Latin American and Caribbean Studies
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(De)Constructing the Mexican-American Border (1998) Introduction Today, if there is a dominant culture, it is border culture. And those who still haven't c
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(De)Constructing the Mexican-American Border (1998)

Introduction

Today, if there is a dominant culture, it is border culture.

And those who still haven’t crossed a border will do it soon.

All Americans (from the vast continent America)

were, are, or will be border-crossers.

Guillermo Gómez-Peña

Gringostroika

The Mexican-American Border constitutes a social space involving an exceptional amount of political, economic, and cultural interaction and conflict. Constructed and deconstructed over the course of nearly centuries, the border according to Norma Iglesias has been converted into a kind of floating culture in which there are no fixed categories from a racial linguistic or cultural point of view. The frontier culture is liminal and unstable, full of constant change, It is for that reason that Nestor García Canclini in Culturas Híbridas argues that “[l]a incertidumbre generada por las oscilaciones bilingüístas, biculturales y binacionales tiene su equivalencia en las relaciones con la propia historia” (299). The absence of fixed categories along the frontier, in turn, produces an anxiety that is mirrored in the uncertainty of cultural identity, since identity prefers stability and the rootedness of permanent “essences.”

The floating frontier is a social space of cultural hybridization, a space in which one’s identity shifts according to the perspective(s) that one inherits and the changing forces that affect social reality. For nearly two centuries, Mexicans and North Americans along the border have intermixed and produced a floating, hybrid culture that, paraphrasing Homi Bhabha in his article “The Commitment to Theory,” is neither Mexican nor American but rather is Mexican and American at the same time (10). The results of such a hybrid culture are manifested not only in language (Spanglish) but also in food, customs, art, and literature.

In “(De)Constructing the Mexican-American Border,” Latin American Issues provides an important discussion of the political, economic, and cultural conflicts and trends that have arisen in this social space. In their essay, Mónica Gendreau and Gilberto Giménez analyze the impact of economic and cultural globalization on traditional rural communities in central Mexico, particularly focusing on migration patterns to and from the United States, while Glenn Martínez examines the representation of the immigrant experience in contemporary Mexican cinema. Silvia Pellarolo, in examining the life of slain Tejana singer Selena, proposes a new reading on her construction as a cultural icon in cinema and the mass media in the United States. Richard Roman and Edur Velasco Arregui discuss the important economic changes that have taken place under the auspices of the Border Industrialization Program and NAFTA, placing special emphasis on the way these programs have differentially affected capital and labor. Alexandro Silva and Howard Campbell use Edward Said’s analysis of the Other to illuminate the largely negative stereotyping of the colonias (neighborhoods) that have proliferated in the United States border cities within recent decades, while Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez works from a cultural studies perspective to analyze the Mexican-American border as the space of the Other.

Each of the essays included in this issue helps to shed light on a complex and increasingly important set of realities that link the United States and Mexico.

Editorial Board:

Jaume Martí-Olivella

Fernando Valerio-Holguín

Giles Wayland-Smith

Article I

CITATION INFORMATION

Gendreau, M. and Giménez, G. A Central Community Among Multiple Peripheral Communities. Latin American Issues [On-line], 14(1).

Available: https://sites.allegheny.edu/latinamericanstudies/latin-american-issues/volume-14/

Article I

A CENTRAL COMMUNITY AMONG MULTIPLE

PERIPHERAL COMMUNITIES

The Effects of Economic and Cultural Globalization

on Traditional Rural Communities in Central Mexico1

Mónica Gendreau

Universidad lberoamericana Golfo-Central

Gilberto Giménez

Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México

I

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this report is to study the perception, and the observable effects of the processes of modernization and globalization from a perspective that is peripheral and regional, that is to say, from the point of view of the traditional rural communities in the center of Mexico and, more precisely, of those in the region of Atlixco, Puebla. Among other things, we will be addressing the questions of self-identity and community identity, in the context of global connectivity and the tension between global and local cultures. This implies, certainly, processes of social change and cultural change at a local level, not necessarily just in terms of homogenization and “de-traditionalization,” but also of adaptation, rearrangement, and even revival of the traditional cultures. In other words, the process of change is always unforeseeable and indeterminate and may vary between the dissolution and the re-integration of the communities in question –between the “dismembering” of these communities and their “remembering” (Shinar).

We shall give special importance in our analysis to two phenomena, each distinct and yet related in substance: international migration and exposure to media. We consider that these phenomena constitute the principal means of contact between the traditional cultures of the region we studied, and urban modernity and are thus being the most important factors for change.

On the one hand, international migration is frequently considered a one-way process, the natural result of which would be the disintegration of the communities from which it took place: the dissolution of their culture, anomie, and the generation of negative identities. We have found in the region, however, an alternative model in which migration instead contributes to the revitalization of the local communities and to the “trans-national” enlargement of their networks of sociability, thanks to the weak acculturation in the places of destination for migration and to the extensive communication that exists not only among the paisanos of the diaspora themselves, but also that which exists between these and their friends and relatives. This situation of absence-presence seems to characterize especially those workers who, due to conditions that we shall explain later, emigrate with the idea that they will return one day, considering migration only as a temporary strategy of survival, an improvement in the condition of their lives.

The mass media, on the other hand, have been seen as another window” to modernity, as people in very different parts of the world can see, hear and experience the same mediated events. Nevertheless, in the town under study, if it is true that some migrants have had access to new technologies of communication (tape-recorders, video cameras, etc.) we are finding that the inhabitants of this region do not know much about “the world” as such. When asked about various international events, or about national or even local celebrities, or happenings, they have no broad-spectrum knowledge of these. They are much more interested in national sports, in Mexican TV and movie celebrities, in very few politicians (e.g. the president or the governor of their state) and they are really quite informed only about local or regional sports, popular music, and community happenings.

This report presents some preliminary findings of a long-term research project in the Valley of Atlixco in the state of Puebla, Mexico. We have combined diverse methods in order to have a regional approach (we administered a survey) and a more profound and qualitative perspective (in-depth interviews and ethnographic work in two localities). Our objective has been to study the effects of migration and of media exposure on changing regional identities. In other words, to explore if there is an association between these two factors, migration and media exposure, because they are -as we said- the two principal means of contact between traditional cultures and urban modernity. Both of these have to be studied within broader subjects: the effects of economic transnationalization and globalization of mass media in traditional cultures.

II

Regional Economy in the Valley of Atlixco2

The region under study embraces five counties, with a population of 170,000. Almost 50% of these live in Atlixco City, and the rest are settled in a very dispersed pattern, in a variety of poor rural communities. The valley is well linked with the rest of the large cities in the state of Puebla by an interstate highway system, and throughout the region dirt roads connect many isolated communities with Atlixco City. With the exception of this city, which has diversified and developed economic activities, the regional economy is based on agriculture. Poor peasants live on subsistence agriculture that depends on very small plots of land. The average rural family plot consists of from one to five hectares. Economic differentiation is not based on land extension but on access to water and the ability to trade crops.

Agriculture, once sufficient to sustain a peasant’s family, now has become too scarce to warrant its subsistence and has forced people to look for alternative ways of earning money. Commerce and work for salaries have been used as alternative sources, and they have been accompanied by migration. The use of the family labor force, plus all available resources, and the exploitation of several pieces of land by the family, have been some strategies to survive.

Most exchange of farm produce takes place in the weekly market of Atlixco, but occasionally farmers bring their goods to some other nearby regional markets (Puebla, Izucar de Matamoros) or, through intermediaries, send their crops to Mexico City. There is also some exploitation of lumber, on a small scale.3

III

Migration to the United States

One of the factors contributing to the intensification of the present crisis in the Mexican farming country is, without doubt, migration. Its importance lies not only in the extent and variety of its patterns, but also in the short-range and medium-range repercussions it has, and will continue to have, on the manner of life and social relationships in rural areas. The question of migration, therefore, must be approached not only as geographic and labor mobility, but also as a form of contact with urban modernity, implying serious consequences of a sociocultural order such as change of customs, change of life forms, changes in social relationships, and changes in the method of organization and integration of families and communities.

D’Aubeterre explains that if, in the past, rural migration was a strategy resulting as a complement of agricultural activities, now it “represents the principal option around which are structured the lives and futures of an ever-increasing number of domestic groups” (D’Aubeterre). Therefore, it must be clear that, although the migrations began more than five decades ago in Mexico, the neo-liberal economic model has established the basis for the transformation of migratory patterns and also for the roles of women and families, even in the smallest localities.4

Migration to the United States has grown to astronomical proportions, above all in the last 10 years. Feminine migration toward the cities of the country has also intensified. The economic support of the migrants represents an important resource for the families of the area, besides creating repercussions of demographic, familial, and cultural character. For example, the migration of a majority of young men from an area affects the organization of work in families, and also the traditional models for marriage; the exodus of married men, also extremely important, has modified tremendously interaction among family members, and changed familial roles.

In the United States, the final destinations of migrants from this region are usually New York City, Los Angeles, and New Jersey. Robert Smith, a Columbia University specialist in this matter, said that there are more than 200,000 Mexicans living in New York, and a great proportion of them are from Atlixco (Smith).

This massive migration to the United States is possible thanks to strong, gradually built-up paisano5 networks, made up of family members and friends who have already received their immigration-status, legal-residency in New York, where they have started small businesses such as tortilla factories, bakeries, gardening services or flower commerce. Some have been incorporated into the service and industrial sector. These social networks link the communities of “expulsion” with some specific destination places in the U.S, and make transit back and forth between Brooklyn and Atlixco, for example, easy and widely experienced. This is how strong nexuses are built between migrants and non-migrants, within a framework of complementary relationships and interpersonal compromises based on an informal set of reciprocal expectations and prescribed conduct (Massey 170-171).

