the Female Body GOVERNING

Disciplining the Ethnic Body 215
animated feature-length fi lm El Dorado (2000). Few people are likely to
have heard of Perez’s latest movies, as she appears to be relegated to the
dustbin of fl ash-in-the-pan Latina actresses whose careers dwindle to
unremarkable movies and increasingly typifi ed and small roles. 4 A case
in point is Perez’s character in Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), starring
Drew Barrymore. At the movie’s conclusion, Perez circulates as the body
of excess: loud, ugly, insensitive, controlling, and drug-addicted, as
opposed to Barrymore’s role of contained and successful rebellion; she is
unlike Lopez or Hayek whose bodies are less racialized because of their
ability to perform ethnic ambiguity. Ironically, the less marketable Perez
has used her celebrity body to discipline the political discourse rather
than the discourse of global commodifi cation. She is a spokesperson for
the scholarship foundation the Hispanic Fund, and a vocal activist for
research and funding for HIV/AIDS in the United States (Latinas and
Latinos are one of the communities hardest hit by the epidemic).
Salma Hayek is another prominent global fi gure contributing to the
popular constructions of Latinidad. As her fame in the mainstream has
increased, her identity and physical body have been equally disciplined
through the normalizing discourse of whiteness. For instance, Hayek’s
hair, which was stereotypically curly and “big” when she premiered in
a 30-second stint as the jealous ex-girlfriend in Alison Ender’s Mi Vida
Loca, has become progressively straighter and more controlled. Her
border crossing from Mexico to the United States, from the imagined
margins to the romanticized mainstream, has yielded more complex
supporting and leading roles, including Wild Wild West (1999), Dogma
(1999), Fools Rush In (1997), and Frida (2002). While not quite as
high profi le as Jennifer Lopez, Hayek’s public body has nevertheless
participated in both affi rming and disrupting long-held cinematic
constructions of the Latina body. Indeed, Hayek’s role in Fools Rush In
challenges normative notions of bodily coupling when, at the conclusion
of the fi lm, her character remains alive and happily married to her
wealthy Anglo husband. Historically, such couplings within popular
narratives have resulted in estrangement or even death. Additionally,
Hayek’s art house role in the innovative aspects of Frida explored
bodily pleasure and pain as well as challenged heteronormative visions
of romantic couplings (Guzmán, 2007). Hayek continues to push the
corporeal limits usually assigned to Latina actresses in Hollywood while
performing the idealized hourglass shape.
Within the television landscape there is Jessica Alba, star of James
Cameron’s apocalyptic series Dark Angel and Honey (2003). Most reviews
about the series singled out Alba as the reason to watch the show.
Selected from thousands of applicants, Jessica Alba was virtually the