Fernández and Cinematic Propaganda in the U.S. and Mexico

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture ISSN 1481-4374 Purdue University Press ©Purdue University Volume 13 (2011) Issue 4 Article 12 Fernández and Cinematic Propaganda in the U.S. and Mexico Renae L. Mitchell The Pennsylvania State University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, and the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons Dedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information, Purdue University Press selects, develops, and distributes quality resources in several key subject areas for which its parent university is famous, including business, technology, health, veterinary medicine, and other selected disciplines in the humanities and sciences. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI), the Humanities Index (Wilson), Humanities International Complete (EBSCO), the International Bibliography of the Modern Language Association of America, and Scopus (Elsevier). The journal is affiliated with the Purdue University Press monograph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies. Contact: <> Recommended Citation Mitchell, Renae L "Fernández and Cinematic Propaganda in the U.S. and Mexico." 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This journal is covered under the CC BY-NC-ND license. UNIVERSITY PRESS <http://www.thepress.purdue.edu http://www.thepress.purdue.edu> CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture ISSN 1481-4374 <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb> Purdue University Press ©Purdue University CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative com literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." In addition to the publication of articles, the journal publishes review articles of scholarly books and publishes research material in its Library Series. Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI), the Humanities Index (Wilson), Humanities International Complete (EBSCO), the International Bibliography of the Modern LanguaLangua ge Association of America, and Scopus (Elsevier). The journal is affiliated with the Purdue University Press monogmonog raph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies. Contact: < <> Volume 13 Issue 4 (December 2011) Article 12 Renae L. Mitchell, "Fernández and Cinematic Propaganda in the U.S. and Mexico" <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol13/iss4/12> Contents of CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 13.4 (2011) <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol13/iss4/ http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol13/iss4/> Abstract: In her article "Fernández and Cinematic Propaganda in the U.S. and Mexico" Renae L. Mitchell discusses the competing ideologies on both sides of the U.S. U.S.-Mexican Mexican border. As one of the foremost filmmakers of the Mexican Golden Age of cinema, Emilio Fernández established what would is recognized as "Mexicanness" by means of Indigenous characters in his films, most mos apparent in the film María Candelaria. RKO (Radio--Keith-Orpheum) Orpheum) Pictures, as the principal purveyor of US-American US propagandist cinema, led Hollywood into the cinematic market of Mexico revealing its intentions by means of the RKO film The Falcon in Mex Mexico.. Fernández sought to establish a particular Mexican nationalism and Hollywood used this nationalism to establish an apparent Mexicanness in its own cinematic portrayals of Mexican culture. Mitchell's comparison of these two films sheds light on how Mexicanidad was interpreted in the U.S. and in Mexico during a period of power struggle and how the idea of Mexico was an invented concept exploited on both sides of the border for different purposes. Renae L. Mitchell, "Fernández and Cinematic Propaganda in the U.S. and Mexico" page 2 of 9 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 13.4 (2011): <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol13/iss4/12> Renae L. MITCHELL Fernández and Cinematic Propaganda in the U.S. and Mexico The intervention of the United States in Mexico just after the latter's revolution (1910-1920) (1910 signaled the beginnings of a relationship that was increasingly "neighborly" but at the same time exploitative. The Mexican Revolution resulted in the transforma transformation tion of Mexican national identity and the rejection of the "cultural and racial inferiority complex" that had accompanied a Native American heritage until Mexico's independence (O'Malley 119). It is through this nationalism that the move was made in the 1920s 20s by the Mexican government to "threaten to ban [U.S.] movies in Mexico if they continued to portray Mexicans as 'greasers' and bandits," and encouraged the Mexican film industry to make films that glorified the Indian and lo Mexicano Mexicano" (O'Malley 120). By institutionalizing Indigenous culture and the Indigenous body as national symbols, the government embarked to strengthen the support of its population and establish a new nationalism and identity which are characteristic of what Néstor Canclini describes as "the capacity of cinematic narratives and characters to represent Mexican national culture and contribute to the sentimental education of the masses" (112). In the 1940s Mexican cinema exploded in what is now considered its Golden Age and it is ascribed ascribe principally to films by Emilio Fernández. One of his first and most successful films, María Candelaria (1943), projected the idea of a nation by focusing on the indígena (masculine form of the English noun "Indigene") rather than the Criollo ("Creole") as s the "quintessential" Mexican. (...truncated)