One wonders how such films as THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, VIVA MARIA, TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA, THE WILD BUNCH, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, and countless spaghetti westerns, could have been made without the prop of complacent, weak, and illiterate peons whom the heroes could variously rescue, defend, organize, or slaughter-depending on the plot. protagonists, or more commonly, a target for sharp-shooting cowboys. At best the Mexican peon is the nondescript, cowardly audience for a gunfight, a guitarist playing in the background to a romance by the U.S. Rather, the ignorant peon occupied the landscape while the North American cowboy enacted scenes of heroism and gallantry. Few films elevated this character to a starring role. First popularized by Italian actor Rudolph Valentino, the Latin lover quickly became a film standard, as suggested by these film titles: THE KISSING BANDIT (1948), THE BULLFIGHTER AND THE LADY (1951), and LATIN LOVERS (1953).Ī third stereotype was to show Latino men, most often Mexican men, as weak, sleepy peons. The popularity not only of the Cisco Kid, but of the Mexican bandit type in general is reflected in films such as these: CISCO KID AND THE LADY (1940), VIVA CISCO KID (1940), THE GAY CABALLERO (1941), LUCKY CISCO KID (1941), RIDE ON VAQUERO (1941), THE GAY DESPERADO (1935), KING OF THE BANDITS (1947), and BANDIDO (1956).Ī second early stereotype was the Latin lover.
And the Kid often had as adversaries the greasy bandit types from which the Kid had evolved. His sidekick, "Gordito," or "Pancho" in some films, was a weak, bumbling fool. Unlike the traditional Mexican bandit, foul and greasy, the Cisco Kid was a more refined Californio, dashing, a kind of Robin Hood type.
#FREE GAY MOVIES LATINOS SERIES#
With the advent of "talkies," the stereotype remained, although it did go through some modifications - such as that of the CISCO KID film series produced during the 1930s and 1940s.
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At the time when revolutionaries were struggling to free Mexico from the abuses of the Porfirio Diaz tyranny, Hollywood disavowed revolution in Mexico by using Mexican banditos as convenient foils to the North American cowboy. Later silent films took this portrayal and expanded it in such films as TONY THE GREASER (l9ll) and THE GREASER'S REVENGE (1914). Griffith's THE THREAD OF DESTINY used the term "greaser" for the Mexican "bandit" type. A review of some of the films which have portrayed Latinos, Mexicans and Chicanos, reveals a succession of abusive stereotypes and denigrating distortions.Īs early as 1908, D. Historically, there have been relatively few portrayals of Latinos of any kind in motion pictures and television, particularly when compared to the population size that Latinos represent and have represented in the United States. and ACT OF VIOLENCE, a cursory look at how Latinos have been portrayed, first in Hollywood motion pictures, and then in television and other media, will give insight into how modern media have molded popular perceptions of Latinos and the latent and overt messages given the viewer about Latinos, the kind of people they are and the kind of things they do.
While some may consider that NOSOTROS and other Latino groups were over-reacting to gang depictions in the films, STREETS OF L.A. On November 16, 1979, NOSOTROS, a Hollywood-based association of Latino actors, held a press conference to protest two CBS Movies of the Week in which Latino gang members figured prominently. Latino portrayals in film and television by Jesús Salvador Treviño JUMP CUTĬopyright Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, 1985, 2005