The sense of belonging to the same community of origin (paisanaje) gives a latent-bond dimension to their community that becomes explicit and significant each time a member migrates. Consequently, when migrants come together in the same place of destination, a strong sense of identity grows under the adverse circumstances of migration. Our informants said that paisanos of Atlixco Valley have founded soccer teams and music bands in New York City; they even have some special parks in which to meet on holidays. It is through newly-arriving migrants that the foreign community in NYC receives news, letters and gifts from Mexico.

Some communities under study in the Valley have begun to “remember” absent people, reserving them a symbolic place. This is not just because absentees send money to pay for the community celebrations, or because they have contributed to pay for community projects, such as drainage, the restoration of churches, or the painting of schools. They are still recognized as community members with their traditional rights because they have never stopped being an integral part of the place.

The festivity of the Patron Saint is still the most important social celebration for villagers, nurturing relationships among members of the community, both absent and present. This annual festivity has always been an important date for migrants to return, when it is possible, and remains a demonstration of community cohesion6 (Ginsburg; Melucci).

In this context it is easy to understand why migration of return is widely extended. Migration is seen simply as a temporary strategy of survival, a way of improving family and community-life conditions. In those cases studied, we could appreciate that migration strategies are usually taken by groups. For example, in an extended family, the elders decide who can migrate, for how long, and where. In these cases, they take care of the migrant’s wife, and family if he is married. They are also in charge of maintaining frequent contact with the migrant in order to ensure his loyalty and return. All this points out clearly that even though there are strong incentives for international migration, it is not an easy decision. It is taken strategically, at some precise time, and to fulfill specific objectives. Migration has its origin in family needs, and once they are accomplished, a strategy of return is implemented, allowing another member of the family to leave, again temporarily.

IV

Socio-Cultural Effects of Migration

It has been pointed out by some other researchers (D’Aubeterre; Massey; Marroni de Velázquez), and we concur, that some social and cultural patterns are altered as migration becomes a massive phenomenon. Significantly, those patterns related to women living in their towns of origin have suffered adaptations in various important dimensions of life: productive organization, family dynamics, and festive and religious practices, among others.

(1) In the first place, the structural tension created by the fact that family members live in separated places must be considered important. In cases of international migration especially, there are huge distances to be considered, and family integrity can be preserved only as long as migrants send the remittances needed to sustain their families. This kind of migration generates new ways of living, and affects not only couple-relationships and marriages but parent/children and parent-in law/daughter-in-law relationships as well. Economic support from the migrant is the basis of those familial relations; when it is interrupted, what is at stake is not only the difference between penury and well-being is at stake, but also reciprocity between generations and between men and women. The effects of this economic support on identity and the sense of community are profound.

(2) In the case of international migration, links between those who left and those who stayed are not under any familial or community-control mechanisms. They are based solely on the migrant’s sense of belonging, as fragile as it may be. In other words, migration forces a re-defined sense of belonging to a family, in terms of dues and rights. The same occurs to the sense of attachment to community. Not only are remittances needed to sustain the agriculture cycle, but they also are needed to improve community well-being and the maintenance of rituals and festivities, as well. D’Aubeterre and Massey conclude that remittances are becoming an essential factor for the reproduction of community social networks, enabling migrants to keep alive their social identity at home.

(3) Above all, international migration generates tensions and re-adaptations to the new situation of presence/absence of one or several family members. Women, especially, are under tremendous pressure because they have to assume more and varied responsibilities. These include that of being the family’s de facto head, and the new responsibilities derived from living under the surveillance of their parents-in-laws (since male migrants leave their families under their parents’ custody). For women, there is also the uncertainty, always present, about the possibility that the migrant could re-marry in his new place of residence (Fagetti).

Today there is no connection between the socially-accepted role and the actual role that women have to perform in rural Mexican societies. An understanding of the consequences of this contradiction, in the present and in the future, is crucial to understanding the changes in consciousness and condition of different family and community members, and above all, changes affecting women (Abric; Doise et Palmonari).

(4) It is no coincidence that among those communities studied, and others in the state of Puebla by D’Aubeterre, Fagetti and Marroni de Velázquez, migration is forcing a change in family-size. A large family, highly-valued in the traditional rural context, is not now compatible with the ever-increasing extra-domestic work of women caused by the migration of the men. Nor is it compatible with the young couple’s expectations to migrate together to the United States. The desire for small families is reinforced by those patterns operating in places of migration-destination outside the border of Mexico.

The current, profound agricultural and economic crisis has contributed to this new situation. Families see little future in agriculture work and as the costs of nurturing children rise, mostly because more children now attend school,7 the economic value of children has changed and young women have begun to visualize the need of having fewer children.

Finally, the men’s absence as family heads and the women’s new presence in the rural wage labor force have produced new links between the sexes and generations inside families, and in a wider social context also. For example, the in-laws, grandparents, parents, brothers, and, especially, mothers-in-law are left to control wives and their children when husbands are absent. Studies of several communities in Atlixco suggested that even though a migrant’s remittances enable his nuclear family to live in their own home place and build a house, his extended family maintains an important control over his spouse and family, even after his departure. In spite of this dependence, the wives of migrants continue to represent them, to assume their civic and religious community responsibilities, and to make decisions that could not be made while their men were present.

V

Re-membering and Dis-membering Migration

We have suggested the co-existence of two migratory patterns in the region studied, and their global effects on both the cultural and identity integration of the “expelling” community must be taken into account.

On the one hand, there exist communities that far from suffering de-segregation or deterioration from the effects of migration, seem to become revitalized and even enlarged beyond national borders, thanks to the absence-presence of its migrants in diaspora. In fact, these are the ones who left with the idea of returning and are those who not only re-create or simulate their native culture in new destinations,8 but also maintain an intense “long-distance” communication with their place of origin–by telephone, by correspondence,9 by remittances of money to their families, and frequently by periodic returns to their native places in order to participate in ceremonial rites and festivities.

On the other hand, we also found localities in the process of disintegration, with an accelerated loss of the pride of belonging (negative identity), whose members have lost all contact with their migrant relatives and whose young people only await their turn, the right occasion, to emigrate, too, as their plans for the future are considered to be completely outside the community.

Everything seems to indicate that the first migratory model, which we could call (paradoxically) “re-integrative migration,” requires certain essential conditions that function as powerful factors for bonding with the community of origin. These factors include a strong identity based on historic patrimony and/or on the common, ethnic-religious heritage; an attachment to place (the local or regional “topophile”) which is frequently associated with property, or the possession of land considered as a material and cultural inheritance; and, perhaps above all, a minimum of level of economic viability and social well-being that can sustain a viable community existence.

The second model, however, that of “disintegrative migration,” is seen more in peripheral areas of the region and is marked by a more severe agricultural crisis, and characterized by an extreme division of family parcels (a product of the demographic pressures on the farmers), and the impossibility of acquiring new and better land. Given these conditions, it could be said that the minimum conditions necessary for a relatively gratifying identity, together with a pride in belonging, are in no way present.

In our opinion, the first model described is that which occurs most frequently in the region. Based on a regional study, the estimated number of emigrants is reflected partially in the ratio of male inhabitants to females.10 The first results from the survey show us that 69.3% of the families have one close relative (husband, brother, son) working outside Mexico; 78.4% of these are men, and 78.7% of the men are between the ages of 16 and 30 years old –a period of years that is extremely productive. The places to which they emigrate are New York (65%); New Jersey (8.6%); Los Angeles (13.8%) and Chicago (7.1%). From these figures it is clear that the favored destination for the emigrants from the area studied is New York, where it is estimated that more than 200,000 persons from the state of Puebla are currently working (Statistics, Mexican Consulate, NYC).

On the one hand, if we analyze age groups, 72.5% of the young people between the ages of 15 and 20 said that the place where they would most like to live was their home area, and only 12.5% said they would like to live in Mexico City. This was the highest percentage for all the age groups. In the analysis of this information from a gender point of view, we found that there was no significant difference between the viewpoints of men and those of women –more that 84% feel great devotion to their place of origin, and would like to continue living there. Among the reasons given are the fundamentally affective ones: “because I was born there,” “everyone here knows me,” “because that’s where I have my land,” “in my town I am free; I can do whatever I want –like being in my cornfield,” “I can watch my children grow,” “in my town the people are good.” Whether reasons of an economic or instrumental type were not given (for example, because one lives well there, because there are jobs, or because there are enough resources there for one to advance. their regard is fundamentally a question of affective ties to the family, to the community and to the land –elements deeply rooted in the traditional rural culture of the region.

On the other hand, our survey revealed a tremendous persistence of local identity with, and fondness for, the place of origin. Some 85% of those interviewed defined their place of origin as “the place to which one feels most attached, and where one would most choose to live.” Only 4.9% said they felt more drawn toward a different place, such as Mexico City, or other states. A very low percent (1.3) felt affection for some place outside Mexico.

VI

San Pedro Cuauco and San Jerónimo Coyula:

An Ethnographic Approximation

Ethnographic observation seems to reinforce the existence of the two above-mentioned patterns of migration. We shall review two case studies in this respect –the first realized in San Pedro Cuauco and the second in San Jerónimo Coyula.

San Pedro Cuauco represents for us a clear example of what we have called “re-integrative migration.” San Pedro is a rural community (it has been officially re-baptized as San Pedro Benito Juárez) situated on the western periphery of the region under study, practically at the foot of the volcano Popocatépetl. The town is characterized by its lack of urban services of health, education, highway infrastructures, etc., although, paradoxically, it is not far from urban-industrial centers of importance such as the cities of Atlixco, lzúcar de Matamoros, and Puebla.

