Latina Bombshells Revisited: The Miracle of Salma Hayek

originally posted: 5/6/08 6:16 PM
updated: June 16, 2012 @ 12:19PM

One of the hardest chapters to write in Tex[t]-Mex was the one on Lupe Vélez (you may need to be logged into a gmail account to have the Lupe-link work)--there, late in the game, I try, a tad unsuccessfully, I fear, to fast-forward my study into the present, with lurid, 21st-century meditations on the ecstatic sanctity of movie and television Latina celebrities; in that chapter, Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, and Eva Longoria make cameo appearances, with Salma doing yeoman's work womaning selections from a complex Premiere magazine interview, an exchange wherein Hayek eloquently and diligently articulates the limbolandia of being a Latina sexpot and only being a Latina sexpot. Which brings me to this clip from The David Letterman show on CBS wherein we gather the difficulty of her conundrum/situation (watch also for her anecdote that blends Catholicism with tales of the miraculous, a combo that echoes Santa Lupe Velez's situation as described in Tex[t]-Mex):

I love this photo of Salma--cigar smoking, strong, dynamic, and fierce, with eyes that confront the would-be watching subject with a post-Mulvey gaze that might paralyze. More food for thought as we consume our Tex[t]-Mex cuisine.

A page from the chapter on Lupe Velez in Tex[t]-Mex appears below--note the remarkable design/typography work by Lisa Tremaine: