The Colonization of Desire and Male Indigeneity in Mexican Cinema

• In Event: ¿Un cine interrogante?: Film, hegemonic cultural discourse and visions of (making and remaking of) indigeneity

Abstract

This paper takes as its point of departure the idea that one of the ramifications of the coloniality of power in Mexico is the colonization of desire. This dynamic manifests itself in Mexican cinema’s persistent use of “whiteness-as-indigeneity” to present indigenous characters when the diegeses suggest their romantic and/or sexual desirability. While in Mexican cinema the “indigenous” female has been represented as “white” in order to render her appeal for men across class and ethnic backgrounds believable within the Mexican racial formation, this paper explores how the dynamics of the colonization of desire impact the representation of indigenous males. It suggests that while “whiteness-as-indigeneity” is also used as a strategy for males, the transgressive coupling of the “white” Mexican woman and the “indigenous” male repeatedly results in his death (Tribu, Dir. Miguel Contreras Torres, 1939; Lola Casanova, Dir. Matilde Landeta, 1949; Tizoc, Dir. Ismael Rodriguez, 1957) and/or in the “white” woman desiring the “indigenous” male only when he has visually and culturally whitened himself (Tizoc, Dir. Ismael Rodriguez, 1957; El violetero Dir. Gilberto Martínez Solares, 1960). Furthermore, this paper suggests that the colonial wound of the supposed undesirability of the brown Mexican male manifests itself in films that illustrate his yearning for the acceptance of the “white” Mexican woman as the reification of his manhood (El juicio de Martín Cortés, Dir. Alejandro Galindo’s, 1974; Batalla en el cielo Carlos Reygadas, 2005; Güeros, Dir. Alonso Ruizpalacios, 2014).

Author

• Mónica García Blizzard, Emory University