The locality is particularly rich in what we could call “ethnographic culture,” as it is permeated with a profound religious sense that is manifested in rites of life and death, in town festivities, in village dances, in nuptial ceremonies, and even in decisions concerning harvests. But this ethnographic culture also nourishes a deep sense of belonging, and many of its elements function as shared symbols of identity.

If it is true that the inhabitants of San Pedro recognize that they are “language brothers” –“the Náhuatl of our forefathers”– they do not identify themselves as a special ethnic group, but as mestizos and poor farmers. They feel “proud” of their blood and of their region; they participate actively in a rich variety of civil and religious community rites; and they reveal a profound attachment to their native land.

The cultural localism of this village comes into contact with modernity through two principal channels: migration and exposure to the media. In a former article,11 we have described these principal patterns and their effects. We shall only recall here that migration is principally a masculine phenomenon, that in most cases it is not considered as definite, but retaining the perspective of return,12 and that the destinations for migration are principally New York and New Jersey. “Nueva York… I Km. Nosotros le traemos o llevamos a sus familiares al aeropuerto de la Ciudad de México.” (New York… 1 kilometer. We bring or take members of your family to the airport of Mexico City): thus announces a sign painted on a wall of the town. It is as if the border of Mexico with the United States were reduced to the village scale, and were almost within sight.

Concerning the dimensions of the migration phenomenon, it should be sufficient to point out that 81% of the nuclear families have at least one migrant, and 28.3% have more than one. In addition, 89.2% of extended families have more than one migrant, and 10.8% more than two. This seems to indicate that the phenomenon of migration tends to affect almost every family in the village.

At least in the village under study, and in other localities of similar ethnographic culture, no sign was observed of “expatriation or cultural uprooting” among the migrants (actually absent), nor among the ex-migrants who had returned. What we observed were, rather, “repatriations” of the culture of origin, or new forms of relation to space. Thus, we found the migrants from San Pedro in New York or in New Jersey inhabiting city districts characterized by networks of solidarity, based on relationships that could be familial, neighborly, or based on compadrazgo (godparent-godson) ties. In these neighborhoods were reproduced, among other things, the alimentary culture and the festivities of the place of origin. Those we interviewed, for example, had friends and relatives in New York. The case of Nicolás, when interviewed, was illustrative: he said he worked in New York as a plumber and mason, lived with a group of Mexicans (who were mostly from Atlixco), and thus considered it was not necessary for him to “make a great effort to learn English,” as in the neighborhood and among friends everyone spoke Spanish.

In addition, emigrants maintain an intense long-distance communication with their place of origin, by telephone,13 through letters, and, above all, through remittances of money to their families. At a subjective level, this persistent linkage may be translated in symbolic and affective terms as terms of nostalgia and hope of return. Those we interviewed often expressed themselves with this eloquent paradox: “It is necessary to go in order to remain here.” With this, they want to say that the migration they face is only temporary, necessary for specific projects such as saving money to invest in more land, fixing a house, or fulfilling some social or religious obligation (such as a wedding or party). Concerning the nostalgia felt by the migrant in a foreign land, Nicolás, a 32 year-old “returnee” , expressed the feeling in this way:

“You miss your family; you can’t see your children; and there they have customs that are –well, I don’t know– different…. You don’t see the volcano; you’re used to taking care of your cornfield; well, all that counts…. One can’t “find oneself” there … [it is] just [that] necessity… sometimes is greater.”

To counter the somewhat idyllic vision that may be deduced from our description, we must add two observations:

(1) In the locality that was studied, generational variables seem to play an important role. In effect, we have been able to prove that the young people –unlike mature adults– manifest a greater propensity toward migration (some never return at all), tend to conceive their life projects outside the community, and seem more susceptible to “urban fascination.”

(2) Among some of those interviewed with more extensive migratory experience, we found cases of uncertainty as to identity, ambiguities, and conflict of loyalty. This is precisely what seems reflected in the expression of one of these returned migrants: “I have left and come back so many times that sometimes I feel I am neither from there nor from here.”

We suspect, without being able to prove it, that frequently these cases are related to the formation of a second family in the place of destination.

San Jerónimo Coyula, in contrast to the aforementioned village, this is a community that exemplifies the model of a “disintegrative migration,” one that in extreme cases could lead to the disappearance of the town through the slow “evaporation” of its male population. This is a town badly laid out, with no paved streets, and great deficiencies in urban services.

A considerable number of the families in this town, and more than half of the young people, consider that no future exists there for them; thus they live in hope of migration, manifest a clearly negative identity (characterized by a weak attachment to their community), and conceive plans for a future outside. Furthermore, many of the families own no land or have only a few fragmented plots of eroded land (an average of 2.5 hectares).14 This may be explained in part by the tremendous agricultural crisis throughout the region, which has affected this town greatly.

Then, too, some families begin to lose contact with their migrant sons because they no longer phone or write home frequently. Younger sons know that they, too, will migrate, and parents consider this “a good decision.” Finally, all seems to indicate that the lack of opportunities for an improvement of the situation favors the formation of negative identities, and the primary effect of this is the devaluation of a sense of belonging. In cases like these, migration, far from strengthening bonds with the community, is, instead, breaking them.

VII

Studying Media Exposure in a Family Context

The second of the channels of contact between traditional cultures and “globalized” modernity is that of means of mass communication, particularly those of radio and television.

The primary results of a survey carried out in the fall of 1997 comprise a sample of 34 localities in 5 municipalities.15 A total of 760 survey sheets were distributed at random, thus obtaining a representation of the entire population of the region. The first results, based on an analysis of 52% of the total, marked a clear tendency toward the use of media. Some 82.5% of the families own radios; 83.7% have TVs; and 23.9% can watch films on their videocassette players. The preferred radio programs are primarily musical. Adults listen to ranchera, norteña music and boleros, while young people like grupera and tropical music and, in few cases, rock music –in Spanish.16

The most frequently-watched television programs were found to be: telenovelas or soap operas (48.1%) and news programs (20.5%), decreasing in popularity to Mexican movies (10.8%). It is noteworthy that only national (94.8%) and local (5.2%) TV programs are watched. One important piece of information gleaned from our survey is that exposure to the media has not generated in the region a “culture of information,” as the majority of the persons interviewed are not all well-informed, even about regional events, through the media. What is more, upon being questioned as to the type of news programs they prefer to watch on TV, they mentioned only “nota roja” (red note) programs –those with an accent on the sensational (reporting of crimes, assaults, etc., as in “60 Minutes”)

Media exposure has been widely studied from a marketing context of audience analysis. With this method, only the total number of people watching or hearing a specific program in relation to some socio-demographic traits has been considered important. And such a per-capita method results from the thesis that a “mass society” is the main trait of a modern, industrialized nation, which in turn weakens traditional links and promotes individualism, and the isolation of people.

This focus, however, has been severely criticized from different theoretical perspectives. Fiske and Turner argue that audiences are “fictions” and have no empirical existence,17because they are only a collection of people having in common the TV set or radio turned on at the same time that some program is being transmitted.

An alternative perspective would be, then, to conceive people’s relationship to the media (watching TV or listening to radio) as a complex activity, inextricably linked to other domestic and daily practices (Ang; Silverstone; Morley). From here, we have concluded the need to study the specific forms in which a communicative technology acquires a particular significance. In other words, to study the communication context. This will help us to learn how the media are integrated differently into family and daily lives, in original ways, for different purposes, and for different types of families and people. If we adopt this focus, we may need to study the relationship of mass media with their public from a natural-environmental viewpoint, that is, from a family context, including the sociocultural framework in which it is embedded. This way of understanding audience-study asks us to use an ethnographic methodology as the most appropriate way to learn the media relationship to daily and familial contexts. Following Lull’s agenda, we made an ethnographic study of two families in the towns under review.

In San Jerónimo Coyula, we carried out a rigorous ethnographic study, or follow-up, of two families, with respect to their daily use of the mass media, taking into consideration both generational and gender differences.18 It is fit to emphasize here the importance of these two fundamental variables in defining a pattern of daily activities and their relationship to the media of mass communication. The results are consistent with the findings in San Pedro Cuauco, and with those of the regional survey. Both families have a member who migrated and returned more than 20 years ago; those who left now constitute the second generation of migrants.

Local authorities dated the first appearance of TV in town as 25 years ago, and its use has been extending gradually in such a way that almost all families now have at least one TV set. In fact, extended families often have two TV sets, usually located in the parents’ bedrooms and in those of the married children. Radio, the most popular medium in town, was introduced in the mid-1950s. Today, there is an average of two or three radio sets per family. There is no store selling newspapers or magazines, so they are acquired by these people while attending the market in Atlixco City. There is no cable TV in town, nor parabolic antennas. There are, however, a few families with VCRs, although videos for these can be rented only in Atlixco City.

The preferences of those interviewed, above all, adults, seem to be adjusted effectively to traditional codes of “popular Mexican culture.” Everything seems to indicate that people from San Jerónimo have became accustomed to staying at home for their entertainment. Thanks to radio and television, people now enjoy music, melodrama, and “agonistic events” (e.g. bull fights, boxing, soccer, etc.) in their own home, whereas formerly such entertainment was sought outside their homes at regional fairs, at shows given in tents, in village theaters, or on stages improvised in public squares.

Concerning the effects of exposure to the media, it was easy to prove that far from becoming a so-called “transnational public, de-territorialized and anonymous,” the inhabitants of San Jerónimo carefully select their musical programs and for entertainment choose programs that accord with los códigos populates locales (popular local codes).19

We have studied two families, one nuclear and the other extended, in order to find out if there is a significant difference in their relationship to the media in the course of their daily lives. They are both representative of traditional, poor, peasant families of the town, and both have at least one migrant member in N.Y.C. There has been TV in both families for two generations; nevertheless, there is some mistrust of new technologies among adults. There are no VCRs, no video games, no CDs.

