I just saw Spike Lee's movie "Bamboozled" a couple of nights ago.
I don't think there's anything comparable for Mexican-Americans to that movie. Maybe "Zoot Suit" qualifies, but this was a whole different level. It's like this: "Do the Right Thing" was a slap upside the head. (And a lot of people reacted just like that - "hey, don't slap me! I didn't pay seven dollars to be slapped upside the head!")
Bamboozled was like a punch in the stomach.
When you see the whole twin histories of African America laid out like that, it's stunning. The twin histories, meaning the actual history, and the cinema/tv/pop culture history. Seeing the lawn jockeys, the cast iron banks, the posters and film clips, and how much that dehumanized caricature still sticks with people. There are a lot of people who see all blacks through a filter that says "thug." Or "animal." Or "clown." And like any good brainwashing technique, if you're told for a hundred years that you're nothing but a caricature, you start to accept it. Live the caricature. Do what they expect. Amos and Andy. Method and Red. Dre and Snoop.
We got our own caricatures. I mean, Cheech Marin better be collecting hell of a lot of Chicano art. He's got a lot to make up for.
My identity: I'm a middle-class second-generation Mexican-American. Mexican father, French-Canadian mother. So I claim latino (I don't claim "hispanic" unless I have to, because Hispanic is a made-up word that just sounds silly.) I think I see things more as a mixed-race American than as a latino, truth be told.
So I wasn't watching "Bamboozled" from the perspective of my culture being disrespected. It was more like watching a documentary on cultural assassination. I was watching the whole history of this country, how it can destroy an entire people.
I was reading a news magazine that had an article about "The Alamo" movie. Shame on anyone who saw that movie. The title of this article was "Mexicans? Bring 'em on!"
I can't believe someone didn't get fired over that.
9:21:20 PM 
|
