What makes Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood remarkable is that it features a number of Latino actors and directors discussing Latinos and their relationship with the American film industry. Among those featured are comedian and actor John Leguizamo, director Gregory Nava, actor Esai Morales, author Luis I. Reyes, actor and director Edward James Olmos, and actor Jimmy Smits. While I might be biased, a highlight for me was Daniel Villareal discussing various locations important in Chicano film history (I have been friends with Daniel for some time) and Ingrid Oliu discussing Stand and Deliver (1988).
Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood does a fairly good job of covering the history of Latinos in Hollywood. It covers such important figures as actress Dolores del Rio, Gilbert Roland, Rita Moreno, and Dolores Huerta. It also covers the phenomenon of brownface, in which Caucasians and foreign actors being cast as Latinos, the various Latino stereotypes that existed for much of film history, and the fact that Latinos are still underrepresented in Hollywood.
As might be expected, Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood spends a good deal of time on Chicanos and Mexicans. This should come as no surprise as people of Mexican descent comprise the majority of Latinos in the United States, not to mention Mexico neighbours the United States. For that reason, Chicanos and Mexicans have historically been more represented in American films than other Latinos. Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood does devote a good deal of time to the boom in Chicano movies that took place in the Eighties and Nineties, and included such movies as Zoot Suit (1981), El Norte (1983), Stand and Deliver (1988), Blood In Blood Out (1993), and others.
If Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood has one flaw, it is that of omission. Despite how important she is in the history of people of Mexican descent in American film, Lupe Vélez is never mentioned by name. Lupe Vélez was arguably more popular than Dolores del Rio, and while Miss del Rio often played non-Latina roles, the majority of Lupe Vélez's roles were identifiably Mexican. And while her "Mexican Spitfire" movies arguably capitalized on Mexican stereotypes, they also featured a heroine who kept her career and something of her independence after marriage. Indeed, it featured a mixed marriage at a time when mixed marriages were still illegal in much of the US.
Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood also fails to mention The Lawless (1950) or The Ring (1952), two films that are seminal in the history of Chicanos in Hollywood. The Lawless (1950) centred on Chicano fruit pickers in California and may be the first American film in which the term "cholo" appears, although it is used in a derogatory fashion. The Ring (1942) centres on a Chicano from a poor Los Angeles neighbourhood who tries to improve himself through boxing. It portrays the segregation that existed in Los Angeles at the time, as well as the racism. For me, failing to mention Lupe Vélez, The Lawless (1950), and The Ring (1952) are serious oversights in any documentary on Latinos in American film.
Despite these oversights, Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood does a very good job of covering the representation of Latinos in Hollywood, and there will be much to learn for many people. It is certainly worth watching for anyone who in interested in film history or Latino history.
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