Men work primarily in the field, planting their own small piece of land or becoming employed at a nearby farm. Their lives are organized, from sunrise to sunset, around fieldwork. They rest only one day a week; during weekdays they have to attend to their fields and their farm animals. This is an important issue in explaining their minimum relationship with the media. They rarely watch any TV program (sports, music, Mexican movies) and are not accustomed to reading any newspaper or magazine. Radio is much more important in their lives; it “accompanies” their domestic activities, but not their fieldwork.

As we found in the survey, their knowledge of national public life is limited to recognizing the president, a few cabinet ministers, perhaps the governor of their state, some national entertainers –mostly singers and soap-opera stars– and, above all, athletes (soccer players, mostly, and boxers). Local news is not media-transmitted. Radio programs come from state or national stations and news about local events is spread through interpersonal communication, either at the market in Atlixco, at reunions, at the mass on Sunday, at local committee meetings, or at parties. The men interviewed stated expressly that they have no “interest” in TV programs. Although there is a TV set in their home, they turn it on rarely, usually on Saturday or Sunday nights. They do not consider watching television a daily activity.

Women, on the contrary, stay most of the time at home or near it, and that is why they listen to the radio continuously, from morning until night. Although they have a TV set, and younger people turn it on in the evenings, older women “do not have time to waste.” Even soap operas, so common in Mexico’s TV programming, are considered to be “silly programs” and do not speak about “how expensive everything is” or about children growing up and looking for work.” One of those interviewed asserted that she has “to fight with her young children” not to watch TV because “it only fills their head with strange ideas.”

It is clearly proven that age plays a fundamental role in the integration of TV into daily life. Children and teenagers under 15 are more familiar than adults with TV programming, and watch it almost daily. Girls attending school are used to doing their homework in front of the TV set. They do not watch cartoons, however, but soap operas. Boys prefer to play with friends after home duties are finished. Although they do not choose programs, they like to watch cartoons (e.g., Power Rangers). Younger people like very much to listen to radio and tape-recorded music while being at home.

For entertainment, old and young people like to go out to Atlixco, to the Cholula fair, or to market. In the weekly market of Atlixco they buy home-taped cassettes (called piratas).20

These findings lead us to affirm the greater importance of radio and taped music when compared with TV programming. This may be due to the fact that as music is compatible with their daily activities; it does not require much of their attention and is used mostly as a “companion.” Thus, the primary sources of family information are: market days, family or party reunions, and the priest’s sermon during Sunday masses. Interpersonal communication among friends and neighbors is very important for learning about news that affects them.21

These initial data, collected in our fieldwork, suggest that mass media in this town are subordinate to family structure and to routine work. Nevertheless, it can be stated that young generations are showing higher and more frequent media-interaction. Adults not only show little interest, but some “distrust” for those urban programs “so far removed from reality.” Popular music and “agonistic”22 shows and events are selected to be interwoven into their daily routines. Media programming content responds to their codes of traditional culture. Even those returned migrants who have brought back from the United States sophisticated music sets such as CDs and stereo tape-recorders, always select Spanish music that corresponds to their popular codes.

VIII

Some Preliminary Conclusions

First, the contact of rural families with urban modernity through the migration of some of the family members is certainly provoking significant changes in local cultures. This can be said of objective forms (symbolic and labor behavior patterns, entertainment activities, daily life configurations, etc.) as well as of subjective ones (social representations, sense of belonging, attachment to the land, etc.). Indeed, it could not be otherwise; culture and a sense of belonging are dynamic realities ruled dialectically by the logic of continuity and discontinuity.

Changes are particularly visible in the context of family structure, where significant alteration can be observed, e. g., in the hierarchy of parents, in the evaluation of women’s fecundity, and, above all, in the symbolic and instrumental roles assumed by women as supplemental during the absence of their men.

It is interesting to observe how feminine roles change. For example, this change occurs at first as supplemental, conditional only upon the husband’s absence. Later, those new roles will enter into a hard “nucleus, ” or socially-accepted core (Abric). In other words, women’s out-of-home labor as land workers (jornaleras), which at first assumes a “supplementary” and “conditional” status, turns out to be highly valued, later, as “normal” women’s activity, not socially-faulted anymore. In this way, a psycho-social mechanism of cultural change clearly pointed out by socio-psychologists becomes evident (Flament 49). The following Diagram 1 schematizes this process.

Second, all this seems to indicate that in spite of the discontinuities observed, a logic of cultural and identity continuity still prevails. One has to mention adaptive strategies to face economic and migration phenomena, but these do not represent cultural or identity mutation, yet. The latter would imply a substantial or systematic alteration of local values and traditions. If one uses socio-psychological language, those changes observed are occurring mostly on the periphery of social representations (Jodelet; Dolse et Palmonari). The process modifies and enriches the system and its conditional prescripts, but without seriously affecting their hard nucleus.

Contrary to some linear-theoretical expectations of modernity which affirm that the result of an interaction between traditional and industrial cultures would inevitably be a process of detraditionalization and urban-acculturation, we found that international migration, in this region studied, has contributed mostly to reproducing and reinforcing the local culture and sense of belonging.

Diagram 1. Stages of Socio-Cultural Change23

1. External circumstances are modified (e.g., agriculture crisis and migration of some masculine family members). 2. Adaptive modification of social practices takes place (e.g. spouses assume some masculine roles while their husbands are absent). 3. (Cognitive) modification of conditional prescriptors (norms) related to those practices takes place (e.g. emergence of a new conditional prescription: women cannot work outside their homes, except in those cases when their wage is needed). 4. (Cognitive) modification of absolute prescriptors occurs (e.g., incorporation of a new absolute norm in the social representation nucleus: women can work outside their homes anytime and anywhere).

In fact, migrants not only behave as fellow countrymen neighbors in a Diaspora, with its own identity, integrated only superficially and weakly into dominant reception by urban cities, but they also continue to consider themselves active members of their communities of origin and are well recognized as such back in their towns. Moreover, they continue to have a symbolic place in village festivities. One can say, then, that migration has contributed to widening the local community dimension in an international network that still includes its absent members. This phenomenon corresponds to a specific migration pattern, one to be considered as a temporary specific strategy for survival and improvement and one that includes, consequently, a perspective of return. It is true that if migrants want to stay in their towns, they have to leave at least for a while.

However, we must add that this model, undoubtedly the most generalized in the region under study, is only verified under specific conditions that we have tried to identify on previous pages. As a matter of fact, there is an important variation contradicting such a model. In some peripheral communities in the same region, characterized by extreme poverty –e.g., complete land erosion, property fragmentation or generalized agricultural crisis– one can find a “shameful” local culture, which generates negative identities by destroying local solidarity, weakening community traditions of loyalty, and dissolving land attachment. In those cases, as reported in the southern Atlixco Valley in a region called the Mixteca Poblana, migrants have lost contact completely with their community and do not send any remittances to their families.

One of the communities under study, San Jerónimo Coyula, has begun to illustrate this situation. Young inhabitants in particular despise their community; their future is conceived as being completely outside their town and region. These cases verify the fact that only relatively gratifying and successful identities –based on some sort of minimum economic viability– can be factors for holding them back and allowing them to develop a sense of proud belonging. On the contrary, negative or stigmatized identities can be a source of underestimation, inferiority complex, dissatisfaction, and crisis (Bassand 6).

These variations show the multi-directional and non-forecastable character of cultural and identity changes. Taking into account this variety and incertitude one has to say that, depending upon the cultural strength and group identity, these changes can vary between a complete abandonment and a regenerative renovation, between “dismembering” and “remembering” (Shinar). In other words, cultural change through ,’modernization” could be based either on reactivating a collective identity anchored in basic traditional paradigms (“root paradigms”) re-functionalized through “re-aggregative processes,” or it could bring dissolution of this same identity, either by the adoption of foreign cultural paradigms or by violent collision with them (“dismembering of dissolution processes”) (Shinar).

Third, concerning the mass media, the limited effect of this in cultural change, at least in the localities under study, can be noted. On the one hand, it seems that the thesis of cultural consumption of mass media, already sustained in preceding works, has been confirmed: local audiences select their programs from popular codes long-standing in this region. Programs selected are: “agonistic” spectacles (wrestling contests, boxing, soccer, etc.), soap operas, Mexican movies (always designed to follow the popular melodramatic code), and popular ranchers music (norteña, grupera, etc.), all in Spanish.

On the other hand, there is a different hierarchy in the daily use of mass media: audiovisual media (TV, VCRs, etc.) are not dominant, as we expected; those which are auditive, such as recorded music and radio, are more popular.

This fact can be explained because mass media, far from determining daily interaction patterns in a significant way, are clearly subordinated to the domestic and agricultural work-structure and rhythm of the people. Radio, for example, is used mostly as a “sound background,” an accompaniment for other activities, both intra-domestic and extra-domestic. It is not used as a means of information, because this is mostly spread through traditional channels like face-to-face interaction at fairs, the marketplace, churches and popular spectacles. Today, as radio is more compatible with the daily routines of the families studied, and does not require as much attention as TV, it retains the dominant position in the mass media hierarchy.

Young people, however, especially those attending school, feel themselves more attracted to TV and demand more time of access; this is not to be overlooked.

Our final conclusion could be summarized as follows: economic globalization and transnationalization of mass culture through mass-media, far from creating a “global community,” have determined a much more complex and diverse world configuration. If we consider a “central community” of industrialized, capitalist countries with a myriad of “peripheral communities” rotating around them, we see that although these satellites may be economically dependent. they still maintain their cultural differences.

