Representations in Hollywood and Mexico (Natasha)

The Philip Deloria chapter we read this week sheds light on the role and representation of American Indians in Hollywood. He admirably traces the history of these performances back to the Wild West shows in which audience perceptions and expectations of American Indians were first shaped in a theater environment. For those interested in knowing more about this history, a new documentary features contemporary and historical representations as well as Native actors in Hollywood films. Here's a trailer:

And this new book focuses more on how indigenous actors and directors shaped Hollywood representations and expectation of Native Americans:

 

Both of these sources as well as the Deloria piece focus on Native North Americans; no comprehensive study of Indigenous Mexicans and representations thereof has been published to date.  Although there was no Wild West equivalent in Mexico that I know of, performances of indigeneity were common in cabaret theaters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mexican Indians - along with several other national "types" - were caricaturized and performed for urban audiences. Women tended to be portrayed either as attractive young women or oafish old women. The china poblana and the tehuana headdress were some of the most common indicators of indigeneity. Here's one example of a common representation of an indigenous woman by a non-Native actress:

The above image is from 1921 and by that time, cabaret performances of indigenous women were widespread. At the same time this photo was taken, Delores del Rio was building her career in Hollywood and becoming the go-to performer of the exotic other. Despite del Rio's upper class upbringing in Mexico, her skin and looks made her just exotic enough to play Indian in a variety of films, first in Hollywood and later during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Throughout the course of her career, del Rio performed as American Indian, Tahitian, and Nahua in one of her best known performances in the film Maria Candelaria:

 

Dolores del Rio as María Candelaria, 1944.

While the U.S. has experienced a growth of Native filmmakers, actors, and supporting institutions over the past decades, Mexico has lagged behind on this front. Indigenous peoples are far more likely to appear in a documentary film than they are to become actors, or to play any role in a film production. Deloria closes his chapter with two questions that I think would be valuable to ask about contemporary Mexican cinema as well: "How were Americans to think about contemporary Indian people? And how were Native people to participate in that conversation?"