Race and Culture in American Films

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Race and Culture in American Films

"One of the side effects of American cinema was often crushingly brutal portrayals of other races and cultures, depictions that spread to larger audiences than eve before possible around the nation and even around the globe."(Keller,5) The visual images depicted through the video montage "Gringo in Mananaland" support many of Keller's views on the harsh portrayals of Latin@s through American media. The video succeeds in emphasizing the particular roles that Latin Americans played in the early years of film. Latin@s were seen as entertainers that would "appear in a context that makes them either foils to or sex objects of Anglos."(Keller,39) This idea is particularly evident through the specific gender roles that Latin@s played throughout the video.

Keller describes the three most common roles for Hispanic females in American film. The role that seemed to most often be filled by the Latinas was that of a cantina girl. Basically a dancing, singing sex object, the cantina girl is a "naughty lady of easy virtue, who is also outgoing and exhibitionistic."(Keller,40) As Keller states, "outside the parameters of romance or sex, there are virtually no roles for Hispanic females. The Latina was portrayed as a pursuer of the Anglo man, always waiting for him to enter her life, and always willing to "discard her Latin suitor in favor of the Anglo."(Keller,40) In general, the Latinas in the video montage were portrayed as sexual temptresses with little respect for themselves or their values. Hispanic males were most often portrayed either serving to the Anglo males or lusting after the Anglo women. The various roles that Hispanic men played in American films were usually limited to negative characters such as bandits or greasers.

The depiction of Latin@s in early American cinema is far from accurate and rarely displays realistic living situations of Hispanics. It is evident from both the video and from Keller's descriptions in Hispanics and United States Film that the Latin@s were portrayed as ignorant, uneducated, unproductive people in American films. They were primarily entertainers, and were never placed in real life situations in the Latin American community. Keller's belief that "white Americans believed in the superiority of the white race and depicted this superiority on the silver screen"(32) was clearly evident in the video montage.

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