Notes

A preliminary version of this article was presented at the 47th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, “Communication in the Global Community” held in Montréal, May 23rd. 1997.return to text

The Valley of Atlixco has been inhabited since the pre-Hispanic epoch. There are still some indigenous mores, although the native language (Nahuatl) is almost extinct. During the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz (I877-1911), peasants living on old haciendas or in small towns were linked exclusively to the agricultural activity of the hacienda. During the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917), this region was convulsed by fighting everywhere. Once land reform took place, between 1925 and 1933, the pattern of agricultural exploitation became established: small ejido property worked by poor peasants beside some large private properties (ranches and farms) producing commercial agriculture and livestock. An ejido was a piece of land given to peasants who fought for it during the Revolution. For more than 70 years the Mexican government was supposed to give an ejido to countrymen asking for it as a political measure for maintaining peace. During the Carlos Salinas administration (1988-1994), however, the Constitutional Guarantee of Agrarian Reform ended, with a recognition of the limits of land distribution, and established the basis for capitalist commercial exchange, exploitation, and association for any peasant with land.return to text

There is a wide variety of agricultural crops within this region (flowers, vegetables and fruits, peanuts, corn and beans) and the sexual division of labor is homogeneous with respect to farm activities. Men specialize in two kinds of work: that which requires physical strength (maneuvering the yokes of draft animals, lifting heavy bulks, cleaning irrigation channels, etc.) and that which is related to modern technology (the application of agrochemical pesticides and fertilizers, truck and tractor driving). Women, on the other hand, are linked to manual work related to traditional technologies, or within modern technology they are hired for activities requiring delicate and skilled tasks (cutting flowers, seeding, weeding, transplanting, etc.) (Marroni de Velázquez 145-147).return to text

In the period 1940-1960, the migratory currents were principally internal, moving from rural zones to urban zones in the interior of the country, although at an international level some contracts for migrant workers had been initiated. The last decades, however, have witnessed the development of new migratory patterns as well as new migratory destinations, new forms of insertion into the receptive economy, and the growing incorporation of women into both internal and international currents. This has been the case in the Valley of Atlixco: the process of migration that began at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s had, at the beginning, an individualistic character, but little by little it began to acquire a character so massive that it ended by affecting all families involved.return to text

The term paisano means someone from the same region, that is, someone belonging to the same place of origin. This attachment to the land, the traditions, and the customs of a definite region allows migrants to seek out members from their communities of origin while out of the country –in order to get work, find a place to stay, or to receive help.return to text

In a small town south of Atlixco City, a woman who lived 35 years in NYC has returned to her village to organize the festivity of the Patron Saint this year. She and her three sons saved money in order to make such a big celebration (costing more than $5,000) that nobody could ever forget it. So they “saved” their symbolic place in their community (La Jornada de Oriente).return to text

Some interesting aspects of this change in family patterns can be found. D’Aubeterre has shown that there is a change in rural desires. Men and women clearly perceive the need to let their children attend school, which she calls a real “Aspirations Revolution.” This could be the outcome of many factors such as the profound and lasting rural crisis; undervalued manual and non-skilled work; government educational programs; and TV programs showing examples of urban life and migration, among others.return to text

A frequently observed phenomenon in the sociology of migration is the tendency of the migrants to re-create the culture of their place of origin in the place of destination. This gives an explanation for the emergence of urban districts that are transformed –literally remodeled– by the symbolic characteristics of migrant ethnic minorities in many North American cities: “Chinatown,” “Little Havana, ” etc. In cases like these, estrangement from the place of origin does not automatically signify loss of cultural identity. On the contrary: it would be more exact to say there has been a “re-territorialization” of the native culture, or a re-composition of the identity of origin, in a situation of diaspora.return to text

A recent investigation on Mixtec migrants at the border in Tijuana confirms that communication by letter is the means of contact with their community of origin most frequently used. This is surprising if one takes into account the low scholarly level and the oral character that is traditionally attributed to indigenous cultures (Velasco Ortiz 165-166).return to text

This ratio is expressed as the total number of men for each 100 women. In the region of Atlixco, this ratio is 95.8% which shows some sort of population equilibrium. Nevertheless, this ratio is 40 men per 100 women in some localities, which shows massive male migration. In others the ratio is 110 to 130 men for each 100 women, which gives an approximate indication of the economic viability of those places where men remain owing to the possibilities of employment.return to text

“San Pedro Cuauco between Popocatépetl and Brooklyn… Mexican Migrants Return from U.S to their Home States in Mexico”, a paper presented at the 45th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) held in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1995.return to text

For many the return is conditional upon the agricultural cycle that begins with plowing in April or the harvest in October. Others return to fulfill civil or religious duties in the festivities celebrating the Santo Patrón (Patron Saint) on June 29, and in those of San Miguel, in September. However, absences from the village tend to become prolonged, at times for up to several years, and, in some infrequent cases, become definite.return to text

In San Pedro Cuauco there is a public telephone booth. From this booth Don Pancho, an elderly man whom we interviewed, frequently calls his sister, who works in Michoacán; he also receives calls on Sunday mornings from members of his family who are working in New York City.return to text

What is more, part of these have been expropriated in order to construct a super-highway that will connect the center of Mexico with the port of Acapulco. This can generate tremendous pressure from real-estate speculators and urbanizers, who will see in this the ideal place for the construction of vacation homes for wealthy people in Puebla City.

Municipalities (in Spanish, municipios) are the political administrative divisions of the territory, similar to counties in the United States.return to text

Ranchera is Mexico’s country music, accompanied mostly by guitars and mariachi bands; boleros are romantic songs accompanied, usually, by a guitar trio; tropical music comes from the Caribbean, as a rule, while musica norteña, from the northern part of Mexico, has a distinctive, marked rhythm. Música grupera is a new type of country music, played with rock instruments; this is chiefly music from the border, and its words reflect topics of border life, and, often, difficult situations faced by migrants.return to text

They are “‘fictions’ in a sense that they are statistics abstractions created by the researcher, but whose subjects are not found in any relationship or interaction” (Merton 249).return to text

We have been working on this project for more than two years, and this gives us sufficient authority to pick out two families that are truly representative of rural family life in this area. This ethnographic work was realized with Julio César Tapia from May through October, 1996. Although we have done a regional survey to learn about local access to media, we wanted to begin this ethnographic approach in order to have a deeper insight into this phenomenon.return to text

We understand by “popular code” a repertory of “re-conceived possibilities and pre-fabricated representations” (Jakobson 20) corresponding to the vision of “los de abajo”(those from below). According to several authors, this code is basically realistic (Bourdieu 257-403; Abercombie 115-140) as it assumes that cultural forms must be plausible and significantly suitable to the perception of reality in every-day life. In rural Mexico there is still in force a customal “realism,” consisting of a certain ranch culture carefully chosen and popularized by movies of the “golden epoch.” In our opinion, this culture still defines the essential in popular rural taste. It is a culture of a simple structure, giving preference to songs that tell a story, or are lyrically amorous, frequently dramatic, and of a strongly sentimental tone (corridos, boleros, canciones rancheros). Preferred in the field of escape-entertainment are melodrama, agonistic events (wrestling, boxing, cock fights, bull fights) and humor of a mocking double entendre sort that inverts hierarchies in a jocular manner and promotes hilarity.return to text

They are not officially recorded, but taped from an original and sell at a lower price, about ten pesos each ($1.20).return to text

Contrary to what has been found in a suburban context , (Barrio) TV programs do not constitute a great source of conversation among family members, and, as we have said, local news is not radio-transmitted. An example: recently, Popocatépetl has been renewing its volcanic activity, and state authorities have designed emergency evacuation plans for the population. These plans, however, have been communicated to the population principally by local school Parent-Teacher Associations, by local authorities’ meetings, and by the priest’s weekly sermon. This shows that local contact with the public sphere, regional or national, is minimal, and people do not learn much about any public campaign through the mass media. Local government is considered “auxiliary” to that of county authorities.

These are events similar to those performed in popular fairs, such as boxing, bull fights or soccer.return to text

We are supposing that internalized culture can be equated to “social representations” conceptualized by European social psychology (Moscovici). Social representations, in turn, can be defined as an organized set of cognitions related to an object. Those “cognitions” could be descriptive or prescriptive, and the latter can be either absolute or conditional.return to text

Article II

CITATION INFORMATION

Martínez, G. Mojados, Malinches, and the Dismantling of the United States/Mexico Border in Contemporary Mexican Cinema. Latin American Issues [On-line], 14(2).

Available: https://sites.allegheny.edu/latinamericanstudies/latin-american-issues/volume-14/

Article II

MOJADOS, MALINCHES, AND THE DISMANTLING

OF THE UNITED STATES/MEXICO BORDER

IN CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN CINEMA

Glenn A. Martínez

The University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Mexican cinema boasts a wide variety of films that deal with the immigrant experience in the United States. Maciel has noted that the trajectory of such films dates as far back as 1922 when the silent film El Hombre sin patria was first screened. Maciel’s research focuses on immigration related films in Mexican cinema up until 1963, and he reaches the conclusion that Mexican film makers have systematically and, for the most part, uniformly represented Mexican-Americans as traitors to their country. He says: “…en México la gente de origen mexicano que vivía en Estados Unidos vino a ser ‘el México olvidado’ o mejor dicho estereotipado. De acuerdo con esa visión, aquellos orgullosos mexicanos que residían más allá del río Bravo no eran más que pochos, por lo cual no merecían mayor atención o simpatía” (187). In this respect, the early cinematic representation of Mexican-Americans seems to be somewhat Manichean in that the subjects are viewed as transgressors of an unquestioned “natural” law that demands loyalty to one’s cultural roots. Maciel analyzes another film entitled El Hijo desobediente (1945) which makes this point clear. The film seems to extend the Biblical parable of the Prodigal Son to the immigration issue. The protagonist returns to Mexico after having been in the United States for the past fourteen years and after having adopted the “American way of life.” His acculturation is so extreme that he changes his name from José Flores to “Joe Flowers.” Joe’s acculturation takes on ethical implications because his ultimate redemption from the sin of betraying his culture is achieved through his decision to remain in Mexico and marry a Mexican woman.

