The double face of Mexican men and women

By Sofía Guadarrama Collado

Chabelo y Pepito contra los monstruos, El barrendero, Mi compadre Capulina, El chanfle, Tin-Tan el hombre mono, Ni Chana ni Juana, Los maistros albañiles, Lola la trailera, La risa en vacaciones, La maldición de la momia azteca, Guerra de likes, Como caído del cielo, El hubiera sí existe, Suave patria, Dime Cuándo Tú, Elvira, te daría mi vida pero la estoy usando, Mi pequeño gran hombre, Mirreyes contra Godínez, Fachon Models, La vida inmoral de la pareja ideal, Señora influencer and No sé si cortarme las venas o dejármelas largas are just some of the many embarrassments of Mexican cinema. 

Yes, because if there is one thing we should be ashamed of in Mexico, it is the lousy productions that are released year after year. There are those who argue that this is due to the fact that production companies make bad films because the investment does not come out of their bank accounts, but from the Film Investment and Stimulus Fund (FIDECINE). There is some truth to this, there are many producers who live off milking the State's coffers, but this is not the main reason why Mexico produces such bad films. The reality is that the Mexican public wants it that way. Just take a look at the past and corroborate that ficheras movies used to fill theaters. Or go to Netflix and look for the most watched Mexican films: Wow! No manches Frida, Te juro que yo no fui, Mirreyes vs Godínez, El amarre, Mi pequeño gran hombre, El exorcismo de Carmen Farías, Cómo matar a un esposo muerto. Yes, to the client, whatever he asks for.

Their sin: low quality productions, scripts made to order, poor direction, mediocre performances and repetitive themes. In short: junk cinema. And the public does not complain. And if they do, they complain very little. They have never complained so much in Cinépolis and PROFECO to get their tickets back as they are doing with Emilia Pérez.

"It's the worst movie of the century," some people are screaming. Is it really worse than Madam Influencer? We'll give them the benefit of the doubt. It is a bad movie. I don't like reggaeton or corridos tumbados, but that doesn't mean that I go on the social media pages of these "singers" to insult them. Much less do I buy their music and then demand my money back. Not even when the food at a restaurant is disappointing.  

I am not here to defend this film or its director or its protagonists. I am here to expose the double standards of those Mexicans who today are tearing their hair out over the bad direction, script, production and performances of Emilia Pérez, but who claim that they are not transphobic. 

Many have criticized Selena Gomez for her poor Spanish pronunciation. It's true. She is a pocha. And the U.S. is full of pochos (those born in the U.S. of Mexican descent who speak Spanish very poorly). I have a sister, cousins, cousins and nephews who live in the U.S. and they are pochos. What's the problem? Right! I forgot that we were talking about a movie in which the actors speak pocho Spanish, like the one spoken by Gustavo "Gus" Fring (starring Giancarlo Esposito), Hector Salamanca(starring Mark Margolis), Tuco Salamanca(starring Raymond Cruz), and Don Eladio Vuente (starring Steven Bauer) in the series Breaking Bad. And since it was Breaking Bad, everything was forgiven, even the pocho Spanish of these characters.

In 1993, Televisa produced a soap opera called Dos mujeres, un camino, starring none other than New Yorker Erik Estrada, fading star of the 1970s American cop TV series CHiPs, in Mexico Patrulla motorizada. Yes, Estrada was as pocho as Selena Gomez, but they loved him in Mexico.

Over the weekend I finished watching the Netflix miniseries, American primeval, set in 1857, during the Utah War and based on a real historical event: the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which Arkansas settlers were killed by Mormon militias and the Paiute tribe and I wondered how outraged the Shoshone might be to hear the mispronunciation of their language on the lips of the actors.

But the critics do not stop there, they continue to argue that Emilia Perez has a foreign perspective and that French filmmaker Jacques Audiard knows nothing about the Mexican reality. Vince Gilligan also did not take much care in studying the problems of drug trafficking in Mexico. The series has many inconsistencies and scenes totally taken from reality. But it is Breaking bad and it does not address transsexuality. 

That the film mocks the disappeared and their families. Were they really concerned about the 200,000 intentional homicides, the 7,617 femicides and the 51,618 disappeared during López Obrador's six-year term of office? Are all those people who are now criticizing this film indignant about the misfortune experienced by the searching mothers? What have they done about it? What have their demands been?

That it is a musical and the songs are lousy. I suspect that those who criticize the songs of this musical do not listen to reggaeton or corridos tumbados. They listen to opera.

That it is not plausible that a drug trafficker would want to change sex. I guess it's more plausible that a millionaire orphan boy would dress up as a bat and go out on the streets to catch crooks.

That it is not credible that with the gender transition Emilia has become a good person. No. It is definitely not credible, but it is fiction and we have swallowed worse bodrios. The most absurd thing is that in real life such a character does exist and his name is Jesús Malverde, a bandit to whom, after his death in 1909, dozens of legends were attributed, which turned him into the Mexican Robin Hood, and a miraculous saint among the poor and delinquents of Sinaloa.

The real problem with Emilia Perez for many of the complainers is that it is about a transgender woman and stars a transgender actress.

*Sofía Guadarrama Collado, prolific author and scholar of Mexican history for 24 years. Her exceptional narrative instinct, as well as her conspicuous perception of the world, have positioned her as one of the best-selling Mexican writers at the national level.

The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.