February 21, 2019
By: Antonia Cereijido
In the Latino USA Podcast, "Hollywood's Obsession With Mexico," Antonia Cereijido talks to Luis Reyes who made the book, "Made in Mexico: Hollywood South of the Border," that is about the role of Mexico in Hollywood Film-making. In the podcast I learned a number of various things. I learned that the U.S.'s production of films in Mexico has been around since the Mexican Revolution. Luis Reyes had the privilege of working on Hollywood films specifically those of which were filmed in Mexico and is a good reason as to why he made the book. I also learned of Pancho Villa who was a famous Mexican revolutionary general that had a film called "Life of General Villa" made after him by D.W. Griffith but only fragments of the film are found since no one can find the whole feature film anymore. D.W. Griffith also made "The Birth of a Nation" which was the first ever film that was shown in the White house. Reyes talks about another film-maker by the name of Emilio Fernandez who was also Mexican and was used as a model for the Oscar statue because of his strong physique and attractive looks. Emilio was also known as one of the most creative film directors of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940's and 1950's. John Huston was another film-maker that was mentioned because he was one of the first film-makers that was filming in Mexico. John filmed the movie called, "The Night of the Iguana," (1964) in a place that used to be a fishing village but since the actors were there so many paparazzi wanted to take pictures of the production and crew which led to the village becoming into a world class resort city and it's called Puerto Vallarta. . Another fact that was mentioned was that Durango was a famous filming location in northwest Mexico for both American and Mexican films. Over 100 films were actually filmed in Durango and this locations was made famous because of the actor known as John Wayne. Wayne also known as the "Duke" was famous for cowboy action films like "True Grit" and "Stagecoach." I also learned that Titanic was another film that was actually filmed in Mexico along with the old Tarzan film. Titanic was filmed in Rosarito, Mexico at Baja Studios. The studio was actually built from the ground up specifically for the movie and all the people on the ship except for the key cast are of Mexican descent. The darkest Mexicans in the film were actually portrayed as the Greek, Italian, and Polish immigrants of the ship. Reyes also brought up how 20 years later after the Titanic film, Leonardo DiCaprio won an Oscar off of an Mexican directed film which was "The Revenant," by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Spectre was also another film that was filmed in Mexico, specifically Mexico City, and it was a James Bond film and the opening sequence took place during a Mardi Gras like parade for the Day of the Dead. Mexico City now has Day of the Dead parades because of the famous scene from the film. A film that was mentioned at the end of the podcast was Roma which is a Mexican film that is currently being nominated at the Oscars for best picture. A reason a bring up the film, Roma, is because in a news article by the New York Times they talk to and travel with the director of Roma to revisit the sights and sounds of the neighborhood that inspired the film. The news article by Kirk Semple explores Alfonso Cuarón's old neighborhood and some of the many streets and people of Mexico City. The film is mostly shot indoors in a house that was made to closely resemble Cuarón’s childhood home in Roma. The article also talks about how the area was once popular with wealthy residents but were then taken over my middle class and crime and other complexities of urban life was also more prevalent. The article concludes on how "Cuarón and his production team were meticulous in their re-creation of how things were — and how he remembered them to be. They had hoped to shoot in as many original locations as possible and were able to do that in some cases — including the re-creation of the Corpus Christi massacre, when security forces attacked students during a march in 1971." (Semple, "Mexico City as the Director of ‘Roma’ Remembers It (and Hears It)." "Mexico City as the Director of ‘Roma’ Remembers It (and Hears It)"
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