The contemporary films analyzed in this essay also represent the Mexican-American as malinchista; however, the more recent representation through the eyes of undocumented workers transcends the ethical imperative that resonates in the earlier films. The perspective of the Mexican-American as malinchista in these latter films is embedded in a process of immigrant ” self-fashioning” in which the undocumented worker appropriates the differentiation imposed upon him/her by affirming his/her mojado identity, and thus creates a space for her/himself. Mexican-Americans are presented as malinches because they have adopted the American way of life and, by doing so, have betrayed their Mexican heritage. In other words, the Mexican-American has, from the cinematic perspective, dissociated him/herself from that space which s/he once shared with the undocumented worker. The dissociation from Mexican cultural heritage reduces Mexican-American identity to a mere projection of hegemonic Anglo culture. The mojado encounter with the Mexican-American, therefore, surfaces in these films as part of a more global counter-hegemonic discourse where the dominance of both Mexican-American and Anglo cultures are subverted. The discourse makes its way into cinematic expression through mechanisms associated with the comedic genre. It begins to take shape within the context of immigrant self-fashioning, and it results in the strengthening of mojado identity and the subversion of border discourse.

The following five comedy films will be analyzed in this essay: El Ranger y el mojado, Alicia en el país del dólar, Mojado … pero caliente, Supermojado, and El Tratado me vale … Wilson. The fact that all of these films are comedies is important in that modem Mexican cinematic expression finds therein a position from which to launch its counterhegemonic discourse. Humoristic genres in general spring from what Broyles-González has termed “oral performance culture.” In Mexico, this tradition reaches its most refined expression in the carpa.1 The cultural logic that governed the carpa survives to this day in Mexican popular culture in the form of comedy films. The carpa tradition is intimately bound to oral culture, and this, in turn, is inextricably interwoven in the context of the “lifeworld.” This suggests that oral representation is imbued in a context of human action and that it has an operational content. Human action is taken to refer to the cultural practices of interpreting the world, living in the world, and creating and altering the world. The net result of placing human action at the forefront is a growing awareness of cultural conflict. Walter Ong states, “By keeping knowledge embedded in the human lifeworld, orality situates knowledge within a context of struggle” (qtd. in Broyles-González 24). Thus, the tradition of the carpa and, by extension, of contemporary humorous films, configures and transmits knowledge in such way as to incite consciousness of human struggle in general, and of cultural conflict in particular.

In the carpa tradition, the site of cultural conflict is located in class inequality. The interpretative system of this cultural production is distinct from that of hegemonic culture precisely because it emanates from the experience of the lower social classes. Cultural contestation is usually perpetrated by a single archetypal figure, which in this case would be the pelado. In his essay, El Perfil del hombre y la cultura en México, Samuel Ramos defines the pelado as a person who is totally marginalized from mainstream society and who, in turn, is spiritually and psychologically empty due to this marginalization. The pelado’s physical and verbal behavior is intimately tied to his marginalization and to his feelings of inferiority. Ramos explains, “la terminología del pelado abunda en alusiones sexuales que revelan una obsesión fálica, nacida para considerar el órgano sexual como símbolo de la fuerza masculina. En sus combates verbales atribuye al adversario una femeneidad imaginaria, reservando para sí el papet masculine” (54). This extreme machismo is, according to Ramos, nothing more than a facade behind which the pelado hides his true being.

The pelado’s behavior within the context of the tradition of humoristic performance forms part of bahktinian “grotesque realism.” This refers to a specific counter-hegemonic discourse strategy in which the “lower stratum of the material body” gain prominence, and thus it inverts the normal order of things. The inversion of high and low represents an inversion of the sites of cultural power. In other words, hegemonic discourse is reinterpreted in “carnavalesque” terms. In this way, humor and laughter displace the sobriety and well-manneredness characteristic of the dominant culture. The lowering of the sites of cultural power implies an empowerment of the lower classes and, therefore, it is common in this tradition that the underdog subvert authority and come out on top, even if such subversion is merely temporary or illusory (Broyles-González; Fregoso).

It seems that contemporary Mexican cinematic expression has inserted the archetype of the mojado in place of the pelado. In Mojado … pero caliente, Supermojado, and El Tratado me vale … Wilson, grotesque realism and the pelado archetype coalesce in the figure of the mojado. Aside from the constant sexually oriented jokes and the characters’ persistent need to feel themselves to be “el más chingón,” these films each contain a scene in which the protagonist encounters a homosexual. Homosexuality represents, for the protagonists, the inversion of “machismo.” He interprets “Homosexual” as the binary opposition of “macho,” i.e., what a man should be and what he should not be. The protagonists’ reaction is predictable in each of the three instances; they run away. In El Tratado me vale … Wilson, however, it is not only the protagonist’s reaction that signals the macho/homosexual opposition; the opposition is also created at the level of the film itself vis-à-vis the audience. The first scene of the homosexual is accompanied by subtitles that say: “¡Ay, güey! En la madre, estos migras se ven raros, parecen pu… ¿Serdá o no serdá? No, sí son. Sí se la papean.” Furthermore, it is not only the macho/homosexual opposition that is being created in this scene but also the opposition of delinquent/authority, given the fact that the homosexual is also a Border Patrol agent. The two oppositions interact in such a way that associations become crossed. The macho delinquent subverts the homosexual authority and, on the grounds of “manliness,” strips the homosexual of his authority and designates him delinquent. This scene anticipates the end result of the process of dismantling borders in several ways. Most crucially, the inversion of the mojado’s delinquency suggests a re-interpretation of the authority, not only of the Border Patrol Agent, but also of that which he represents, i.e. the United States – Mexico border. In Supermojado the encounter is even more degrading. When the protagonist runs away from the homosexual, the homosexual pejoratively calls him “¡Mojado! “. The protagonist’s response to him is, ” Sí, pero a mí se me quita lo mojado la amnistía y a usted no se le quita lo joto ni mandándolo a vulcanizar.” Aside from the implications this might have on the protagonist’s own image of himself as a mojado, the opposition macho/homosexual is doubly marked because the insult consists of not only attacking the homosexual’s present state of being but also the essential quality of that state, i.e., neither is he a “macho” nor can he ever be so. This machismo, and more precisely, its formulation in terms of sexuality and homosexuality reveal that the mojado has indeed taken the place of the traditional pelado figure and that this figure’s self-defining process is brought about in a “carnavalesque” framework.

These films attempt to extract humor out of the experiences of undocumented workers in the United States. The relative success or failure of an immigrant to integrate into United States society varies most crucially according to the immigrant’s legal status (Massey et al.). Papeles begin to take on metaphysical connotations because the individual’s social identity depends on them. Undocumented immigrants feel utterly constrained by a perennial dark cloud that looms over them and marks them as delinquents. Their delinquency stems, however, not from deviance per se, but rather from their mere physical presence. Thus, they must at all times be on the look out for fear of getting caught because at all times they are doing something wrong, i.e., being. This “psychology of fear” tends to hinder the individual’s interaction with other people. In this sense, the undocumented immigrant is mistrustful of nearly everyone. The vulnerability and the knowledge that at any moment the Border Patrol may strike is lucidly revealed in Mojado… pero caliente. One compadre warns the other:

Oiga, compadre, abusado con esa madre. Anda la migra dura, eh. Pos anda dura, no la migra, la CIA, la FBA, la CBB, la ABC y la chingada.

Y esos, ¿quiénes son?

No sé, pa’ la chingada, son iniciales que usan aquí en los Estados Unidos. Anda duro el pedo. Cuídese compadre.

¿Y la migra también?

También, y van a venir pa’ este rumbo.

No mames, compadre.

This scene reveals vulnerability, yet at the same time, it reveals the way in which vulnerability is dealt with. Authority is openly mocked. The first compadre juxtaposes a real threat, “la migra,” with several imaginary ones, “FBA, CBB”. Such juxtaposition reduces both threats to absurdity and, by extension, subverts the authority of the border itself. In Alicia en el país del dólar the psychology of fear once again shows itself to loom over the characters although in this case the mojada seems much more submissive to border authority. Alicia, the mojada, is speaking with her boss, and he says:

Boss: Además, no todos los mexicanos están tan amolados como usted dice. Hay algunos que cooperan con la economía nacional como usted. Usted manda todo su sueldo en dólares a su mamacita para incrementar la economía de México.

Alicia: Y a mi que ma… que me importa la economía. ¿Usted cree que está a todo dar, estar por acá chambeando, nomás mandando dólares pa’ llá, y que no sepa en dónde anda uno, corriendo peligro con la migra…?

Boss: ¿La migra?

Alicia: No, nada.

In this scene Alicia becomes so involved in her lament that she forgets that her boss doesn’t know that she is illegal, and this is why she suddenly evades the question altogether. However, it is revealing to note that she considers “corriendo peligro con la migra” as one of the most negative factors in her immigration experience.

