Frida’s Story: Artistic Choice or Cultural Catastrophe? : Latino Actors Suffer Effects of Narrow Eurocentric Vision

The usual explanations and justifications that have been used by Hollywood before have been trotted out again over the casting of a non-Latina (Italian-American actress Laura San Giacomo) as Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in the upcoming feature film “Frida and Diego” (Film Clips, Calendar, June 21).

Luis Valdez, the co-screenwriter and director, said they had to get a name (read non-Latina) to attract American audiences, which makes about as much sense as putting a dollop of mayonnaise on a traditional Mexican dish such as enchiladas or chile rellenos. Mayonnaise is a name product, but hardly part of a traditional Mexican dish.

“You go for the stars. You go for people who the public will know,” Valdez said in that Calendar article. So it would seem that Valdez and New Line Cinema--which last week withdrew from the project, saying it was no longer “financially viable”--do not believe that American audiences (read white) will come to see a movie about Latinos that actually has Latinos in the lead roles.

In a later Film Clips column (Aug. 2), Latino actors and actresses asked how they can ever get a name if they’re never given the opportunity? By denying the part of Frida to a Latina actress, the producers are in effect preventing a Latina from getting that name they say they most definitely need. A Catch-22 if ever there was one.

This sends a direct message to all Latino actors and actresses. You will not play the Georgia O’Keeffe roles nor the Buddy Holly roles, and we will not let you play the Frida Kahlo roles nor the Ritchie Valens roles either.

There is also a presumption that Latinos aren’t part of the fabric of America, no matter that names of several American cities and states are Spanish: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Fe, San Antonio, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Nevada, Colorado, California, among them.

In the Calendar stories, Valdez and New Line Cinema talked about artistic choice in the casting of Frida. Yes, Latino actor Raul Julia has been cast as Frida’s husband, muralist Diego Rivera, as if we lowly Latinos should be happy with half a plate of food.

But whenever I or my fellow Latino artists hear “artistic choice,” we automatically know that it means we will be excluded, as artistic choice never works in our favor.

Eurocentrism is firmly entrenched in the culture of the United States of America. Thus, any talk of art is always skewed from the Eurocentric point of view. When people state that Frida was half-Jewish, I kindly point out that Frida’s mother was Mexican and that she was raised Catholic, both of which exclude her from being Jewish unless she converts, which she did not.

Frida considered herself Mexicana and stood up for the rights of Mexican people all her life. She even changed the spelling of her name to make it less European (Freida to Frida).

Furthermore, whenever anyone who is half-European and half-ethnic achieves success, inevitably the European half is stressed in the media and history books, as if the ethnic side doesn’t account for their success. However, if the half-breed does something notorious, the ethnic half is stressed as being the root of the problem.

So here I sit, a frustrated Mexican-American, feeling all the more impotent for not being able to do something to protect the Latina of my culture, the actresses of the future and the artists of the past, the children, my cultures’ future and past.

We Latinos may have little to do with the exploitation of our culture, unless we stand up and speak. I have family that spilled blood in every war the U.S.A. has fought. Is this what they fought for?

Poor Frida Kahlo. She was unable to keep from being hurt and overshadowed by men in her life, both Latino and Anglo. I’m sure she doesn’t rest easy knowing that her Latina contemporaries are still being hurt and overshadowed by men and women, both Latino and Anglo. I’m sorry Frida. Lo siento.

Counterpunch is a weekly Calendar feature of commentary and opinion. Leaders in arts and entertainment and related fields offer their perspectives on vital issues of the day and their responses to columns and reviews.