Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

feel offended and even that managed to use the insult as an as an opportunity to show
their national pride.
The visual part of this scene is also relevant. During the whole dispute, we only
see a high-angle long-shot of the shop behind the roundabout in the middle of which
there is a statue of Miguel Hidalgo, the Mexican independence leader. Since we are a
perceptive audience, we infer that this is not a fortuitous image. To have the image of
the figure that sought independence from Spanish rule signals how some Spaniards still
believed that they were superior to Mexicans, or is a metaphor that questions how much
independence we had achieved since the nineteenth century. This is a serious topic
inserted into an act of humour, a vehicle to discuss national autonomy.
In Calzonzin Inspector, Calzonzin will transform how the Spaniard Don Fiacro’s put on
airs into an aggression. What triggers the argument is Calzonzin’s refusal to pay for the
drinks he had with Chon:
212
Don Fiacro: Mira si sois brutos ustedes los indios que creíais que los
españoles y los caballos eran la misma cosa.
Calzonzin: Y todavía lo seguimos creyendo. 143
Every attempt by Don Fiacro to offend Calzonzin and the indios is turned into an insult
of the Spanish, empowering Calzonzin despite the difficult situation he and Chon are in.
Thus, Calzonzin finds a way to call the Spaniards ‘animals’ and accuses them of
plundering Mexico, bringing great pleasure for the audience since ‘the more positive
one’s attitude toward the victor and the more negative one’s attitude toward the butt, the
greater appreciation of the humor’. 144 These last two examples make reference to the
143 Arau, Calzonzin Inspector, 1973.
144 LaFave quoted by McGhee, Humor. Its Origins… p. 24.