Mexican-American attitudes towards illegal immigrants is another factor that contributes to the slow pace of social integration. These attitudes are by no means uniform, but rather seem to co-occur with factors of socioeconomic class. Generally, middle class Mexican-Americans are more sympathetic towards illegal immigrants because they are not in direct economic competition with them as is the case with those from the lower classes (Miller et al., Polinard et al.). Rodríguez and Núñez show that conversely, undocumented workers perceive Mexican-Americans as lazy and lacking in family values. Thus in the encounter between Mexican-Americans and undocumented workers there is a conceptual clash. The dialectic between Mexican-Americans and illegal immigrants is clearly present in contemporary Mexican cinema. El Ranger y el mojado, for instance, opens with a scene where the Mexican American Border Patrol agent, Officer Téllez, is in pursuit of the mojado. The Agent clenches a rifle in hand and attentively gazes into the distance. He turns his head towards the ground and sees footprints. Upon examining the footprints, he says “Ajá, desgraciado” referring to the “mojado”. The imagery evokes the feel of a hunt, where the rational, calculating hunter is in hot pursuit of his bestial prey. Still examining the footprints, the Agent hears behind him the sound of a rattlesnake. He lifts his rifle, shoots the snake, and says, “Desgraciado, si vives no vas a poder tener hijos”. The term “desgraciado” is applied both to the snake and to the mojado; this parallelism metaphorically reduces the mojado to the status of the snake, that is to say, it animalizes him, and in this way establishes the differentiation. In El Tratado me vale … Wilson, the differentiation takes place on several levels. First, the antagonist, Wilson, always refers to illegal immigrants pejoratively as “meksicanos”. Second, in one of the opening scenes of the film, Wilson is shown gratuitously running over Mexicans in his truck. These images are counterpoised by subtitles that say:

Jony Wilson

Nombre clentífico: Ohaio Tripicantropus Erectus

Nombre común: Pinche Gringo Ojete

Thus, differentiation is established both at the level of the character vis-à-vis the protagonists and of the film itself vis-à-vis the audience. In all of these films, the Mexican-American’s differentiation from mojados seems to be a reflex of his/her allegiance with Anglo hegemony and the authority of border discourse.

Mexican-American differentiation thus forms part of a more widespread hostile environment that is perceived by the illegal immigrant upon crossing the border. The hostility is further compounded by identity loss which, in turn, gives rise to a sense of powerlessness. Identity loss comes as a direct result of loss of legitimate legal status that occurs upon crossing the border. Legal status seems to be a crucial component to the human psyche in general because it confirms an individual’s identity. An individual knows who s/he is because s/he has papers, documents, identification that can prove it. Loss of identity through illegitimization of legal status involves more centrally, however, an issue of power. Once identity is confirmed, an individual has the power to fashion it, to build up her/himself. Border crossing implies not only the loss of identity, due to illegitimate legal status, but also the loss of power and autonomy to shape identity. This state of affairs impels the immigrant to draw power from a source other than legal status in shaping his/her identity; therefore, it might be said that integral to the border crossing experience is a process of immigrant self-fashioning or re-fashioning. The concept of “self-fashioning” was originally proposed by Greenblatt within a specific Renaissance context; however, it may be extrapolated to the present context with little justification. The process being represented in these films differs essentially from Greenblatt’s original conception in that the latter is more concerned with climbing the social ladder while the former is a strategy employed to recover lost identity. The processes, however, are similar in that both strive for the attainment of power. In the Renaissance version, power is intertwined with cultural institutions, yet in the present version, it is more aligned with the justification and confirmation of a new or assumed identity. Some of the characteristics of Greenblatt’s Renaissance self-fashioning that seem pertinent to immigrant self-fashioning are:

None of the figures inherits a title, an ancient family tradition or hierarchical status that might have rooted personal identity in the identity of a clan or caste.

Self-fashioning for such figures involves submission to an absolute power or authority situated at least partially outside the self–God, a sacred book, an institution such as church, court, colonial or military administration…

Self-fashioning is achieved in relation to something perceived as alien, strange, or hostile. This threatening Other–heretic, savage, witch, adulteress, traitor, Antichrist–must be invented or discovered in order to be attacked and destroyed.

The alien is perceived by the authority either as that which is unformed and chaotic (the absence of order) or that which is false or negative (the demonic parody of order). Since the accounts of the former tend inevitably to organize and thematize it, the chaotic constantly slides into the demonic, and consequently the alien is always constructed as a distorted image of the authority. (24)

After crossing the border, the immigrant starts with nothing and finds her/himself unable to extract authority intrinsically. The authority they find is rooted in their past and, specifically, in the ethical imperative of maintaining loyalty to their cultural heritage characteristic of earlier Mexican films. In essence, the loss of power to shape identity is responded to by illusorily clinging to what was left behind. Rodríguez and Núñez show that one major factor of differentiation between illegal immigrants and Mexican-Americans is the fact that the former maintain a Mexico frame. The hope of one day returning to Mexico is fundamental to the Mexico frame. The authority, therefore, is founded within the small group of immigrants who also maintain this loyalty to fatherland. In Alicia en el país del dólar the desire to return to Mexico permeates the discourse of the characters. This can be noted in the following scene where Alicia’s boss finds out that her entire family has been living in his house without his knowledge. After being fired, Alicia and her family begin packing their things and her brother says:

Brother: Nos vamos a regresar a México. ¡Bendito sea Dios! Ya no voy a estar viviendo como un puma encerrado en su jaula del zoológico de Chapultepec.

Alicia: Ay, sí. A México. Si allá están peor. No tienen ni dinero ni para comprar unas méndigas tortillas.

Brother: Y ¿para qué queremos tortillas? Nos podemos agarrar los frijoles con los dedos. Mother: Y ¿cómo quieren que tengamos qué tragar si nomás estamos deflojos por acá? Nos gusta lo fácil. Si nos pusíeramos a trabajar nuestra tierrita, tendríamos frijoles, tendríamos leche, tendríamos harina. Tendríamos todo. Pero nos gusta lo facilito.

Brother: Tiene razón la jefa.

Alicia: Pos sí, tiene razón. Vámonos pa’ México. Que se queden estos nomás con su dinero.

What is most interesting about this scene is Alicia’s radical change in perspective. At first, she doesn’t want to return to Mexico and thinks that conditions will be worse there. Her mother, however, offers a different interpretation. She suggests that the problems stem from their own unwillingness to work. The problem in Mexico, then, is not the economy, but rather that “nos gusta lo facilito”. Alicia accepts this reasoning and thus, ultimately, shows her loyalty to Mexico.

In submitting to the authority of nationalism which is characterized by remaining loyal to the cultural heritage and by maintaining the desire to return to Mexico, the illegal immigrant often appropriates the differentiation placed upon him by United States society. This appropriation constitutes the fundamental source of power through which the characters of these films fashion their identity and, as a result, subvert the authority of border control. The immigrant appropriates and identifies with the sign “mojado” and reinterprets it as an indicator of his/her commitment to Mexico and of his/her resistance to acculturation. Supermojado offers several excellent examples of this appropriation. The climactic scene of the movie occurs after the Border Patrol has apprehended Sonia, a friend of the two protagonists, Tacho and Choforo. The following dialogue ensues:

Tacho: Pobre Chava.

Choforo: A mi se me hace que se le pusieron el dedo, porque qué casualidad que nada más a ella se la llevaron.

Tacho: Ahora la bronca va ser pa’ sacarla.

Choforo: N’ombre si de allí no la saca ni Superman.

Tacho: El menos que nadie, güey.

Choforo: ¿Por qué?

Tacho: El es gringo. Imagínete si existiera y trabajara en la migra, en media hora nos saca a todos.

Choforo: Tienes razón, todos los superhéroes son gringos. Allí tienes a las Tortugas Ninjas.

Tacho: Batman.

Choforo: He-Man.

…..

Choforo: Híjole.

Tacho: En México no tenemos a ningún héroe.

Choforo: No, y de acá de este lado del puente, menos.

After this dialogue, there is a scene where the Border Patrol raids a factory and is in the process of rounding up a handful of undocumented workers. Suddenly, a voice is heard form the background saying, “No se preocupen paisanos. Aquí estoy yo, Supermojado, el protector de la raza.” The fact that Tacho takes on the role of “Super” “mojado” results in a deconstruction of the sign. In other words, appropriation of the sign “mojado” entails an erasure of the differences that the sign denotes. The character, in this instance, associates himself with the signifier in order to dissociate himself from the signified. He calls himself “mojado,” yet he overtly challenges the authority of the Border Patrol, and by extension, the authority of immigration laws in general, thus refuting what made him a mojado in the first place. This appropriation takes place both at the level of actions, Tacho’s transformation into “Supermojado,” as well as at the level of discourse. The following scene, where a reporter is interviewing Tacho on a street comer, exemplifies the latter.

Reporter: Perdone, ¿Es usted mojado?

Tacho: No, así sudo, sobre todo cuando hace frío como ahorita.

Reporter: No lo que quiero decir es ¿si tiene usted documentos?

Tacho: Como no, tengo los documentos estos, son de un refrigerador que compré, pero mi tía, como está loca, me agarra de homo de micro ondas, ¿verdad? Entonces, tengo un documents de una bicicleta, pero la bicicleta ya me la quitaron.

Reporter: Me parece que no me expliqué bien, ¿tiene usted visa?

Tacho: ¿Usted cree que si tuviera Visa o Mastercard iba a andar buscando chamba con esta bola de zarapados. No, ¿Usted cree que si tuviera Visa o Mastercard iba a andar buscando chamba con esta bola de zarapados.

Reporter: No, lo que yo quiero decir, ¿es usted legal?

Tacho: No, pos, eso depende del punto de vista de cada quien, porque la legalidad y la ilegalidad la marca la ley, porque allí voy. Un señor mata a alguién, está cometiendo un acto ilegal, entonces, el tipo que mató al muerto le agarra la ley, entonces queda legalmente preso. Ahora, si yo soy legal o ilegal no es fácil. Soy legalmente ilegal.

Reporter: Ali, entonces, ¿usted no es residents de este país?

Tacho: Si no soy residents del país donde resido, pues ¿de cuál? China no conozco.

In this obviously Cantinflas-like scene, Tacho once again deconstructs the sign “mojado” by delinking signifier and signified. The delinking here is, of course, brought about by a play with synonymity, i.e., by confusion and alteration of the signified.

