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Guillermo
Gómez-Peña and Gustavo Vazquez | |
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This 'mocumentary' presents a fictionalised account of the history of US-Mexico affairs, from pre-Columbian times to the immediate future, when a second US-Mexico war takes place. But this time, Mexico is victorious. The nation-state as we currently know it collapses. The ex-US of A is fragmented into a myriad of micro-republics loosely controlled by a junta and governed by a Chicano Prime Minister named Gran Vato. 'Spanglish' is the official language, treating the monolingual viewer as a 'nomadic minority.' Panicked by the authoritarian tendencies of the new regime, hybrid militias desperately try to recapture the 'Old Order.' The 'New Aztlan Regime' propagandises itself by satirically depicting Anglos with the same stereotypes currently utilised against Latinos, caricaturising the irrational fears that mainstream culture has about the Mexican 'invasion.' As the film moves through time, the artists reveal amazing found-footage, from rare ethnographic documentaries and underground exploitation movies to Mexican B-movies depicting Anglos and US-made films depicting Latinos. The outcome is a 'whirlwind tour of Latino stereotypes in film.' As in most of his work, Gómez-Peña toys with an underlying meta-theme: the fear and/or embracing of a psycho-sexual-political-racial borderland identity. Through the juxtaposition of clips from campy Mexican genre films against stereotypes long popular in US media, Gómez-Peña, along with his accomplice Vazquez, fabricates 'a videographic hall of mirrors.' The result is a multifaceted reflection shifting between fiction and the realities that expose the depth of internalised racism. The Great
Mojado Invasion, Part II |
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