Reframing Latin America: A Cultural Theory Reading ... - BGSU Blogs

290 reframing latin america
from testing the authenticity and verifi ability of the fi lm to testing the discourse
upon which ideas of Mexicanness rest.
In “Consuming Tacos and Enchiladas” Wu attributes the success of this
fi lm to the fact that it meets the expectations of U.S. audiences regarding
the otherness of Mexicans and Latin Americans. “Embedded in the melodrama,”
she writes, “is a representation of Mexico/Latin America that characterizes
it as magic, folkloric, exotic, provincial—in short, other.” 2 Wu
argues that when the magical realist aesthetic is commodifi ed for popular
international consumption, it “fi xes a frozen identity of Mexicanness” as
well as Latinness: “In demanding and consuming endless reproductions of
magic realism, the dominant U.S. culture condemns a lumpen, undifferentiated
pan-Latin culture to repetition of an aesthetic that, from the point of
view of the rational, industrial, and dominant cultures that consume the
images, both defi nes it as underdeveloped and fi xes its status there.” 3 Wu
concludes that, rather than challenge Western rationality, magical realism
in commodifi ed form reaffirms the West’s position as core and Latin America’s
as peripheral.
The proliferation of successful Hispanic fi lms that incorporate magical
realism into their narratives might lead one to ask not whether Latin Americans
are inherently mystical, but to question what it is about Mexican and
U.S. national discourses that encourage the fi guring of Mexican identity
using magical realism as a trope. Does this not limit Mexican identity to a
kind of surreal, if not irrational, sense of reality? Are movie producers and
distributors, ticket buyers, and givers of fi lm prizes simply rewarding the
production of a Hispanic identity that we have already projected as primitive
and exotic? Questions such as these force us to consider our own position
in defi ning others and bring us to the crucial matter in our analysis
of Como agua para chocolate’s role in shaping notions regarding Mexican
identity. As you read Tenenbaum and Wu, consider the implicit dialogue
between these two critics.
Barbara Tenenbaum, “Why Tita Didn’t Marry
the Doctor, or Mexican History in LIKE WATER
FOR CHOCOLATE” 4
My mother has only seen one Mexican movie—Like Water for Chocolate.
It is understandable that she should have seen that particular picture
because the fi lm was both a commercial and a critical success. In the
seven months following its Feb ru ary 1993 release, it had already grossed
$6.1 million, the most ever by a Latin American fi lm. Janet Maslin, fi lm