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stated that she had to fi ght for her character, initially cast as an Anglo
woman, in Anaconda to have a Spanish surname. Within fi lms featuring
ethnically commodifi ed bodies, spatial signifi ers play an important
role in establishing an ethnic context. For instance, the fi lm From Dusk
Till Dawn implies that Hayek’s character Satanico Pandemonium, a
supernatural demon, is of Latina origin only because the fi lm references
that the narrative action occurs south of the U.S.–Mexico border. Only
through indirect narrative information is the audience made aware that
in Anaconda Lopez’s character, Terri Flores, is a “home girl from the
Southside of L.A.,” the Mexican quarter of the city. Likewise, although
the audience is never explicitly told their ethnic identity, we discover that
the characters in 54 and Anaconda both have Spanish-sounding names,
Anita and Terri Flores respectively. Of these three characters, Anita is
the only who speaks any dialogue in Spanish. These contextual clues
contribute to the implicit communication of ethnic difference.
Lopez’s cross over roles in Enough (2002), The Wedding Planner (2001),
and Maid in Manhattan (2002) further exploit the physical liminality
that allows her mobility across historically fragmented and essentialist
racial fi elds. In Enough and Wedding once again she plays a working-class
ambiguously Italian American role, reversing the Hollywood tradition
of having Italian American actresses such as Marissa Tomei play Latina
roles. Yet in the highly publicized Maid Lopez plays the role most identifi -
able as Latina since Selena. Envisioned as Lopez’s Pretty Woman, Maid
was not as successful as its Cinderella story counterpart but nonetheless
maintained her position as Hollywood’s reigning Latina. Nevertheless,
Lopez movement through a bevy of racial roles problematizes the
normative binary racial schema in the U.S. and demonstrates a shift in
the discursive formation of race and ethnicity.
Contesting Latina Authenticity, Producing Multiplicity
Because of the dominant homogenizing constructions of Latinidad and
Latina ethnicity circulated through global popular culture, the actresses
themselves have sometimes engaged in a battle over corporeal ethnic
authenticity—debating over which actress is the true, pure, or authentic
Latina in order to win coveted roles. Jennifer Lopez and some of her
roles exemplify this rift. In three of the fi ve fi lms Lopez released between
1995 and 1999, she plays characters outside of her ethnicity. Although
Lopez was born in the United States, her parents are of Puerto Rican
origin, and she alternates between identifying herself as Puerto Rican
and Nuyorican. Nevertheless, in Selena Lopez portrays the legendary
Mexican American music star; in Mi Familia Lopez portrays the Mexican