the . fe American characters work out ine mmsical comedy, Miranda (always a thorn wna show and dalies outrageously with the fn American protagonist to keep Don ‘only b sie gas ye), Miranda nevertheless gets to have her fun along the way anc ae eet nd atmos seduces with expressive Kisses and embraces at leastone, but most often serra ef the American men. omer irre pea wo can seduce sa many @ nice WASP man, Miranda remains either contentedly single, American Lothario (or ex ‘engaged for ten years to have separate Hote Toons and Ho st rsereen female performers (Dietrich in the is meant to function narratively and dis- freezing the narrative and the pleasures of the voyeuristic gaze and provoking a regime of spectacle and specularity. acknowh ively as a sexual fetish, ‘tween her spoken and sung English lates the fetish, cracking its surface while simultaneously aggrandizing it. obvious in the films where she sings consecutive numbers in each language (Weekend in Havana and The Gang’s All Here are two examples), the tonal differences between her sung and spoken Portuguese and that her excessive accent and ic malapro- pisms are no more than a pretense, a nod to the requirements of a conception i ‘otherness’ necessary to ma as her persona asa ess and studio machinery const Jems with English fur of her ‘otherness’ as ethnographer ‘ARE ALL LATINS FROM MANHATTAN?” Miranda's Hollywood career was cut sho wood’s good neighborliness in the post Geath in 1955. However, ‘woods work as Latin American ethnographer in acquiescence and active participation, Holl 7 rood ensconced her as theessence of Lat emblem, text, the pote Tor example) was dissipated by more, her stage, to the a) in American ‘otherness? ¥y Rooney does a number while in In This Our Life (Jol Davis plays Miranda record; and, in Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, rameters of the Good Neigh! ise self-conscious ethnographic texts, Miranda literally .¢ textual operations that defined her as the ‘othe ing, and redefini instrumental and ideological terms. It is particularly important to recognize that Hollywood (and, by extension, television) fulfils this ethnographic fune ‘because we are in an era that, aot unlike the Good Neighbor years, is le the media crows about the successes of ‘Bamba, Salsa: The Motion Picture, and the lambada cycle, and a ‘of Time not too long ago proclaimed ‘Magnifico! Hispanic Cul * of the Barrio’" it might prove enlightening to analyze this presentation, and assimilation of Latin American er ethnographic textual creation that must be analyzed ‘of representations of difference and not as a Enographic Film texts to express the Brazilian boy end her housewife ‘friends’ understanc “‘Ameces! beers of thar count exponue To US fms, After revdig ihe following 1953 Ping Dou ‘sctress Dolores de! R nt es anda the South American meta pew US communicado technologies and capa: implanes for southery during the production of Citizen Kane (1941). ™1 Rostro de la Bscondida’ in Lis Gasoe Ioternacional de ) Dolores det Rio = 10: my jens Taken for Wonders: Questions of Amt ‘Authority under & Tree outside Delhi, May 1917", in Henry Low (ed), Race, Writing, and Difference (Chicago: University of Chicago p.172. : For the best summary and analysis of Véle2's car Vl: Ja mexicana que escupia fuego (Mexico of this proce 1944, d, Walter Lang), Somel 1946, d, Lewis Seiler), and 1 T'm Lucky “Americas, vl. 34, ‘The Hollywood Stadio System (New York: rmonee. : N 2a ae example the ful pape advertisement for Piel's Light Beee in the New ‘York Daily ‘beinor, 28 July 1947: lightning, Aes, Broadway means begun to work Special issue of HIGH-TECH PRIMITIVISM The Representation of Tribal Societies in Feature Films JEAN FRANCO. Editors’ Introduction Brazil has occupied a prominent place in the European imagination since Sir ‘Thomas Moze placed his Utopia there in 1516 and the Amazons of Greek. ‘mythology were given a geographical location. In the 1540s Fray Pedro de Carvajal reported back to his order in Spain that he had witnessed a battle in which the Amazons appeared by a river bank to join in the fray. He had the misfortune, he writ of these warrior women, Brazilign geography and its indigenous population had been seen throughout history as both desire and threat. A desire for the n, for the promi Mission, The Emerald Forest and Fitscarrald ‘within Latin America about the survival an cultures, Her arguments are further developed in Robert Stam’s. in Brazil. Maybe man cill ill the beast ‘and look into the ayes of the other as his equal. MILTON NASCIMENTO! During the five hundred years since the conquest of America, the represen- he imperial venture and to savage stood on fying both ‘otherness’ and orig ‘tum into ‘endangered species’, culture, a marked change can be detected which transforms the indigenous 81diating O orlds Cinematic Encounters in the Americas John King, Ana M. Lopez, Man \varado f Lords prrpusuisuine (443