by the El Reportero’s news services
Eduardo Medina MoraMexico’s Ambassador to the United States, Eduardo Medina Mora, accused Hollywood of creating a distorted image of his country, adding that stereotypes of “gardeners and drug traffickers” fail to mention the contributions Mexicans have made to the United States.
In Hollywood, Mexican characters are frequently drug traffickers and gardeners, and “Mexicans in the silver screen are usually portrayed as poor and uneducated at best, corrupt and violent at worst,” Medina Mora told a press conference Friday at the National Press Club in Washington.
“I’m still eagerly waiting for the movie where Salma Hayek plays a Nobel Prize-winning chemist that teaches young Americans to create new forms of alternative energy,” he said.
In that sense, Medina Mora warned that not even Demian Bichir, nominated for an Oscar, has escaped the trap of stereotypes, having played a gardener and a drug trafficker in the movies “A Better Life” and“Savages,” respectively.
The diplomat noted the importance of ridding American movies of the myths and stereotypes that persist about Mexican immigrants, because “the American public, which consume those types of movies, will inevitably be influenced by them.”
Drug trafficking is a problem that affects Mexico and other parts of the world, and portraying Mexicans as people who are intrinsically bad, drug dealers and corrupt policemen “is not only racist, it is totally wrong,” he said.
Diego Luna, thrilled to experience San Sebastian Festival as jury member
Mexican actor Diego Luna said he was thrilled to be invited as a jury member at the 61st San Sebastian Film Festival and to be able to experience the event “from another point of view.”
“I’m very pleased about the invitation to the San Sebastian Festival as a jury member,” the actor said in a communiqué, in which he noted that being there this time as a jury member will allow him to see it from a new angle.
The actor, producer and director was picked to be a member of the official jury of the Spanish film festival that begins Sept. 20.
The official jury will be presided over by director Todd Haynes, who has received a host of prizes for productions like the 2002 film Far from Heaven.
“I’m excited to be able to see and discuss films with people like Todd Haynes, whom I admire and respect a great deal,” he said.
Luna said that for him this festival is a “very special” event, since from the time he first attended it with the 2001 film “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” it has been a key showcase for his work.
He also recalled that with the 2010 film “Abel” he had the good fortune to collect two prizes at the 58th edition of the festival: the Latin Horizons prize and the Audience Award.
