Salma Hayek, Latina Movie Stars, and Show Bu$iness

Toward the end of the Lupe Vélez chapter in Tex[t]-Mex, an interlude unfolds wherein I suggest--with all the cynicism anticipated of a literature professor and practicing Nietzschean/Marxist/Derridean/Cantínflasian--that things have not changed much when it comes to the Latina bombshell trope since the first part of the 20th century. But things do change (or, at the very least repeat themselves: even Rita Hayworth, born Margarita Carmen Dolores Cansino, rose to own The Beckworth Corporation, a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures.

So it is we note today the coming of age of Mexican juggernaut Salma Hayek, who has penned a sweet deal with the namesake company that brought us Singing in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz and, even, Soylent Green--MGM Studios. Click the Variety.com image below for the details; the original story appeared here; another take on the tale is here.