![]() ![]() His wife is superstitious (yet another stereotype) and casts curses with herbs. He’s violent (another indigenous trope) and walks around eating onions. ![]() ![]() The Mexican-American TV series “Señora Acero” on Telemundo, which ended in January after a five-season run, featured a character known as El Indio Amaro, a narco of a Tijuana cartel. It has historically been used to describe someone who is “primitive, uncultured, ignorant uneducated,” said Hernández-León. In Mexico, the term “indio/a” is derogatory and considered a racist and classist insult. The 1939 film “El indio,” which starred Pedro Armendáriz and Consuelo Frank as indigenous farmworkers, is thought to showcase an early form of comedic “indios,” which later inspired Velasco’s omnipresent character. La India María went on to star in nearly two-dozen roles in Mexican TV and film, including “Revista musical Nescafe” (“Nescafe Musical Revue”), “¡Ay María qué puntería!” (“María, What an Aim!”), “Pobre, pero honrada” (“Poor But Honest”) and “La hija de Moctezuma” (“Moctezuma’s Daughter”).īut this stereotypical representation of indigenous people on Mexican screens dates back many generations. (The character was retired when Velasco died in 2015.) And the immense popularity of her appearances on the Mexican variety show “Siempre en Domingo” (“Always on Sunday”) during the 1970s launched the indigenous character, with all of its stereotypes, into a successful career that spanned more than 40 years. ![]() The big laughs came from the stereotypes. The portrayal often suggested they were rural, naive, noble, uneducated, simple-minded and ill-equipped for city life, sometimes mischievous, but often susceptible to the trickery of others. As created and played by the actress María Elena Velasco, La India María was one of Mexico’s most recognized and beloved personas - and rooted in damaging stereotypes of indigenous people. The parallels between La India María and the ridiculing of Aparicio are striking. “If we think about film and TV as the media of the 20th century, it’s all throughout the 20th century in Mexico.” “This is as old as film,” says Rubén Hernández-León, a UCLA sociology professor and director of the university’s Center for Mexican Studies. Just last month, a video emerged of Mexican actor Sergio Goyri making vicious, racist remarks about Aparicio, calling her a “damn Indian” undeserving of her Oscar nomination for lead actress. We do not believe that the production of ‘La Parodia’ engages in this type of practice” but added that some of its comments were made in “bad taste” and would be edited from the show. In response to the social-media outcry, Televisa issued a statement in Spanish saying: “Televisa strongly condemns any form of racism or discrimination. The mockery coincided with the network’s season premiere of “La Parodia,” a parody comedy series. Yeka Rosales, a TV personality for the Mexican-based Televisa network, drew harsh criticism after wearing “brownface,” a prosthetic nose and thick lips to make fun of Aparicio. Earlier this week, Yalitza Aparicio, the indigenous Mexican actress who was Oscar nominated this year for her acclaimed performance in Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma,” was ridiculed for her Mixtec and Triqui heritage. Nearly 50 years later, we’re still seeing remnants of those stereotypes that are played off as harmless parody. ![]()
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