Race and Nationalism in the Transnational Celebrity of María Félix

• In Event: Una aproximación a lo transnacional en el cine latinoamericano de los períodos silente y clásico

Abstract

History remembers María Félix as the greatest female star of the Mexican Golden Age, but the films she created in the Spanish and Italian industries from 1948-1955 served to cement her as an international celebrity. This paper analyzes her performance in Mare Nostrum, as well as the press discourse surrounding her presence in Spain and Spanish cinema. I propose that the Spanish cinematic industry (press included) appropriated her figure as a way to forge legitimacy for itself and for the Franco regime, thus altering Félix’s star discourse within Spain. According to Paul Rixon, the star discourse of an international celebrity must be ‘nationalised’ when it encounters a different national system. For the Spanish press, Félix was no longer solely a Mexican star, but also an integral part of the Spanish cinematic industry. Nonetheless, the timbre of Félix’s star discourse in Spain raises questions regarding how race and ethnicity play out in adapting the star image of a Mexican celebrity within the Spanish national system. This conflict is accentuated by the fact that the discourse of Spanish national identity (Hispanidad) propagated by the Franco regime hearkened back to the historical, cultural and ethno-religious ties fostered by the Spanish Empire, while the discourse of Mexican national identity that coalesced at the time centered around the Mexican Revolution and a post-imperial, mestizo culture. This presentation uses critical race theory in dialogue with Rixon and other theorists of international celebrity to illustrate how the negotiation of race and ethnicity inform discourses of transnational stardom.

Author

• Diana Norton