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Radar Magazine, the 21st Century's attempt to match the (in this galleryblogger's opinion) best magazine of the 80s and 90s, Spy, has come up with its top ten list of cinematic stereotypes (Speedy Gonzales rates #2, go Speedy!). Click this link to read the entire link--Jar Jar Blinks's cameo is priceless.
It's interesting how the cinematic memory of this blog post only extends to 1961, which must seem like the dawn of history to the internets, but what I found missing, and frankly what I find missing from our discussion so far of stereotypes in film, is this steenkeen gem from the 1948 classic, Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Alfonso Bedoya's characterization of a bandido, while it may have, in context, been laudable, has been parodied and used to stereotype Mexican integrity for half a century. This one line, often misquoted, has packed a stereotypical punch far in excess of its word count.
ReplyDeleteBut maybe I'm overreacting. After all, to think that six words--"We don't need no stinking badges!"--profoundly propagates a generation or two of anti-Mexican racism is, in the words of George Lucas, "patently absurd."
Please see the December 31st, 2006 posting in the oldschool Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog to see that Bedoya, and his formidable contributions to Mexican stereotypes, have not been ignored by your humble author.
ReplyDeleteAh, I knew I could count on you, Maestro!
ReplyDelete