The mojado, having established an authority through nationalism and having appropriated her/his designation in United States society, assigns Otherness to the Mexican-American. This is often the case because it is in the Mexican-American that the mojado encounters the first site of cultural conflict.2The figure of the Mexican-American represents for the mojado a deformation of his/her own national identity; in other words, they are Mexican on the outside but American on the inside. The deformation of national identity finds an historical expression in the Mexican psyche in the figure of La Malinche. Birmingham-Pokorny states that “both the figure and the name itself of La Malinche … have either been read as synonymous of ‘treason’, ‘betrayal’, or of someone who ‘sells out’ to the foreigner, who devalues national identity in favor of imported benefits, or have been called forth to symbolically re-enact or play out the violent configurations of betrayal, violation, victimization, appropriation, and destruction often associated with the conquest of the New World” (121). In contemporary Mexican cinema, the mapping out of the Malinche figure onto the Mexican-American is restricted to the first definition given by Birmingham-Pokorny; however, violence against illegal immigrants is very often present in the representation of Mexican-Americans. This violent extreme is especially characteristic of the Wilson character in El Tratado me vale … Wilson. There is a scene where Wilson arrives at the ranch and finds a Mexican boy riding his horse. He reproachfully says to the foreman, who is playing with the boy, “My horse,” and the foreman replies, “pero es un niño.” Wilson’s reply to this obvious plea based on the child’s innocence is “pero Meksicano.” The foreman’s resistance causes an eruption of violence. Nopal and Tlalcóyotl see Wilson and his friends beating on the foreman and go to defend him. After the fight that, incidentally, Nopal and Tlalcóyotl win, the foreman says to them: “De todos modos, mucho cuidado con él [Wilson], el es un mal hombre. El odiar a los meksicanos. No querer pagar nunca justo, no querer pagar lo extra … ya sabes que yo no sé porque él renegar de lo meksicano si él es más meksicano que el pulque.” Nopal responds to this: “O sea que es un renegado. Eso es to que más coraje nos da a Tlalcóyotl y a mí.” In this scene, we see both betrayal and selling-out to the foreigner on the part of Wilson and its violent extreme; however, we also see the illegal immigrants’ response. Nopal’s reactionary position is seen when he says, “eso es lo que más coraje nos da.” In this film, it is fairly clear how illegal immigrants and Mexican-Americans are configured in a position of cultural conflict with one another, i.e., mojados vs. malinches. In Supermojado the intersection of betrayal and sexual violation is also evinced in the malinchista figures. There is a scene where Tacho goes to the factory to ask for a job, and the malinche Manager abruptly cuts off the dialogue saying that he doesn’t speak Spanish. At the end of day, before Sonia is able to clock out, the Manager tells her that she must work overtime. Once she is alone in the factory, he says to her,

Manager: ¿Sabes que me gustas mucho?

Sonia: Me alegro.

Manager: ¿De verdad?

Sonia: Sí, me alegro de que hayas aprendido español tan rápido.

The Manager violently grabs her and tries to kiss her, and she runs out of the factory. In this scene, then, the Manager’s malinchismo is revealed in his refusal to speak Spanish, and at the same time it is coupled with violence towards illegal immigrants. This act is what eventually propels Tacho to become the Supermojado, so in that respect, the militant reactionary positioning of the mojado comes into play in this film as it does in El Tratado nee vale … Wilson. In both films, the mojado protagonists are incited by the malinche antagonists’ blatant racism to assume an oftentimes violent and active stance in contrast with the passive and submissive stance revealed at the outset of the films. Once this militant stance is assumed, moreover, the characters are in a position to defy the authority of the Border not only in its Mexican-American expression but also in its Anglo expression. This same reactionary positioning is expressed quite differently in Alicia en el país del dólar. The following dialogue between Alicia and her boss takes place when he asks her to prepare a special dinner for himself and his girlfriend:

Boss: Esa “vieja” se llama Jenny y es una mujer muy linda.

Alicia: Pero es una déspota, qué diferencia con la mamacita de usted.

Boss: Pues sí, pero no me puedo casar con mi mamacita.

Alicia: Podría buscar una mujer parecida a ella, así del tipo mexicano como era su jefa. Así, alta, no flaca, así como regular… y que lo quiera mucho.

Boss: Ay, mi mamacita, era muy linda, y era de Guadalajara, era tapatetía.

Alicia: Tapatía. Yo también soy tapatía.

Unlike the “coraje” that characterizes Nopal’s reaction to malinchismo, Alicia’s reaction towards her malinche boss seem to be more oriented towards somehow redeeming him or bringing him back to his cultural roots. She contrasts her boss’ mother with his present girlfriend, but actually she is contrasting his cultural roots with his present state of being, i.e., agringado. She is saying that he should abandon his present state and return to his roots, which in concrete terms is equivalent to him abandoning his present girlfriend and finding a woman “parecida a ella [his mother]” who in this case is Alicia herself.

The mojado subverts Mexican-American domination by defining it as malinchista, and by either positioning her/himself militantly against it as in El Tratado me vale … Wilson and Supermojado or trying to erase it through a process of cultural redemption as in Alicia en el país del dólar. Furthermore, the subversion of Mexican-American domination may be seen as one manifestation of a broader counter-hegemonic critique of Anglo domination. The interpretation of the malinchista representation of Mexican-Americans as part of a more general discourse against Anglo domination requires that a distinction be drawn between the different types of Mexican-Americans presented in these films. Although the majority of Mexican-Americans are malinchistas, there are several notable exceptions. Some Mexican-Americans seek solidarity with the mojados such as in the case of the ranch foreman in El Tratado me vale … Wilson. While he is portrayed as an agringado, especially in his speech for he like Wilson also says “meksicano,” he is not a “renegado” and, therefore, is not amalinchista. The negative portrayal of Mexican-Americans varies according to their acculturation, i.e., according to their proximity to Anglo culture. This is further illustrated in this movie in a scene where Nopal and Tlalcóyotl are in a supermarket and Wilson goes up to them and asks, “¿Qué hacen en una tienda para americanos?” Tlalcóyotl responds, “Primera, hable bien, no mememimememi, porque traes una papa entre los sicos. No ¿qué están haciendo? Estamos comprando, tenemos derecho. Segunda, no tienen porque discriminamos. Tercera, tenemos el Tratado de Libre Comercio firmado, chingado, por los gobiernos y Oltima, no esperen que con nuestro pais van a poner otra estrellita en su bandera. Y si lo ponen va a ser así de chiquitito.” As he says this last part, he makes an obscene gesture with his hand. The critique launched against Wilson is clearly directed towards Anglo hegemony and towards more immediate political concerns. The polysemy in the name Wilson: Wilson the agringado and Wilson the Governor of California, makes the political nature of the discourse in the film fairly obvious. In sum, mojado self-fashioning in contemporary Mexican cinematic expression may be seen as the route taken in order to launch a politically charged counter-hegemonic discourse.

The effects of this discourse are manifold. In the first place, it creates a space for the mojado through appropriation and deconstruction of the sign and through an establishment of differentiation from agringados. This might be interpreted, however, as a leveling device used by illegal immigrants because they are envious of the Mexican-American’s position in Anglo controlled society. Limón suggests, in connection with joking traditions in South Texas, that “Leveling and envy imply that the cultural performer has no positive interest in his own historical culture–that it is a burden and not a source of strength … Texas-Mexican joking is not an exercise in self-hatred; rather it takes account of societal differences in expressive ways that strengthen ingroup identity and pride” (48). This also seems to be the case in the films analyzed here. The fact that the mojado maintains a Mexico frame and the fact that his/her desire is in most cases to return to Mexico suggest that there is a positive interest in her/his own historical culture. This is most evident in the resolutions of the different films. In most cases the resolution is simply a return to Mexico; however, in Alicia en el país del dólar the resolution is that Alicia romantically conquers her boss and in this way makes her dream come true. The climax of the film is when she declares her love for her boss in the following dialogue:

Alicia:Te quiero, digo, lo quiero Mr. Phil.

Boss: No entiendo.

Alicia: Cásate conmigo.

Boss: Pero ¿cómo me voy a casar con alguién que no siento nada por esa persona?

Alicia: Bueno, porque siempre me ha visto como la sirvienta que hace el aseo y que le hace la comida, pero lo quiero, ¿qué, no le gusto?

Boss: Claro que sí … y no estoy diciendo nada de eso.

Alicia: Toque mi piel, ¿no siente nada?

Boss: No, no siento nada…

Alicia: Bésame … ¿Qué siente?

Boss: Pues, lo siento mucho pero no sentir nada.

Alicia: Fue lo último que hago por usted. Pero ¿sabe qué? Me voy. Quédese con sus novelas y con todos sus premios, pero déjame decirle una cosa, ninguna novela [que escribes] va a ser como la que yo le iba a contar de mi abuelita Leocadia.

Boss: ¿Cuál abuelita?… Alicia lo que quiero es te quedes, no te puedes ir, tienes que contarme todas las histories de tu pueblo.

Alicia decides to stay provided that her boss apologize to her, that he make her his secretary instead of his maid, and that he marry her. This resolution seems to be more in favor of the boss, the malinchista, than of Alicia because, after all, she is submitting to him and to his desires. However, if it is noted that the boss is not sexually attracted to Alicia and that the only reason he wants her to stay is so that she will continue telling him “histories de su pueblo,” then it may be convincingly suggested that Alicia, in fact, accomplishes what she had hoped, i.e., to eradicate her boss’ malinchismo. Her accomplishment, therefore, transcends the personal sphere of her marrying him and becomes symbolic of a strengthening of mojado identity because it assigns a value to Mexican experience that was once unseen by her boss.

The strengthening of mojado identity functions as a device for dismantling national borders and the methods used in c