source: http://www.daemonsmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/from-prada-to-nada-movie-photo-04-550x309.jpg
I recently saw the movie From Prada to Nada, a movie about a pair of Mexican American sisters who live the high life until their father dies. When the father dies they discover they are in debt and in turn are forced into moving to their aunt’s home, who lives in a low-income neighbourhood with a high Latino population. During the duration of the movie I really did not know if I should laugh or cry. This movie is a parody of Mexican culture. It is built of stereotype after stereotype.
You can watch the trailer here:
First one of the daughters claims she is not Mexican. This reinforces the image that Mexicans are ashamed of being who they are and that they wish to be American.
There is, however, one well-educated Mexican depicted in the movie (which I appreciate) – he is a university professor. However, he is the Mexican with the lightest skin in the movie, reinforcing the belief that lighter means better education, more money, and overall wealth. I want to note that I appreciated a light skin Mexican was included in the movie, to show that we do not just come in one shade (an issue I mentiond in my other post here: http://the-needle-in-the-haystack.blogspot.com/2011/07/little-to-think-about-when-it-comes-to.html).
Even though I was drooling at the sight of our delicious traditional foods, I had to laugh at the fact that every woman in a house party was dressed in traditional Mexican clothes. Nobody really does that in any of our parties. Yes, there are always the extra enthusiastic people who dress up for Independence Day, and it is a lot of fun, but nevertheless it is not the norm to find a whole party dressed up.
What I found most offensive was that the aunt seemed to be running a type of sweatshop in her house with a bunch of ladies working making clothes and whatnot. To add to this, when a well-dressed individual knocked on their door they immediately hid all their work because they believed it was la migra (immigration), who was there to deport them.
At the end the “good” Mexican heartthrob, was depicted as handsome, rugged, poor and with a macho attitude. This “good” Mexican ends up with the sister who did not like to acknowledge her roots. The second sister, who is studying to be a lawyer, ends up with the handsome, rich and white lawyer. Because of course in a movie full on Mexicans, if there is a successful and good person he has to be white right? He cannot be Mexican as well.
What also annoys me is that the half-brother of the sisters, who in fact is the one who buys their home, is married to this mean white woman. Why couldn’t he be married to a mean Mexican, or a mean black, or Chinese woman? It reinforces the stereotype that Mexican have this messed up dream to find a white person to love even if they are horrible people. It is ridiculous that to end up with a white person is somehow a “success.”
I hated that movie and I hated the fact that Televisa (a major Mexican television company) was part of the production. But I will talk about that next week.
To end this post I would like to invite you to watch two short commercials which air daily here in Canada. It is advertising Old El Paso Tacos.
First of all, I do not know any fellow Mexican that eats that food. Real tacos are not that crunchy nonsense. There are all types of tacos and the only “crunchy” tacos we have are not even crunchy. They are called tacos dorados, and they basically consist of rolling your chicken (or whatever you prefer) in a soft tortilla and then frying them: all fresh and all delicious.
Not only do we not eat that food, they are trying to make it seem like it is all we eat. Then they depict everyone as being less than intelligent and having these huge dilemmas over soft or hard tacos, over how not to make them fall over. They also show us as all being rural and again in traditional clothes. In fact the real rural people of Mexico are the ones who eat the best and most delicious food one could find in Mexico.
Ask any Mexican you know, we do not eat that stuff and neither should anyone else because it’s really unhealthy and looks disgusting. I think it’s really unfair not only to our image, but to the public who thinks that they are eating Mexican food.
Moral: Make a real Mexican friend and go to their mom’s house to eat some delicious food, or better yet, come to my house; I’ll make you some great tacos dorados.
With love your Mexican blogger,
Belisa
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