October 22, 2003
Memo From Mexico, By
Allan Wall
Salma’s Citizenship Strategy—And Ours
Mexican actress
Salma Hayek, [VDARE.COM
note: no relation to the Austrian
economist?]
having triumphed in Hollywood, has now announced she
wants to become an American citizen.
But not because she wants to be an American.
Hayek was not pleased by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s
election as Governor of California. She says she wants
to “have a voice that supports the Latino community
in the United States.” ["tener una voz que
apoye a la comunidad latina radicada en Estados Unidos."]
To that end, she says she intends to
“maintain both citizenships to help the Latinos.” ["mantener
las dos ciudadanías para ayudar a los latinos"] (“Busca
Salma nacionalidad estadounidense”,
El Siglo de Torreon, October 11th, 2003).
Hayek starred in hit movies and is making a ton of
money. She’s been nominated for an Oscar for “Frida”
(see Steve Sailer’s
review). She's a bona fide celebrity who attracts
attention regardless of what she’s doing. Her
relationships are
studiously reported in the entertainment news. And
she is pursued by those determined paparazzi that movie
stars unconvincingly pretend to be annoyed by.
Salma Hayek was born to a wealthy family in the city
of Coatzacoalcos, Mexico (I’ve been there). Ethnically,
she is half Arab and half Spanish. Her paternal
grandparents came from Lebanon, her maternal
grandparents came from Spain. Because of her Arab
ancestry, Salma is also claimed by Arab-Americans as one
of their own.
Check out the Arab American Institute’s
“Famous Arab Americans” page, and also the
Lebanese-Americans page at this
Lebanese site.
Before going Hollywood, Hayek was at the top of her
game as a
telenovela (soap opera) star in Mexico. In 1991
(the same year, coincidentally that I
moved to Mexico) Salma Hayek moved to LA with the
ambition of making it in Hollywood. And eventually, she
achieved her goal. Congratulations, Salma.
Like many other Hollywood stars, Hayek desires to be
thought of as more than an entertainer, but as an
Artist with Important Things to Say.
One of Salma Hayek’s recurring themes, which pops up
in interviews again and again, is how she suffered to
become a Hollywood star and how Hollywood doesn’t give
Mexicans a
fair shake:
“I had some tough times
trying to establish myself as a film star. Hollywood is
not great with women and especially not Mexicans...I had
to learn the language, do acting classes and take parts
as an extra”.
—Scene,
Christopher Hemblade, July/August 1999
(Well, you made it didn’t you? Thanks to hard work,
connections and a Revlon contract.)
“People in this town know
Mexicans only as maids.”
—“Mexican
Fireworks”, Bob Morris, George, July 1999
(Given the rarefied Hollywood circles Salma moves in,
that’s probably true).
“Being Mexican was
considered so uncool. People in Hollywood only know
Mexicans as maids.”
—“We’re Latin lovers now,”
Gaby Wood, Guardian, Oct. 27th, 2002
(Maids again! So what does Salma Hayek have against
maids, anyway? Surely rich girl Salma wouldn’t be
projecting a class prejudice—the
upper-class Mexican woman’s fear of being mistaken
for the darker-skinned
domestic help?)
The Financial Times (Oct. 13th,
2003
subscriber link
Citizen Hayek takes on Arnie) reports
that Hayek
“says she faced
difficulty breaking into Hollywood as a Mexican with an
accent and without working papers.”
“I think that my work,”
boasts Hayek, “together with that of many other
Mexicans, has made them see us differently.”
(When Salma Hayek moved to LA, she had a BMW. In my
first year in Mexico, I hitched a ride with my Canadian
roommate or took a local bus to get around.)
It’s not as though Salma Hayek were the first Mexican
to get work in Hollywood. Since long before Salma was
even born, Mexicans have been getting solid roles.
Ramon Novarro and
Dolores del Rio were making Hollywood films
in the 1920s.
There was Antonio Oaxaca, a.k.a. as
Anthony Quinn (his Irish mother’s surname) who,
though raised in the U.S., is still claimed by Mexico.
Katy Jurado appeared with Gary Cooper in
“High Noon.”
Mexican actors were featured in the movies of John
Wayne (who also filmed in Mexico).
Pedro Armendariz appeared with Wayne and Henry Fonda
in
“Fort Apache,” while
Jorge Rivero was the Duke’s co-star in
“Rio Lobo.”
The only father and son to both appear in James Bond
flicks were Mexicans Pedro Armendariz (“From Russia With
Love”) and Pedro Armendariz Jr. (“License
to Kill”).
Even Mexican comic legend
Cantinflas did a favor for Hollywood by
co-starring with David Niven in "Around the World in
80 Days".
And don’t forget
Ricardo Montalban.
Critics charge that Mexicans have been typecast in
the movies, that they are limited in their types of
roles, and that Hollywood’s portrayal of Mexico and
Mexicans is full of stereotypes.
It’s true, in general, Hollywood’s portrayal of
Mexico and Mexicans is stereotyped. But let’s be
honest—most cinematic characterizations of any national
or social group are
based on stereotypes, and not only of Mexicans.
How does Hollywood portray other groups nowadays?
Evangelical Christians, for example? Farmers,
rednecks and rural types? Mennonites? How about
political conservatives?
And you should see Mexican movies’ stereotypes of
gringos. Their accent (when speaking Spanish) is
ridiculed (without too much exaggeration!), as is
the stereotypical way typical gringo tourists dress and
behave (and there's a lot of truth to that stereotype).
On a more serious matter, in a telenovela I saw the
portrayal of a sadistic gringo
border patrol agent who enjoyed watching a video
filmed of him killing a Mexican. Negative stereotypes
I've encountered in the general population and among
Mexican punditry are that gringos are cold, calculating, without "family
values," acquisitive, materialistic, and—here's an
interesting one—both promiscuous and prudish!
So should I get
offended and
indignant? And if I did, who would care? (To be
fair, there are positive stereotypes of Americans as
well.)
Many critics will never be satisfied. Hayek herself
was attacked by activists for casting non-Mexican actors
as Mexicans in her “Frida” movie. Don’t they understand
that movie stars are actors—the whole idea of
being an actor is pretending to be someone you are not?
Salma Hayek was recently in Morelia, Mexico (I’ve
been there too) for the I Festival Internacional de
Cine de Morelia (the 1st Annual Morelia
International Cinema Festival). She was promoting the
new movie she directed, “The Maldonado Miracle,”—which
is about an illegal alien.
It was at this festival that Hayek announced her
ambition to become an American citizen.
Should we feel honored?
What is Hayek’s motive for becoming an American
citizen?
Hayek is not
aspiring to citizenship because she wants to become
an American. Nor because she
admires our political system. It’s not because she
identifies with the United States. She doesn’t even say
she thinks it’s a
“universal nation”
she wants to be part of.
No, Salma Hayek sees American citizenship as a means
to an end—in her case,
political activism on behalf of
one group of American citizens.
According to the El Siglo report, she said
she “feels sad because .... the Latinos could not win
at the polls during the recent election....”
In other words, since Cruz Bustamante didn’t win, the
Latino population didn’t win.
In the oath of allegiance, a new American citizen
states that “I absolutely and entirely renounce and
abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any
foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, to
whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or
citizen....”
But Hayek openly said in Morelia that she has no
intention of renouncing her allegiance to Mexico.
There’s nothing unusual about Hayek’s attitude. Many
Mexicans feel the same way. And apparently, our own
government cares not a whit about the growth in
dual citizenship.
When Hayek takes her citizenship oath and promises to
renounce her allegiance to Mexico, she will be
acting—playing a role—pretending to declare loyalty to
the United States.
Sounds like an
Oscar-winning performance.
American citizen Allan Wall lives and works legally in
Mexico, where he holds an FM-2 residency and work
permit, but serves six weeks a year with the Texas Army
National Guard, in a unit composed almost entirely of
Americans of Mexican ancestry. His VDARE.COM articles
are archived
here; his
FRONTPAGEMAG.COM articles are archived
here; his
website is
here. Readers
can contact Allan Wall at
allan39@prodigy.net.mx.
