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Copyright by Mary Caudle Beltrán 2002 Copyright by Mary Caudle Beltrán 2002 The Dissertation Committee for Mary Caudle Beltrán Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Bronze Seduction: The Shaping of Latina Stardom in Hollywood Film and Star Publicity Committee: Charles Ramírez Berg, Co-Supervisor John D.H. Downing, Co-Supervisor Federico Subervi S. Craig Watkins Meenakshi Gigi Durham Bronze Seduction: The Shaping of Latina Stardom in Hollywood Film and Star Publicity by Mary Caudle Beltrán, B.S., M.S.W. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August, 2002 Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my former clients at TAPP, the Teenage Pregnancy and Parenting Project, in San Francisco. Acknowledgements I have been very lucky in this journey; many people have provided support, editorial and research assistance, and guiding lights along the way. First, I want to thank my parents, Verónica Beltrán Caudle and Rodney Caudle, for providing constant support throughout my doctoral program and for encouraging me to keep pushing ahead. , Mom and Dad. The rest of my family also has been wonderfully supportive throughout this process, especially my brother Don and sister Anita. Next, I must thank my advisors, Charles Ramírez Berg and John D.H. Downing, for their warm support, close readings of my work, research and editorial suggestions, and life lessons. I’m blessed to have such positive, inspiring mentors in my life. also to my other committee members, Federico Subervi, Gigi Durham, and Craig Watkins, for their helpful encouragement and assistance. I’d like to express my gratitude to Federico in particular for helping me get started along this path and mentoring me in my first year in the doctoral program. I’d also like to thank Janet Staiger for her early assistance and guidance, and Thomas Schatz for his incisive recommendations as I was revising the dissertation. I also would like to thank the library staff of several archives who helped me locate and access publicity stills and other research materials for my three case studies. This includes Steve Wilson of the Harry Ransom Center for the v Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin, and Barbara Hall, Kathy Krueger, and the entire staff of the Reading Room of the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. I also have members of the “Latinowood” community to thank, first and foremost Bel Hernandez, editor and publisher of , my home base during my field research. Bel was instrumental in introducing me to Latino industry professionals, as well as providing an inspirational example of what one person can accomplish with respect to improving the lot of Latinos in popular culture. I also would like to thank the many individuals who shared their thoughts with me. I learned a great deal from my time in Los Angeles, and I hope that my work will continue to be informed by what is “really going on” in the industry. Thanks also must go to the University of Texas at Austin. I have been supported in my years of research and writing by financial assistance from the University in the form of a University Continuing Fellowship, a Charles Bruton Fellowship, and Professional Development Awards, as well as research and teaching assistantships from the Department of Radio-Television-Film. Finally, my heartfelt thanks to my friends for helping me keep my sanity throughout this process, fielding many a late-night phone call after a difficult day, and taking me to see cheesy action films when I needed a break. And thanks to Alice Chu, my intrepid dissertation-writing buddy, for her support and editorial assistance in the final phase of completing the dissertation. vi Bronze Seduction: The Shaping of Latina Stardom in Hollywood Film and Star Publicity Publication No._____ Mary Caudle Beltrán, Ph.D The University of Texas at Austin, 2002 Supervisors: Charles Ramírez Berg and John D.H. Downing This dissertation explores the construction and ideological implications of Latina star images in Hollywood film and film publicity in the last nine decades, through in-depth case studies of the publicity that shaped the public images of actresses Dolores Del Rio in the mid-1920s-early 1940s, Rita Moreno in the 1950s and 1960s, and Jennifer Lopez in the last decade. In particular, the shaping of each star’s image is analyzed in light of contemporary tendencies in Latina star promotion, including an emphasis on excessive, seductive bodies. The author documents how Latina stars have been demarcated as distinct from white stars since the transition to sound film, with this distinction positioning them as embodying a “lesser whiteness,” even while they also have been considered “all- purpose ethnics” able to easily portray Asian and American Indian as well as Latina roles. In this process, white femininity and Eurocentric beauty ideals have vii been protected and enhanced in Hollywood film and related publicity. Such paradigms are shown to reflect the status of Latinos in the U.S. and Hollywood at specific sociohistorical junctures. Within these dynamics, Latina stars have provided challenges to the status quo that have necessitated negotiation in their appearance, publicity, and film roles. As the dissertation documents, traditional Hollywood paradigms are both reified and under challenge in the present day, with current stars and shifting beauty standards reflecting contemporary shifts in the social landscape. Demographic changes, cultural shifts, and the rise of Latino-produced media have brought about an increased awareness and interest in the profits to be made from Latina stardom, while industrial structures and age- old perceptions continue to contribute to a decided ambivalence inherent in the marketing of Latinas as star figures. viii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Bronze Seduction: The Shaping of Latina Stardom in Hollywood....... 1 Chapter 2: Dolores Del Rio in the Twenties and Thirties: Latina Stardom and the Transition to Sound ................................................................................ 66 Chapter 3: Rita Moreno in the Fifties and Sixties: The Selling and Limitations of the Latina Star Body .............................................................................. 128 Chapter 4: Crossing Over (and Beyond) the Latina Body: Jennifer Lopez in Contemporary Hollywood.......................................................................... 185 Chapter 5: Still Looking for Brown-Skinned Girls: Speculations on Latina Stardom Without Borders .................................................. 246 Appendix A Dolores Del Rio Filmography ...................................................... 261 Appendix B Rita Moreno Filmography ............................................................ 263 Appendix C Jennifer Lopez Filmography......................................................... 265 Appendix D List of Interviewees ...................................................................... 266 Bibliography........................................................................................................ 267 Vita ................................................................................................................. 300 ix Chapter 1 Bronze Seduction: The Shaping of Latina Stardom in Hollywood When I began this project in the fall of 1998, Ricky Martin was shaking his bon-bon for television audiences and “J.Lo” was just rising star Jennifer Lopez, an actress drawing the spotlight with her professed pride in her curvaceous body. Hollywood films for the first time in decades could boast a growing roster of Latino/a stars well known among even non-Latino audiences, including Lopez, Salma Hayek, Jimmy Smits, Benicio Del Toro, Michelle Rodriguez, and Lupe Ontiveros. Perhaps it comes as no surprise then that numerous media outlets declared in 1998 and 1999 that Latinos were “crossing over” into American entertainment. In a “Latin USA” cover issue announced the rise of “Generation Ñ,” while magazine, renamed for its own cover issue, trumpeted the new “Latino explosion.” Meanwhile, Geraldo Rivera and other media shills devoted shows to what was often described as a “wave” of / 0 / 0 / 0 ! # $ % '( / 0 / 0 ( ( * ( , - . (/ ( -( .0 % ! / 0 ( ( ( ((! 1 2 * 31 * ( 4 / 0( 55 6 7 /3 3 0 /0( ( 3 6 1 Latinos entering the fields of U.S. entertainment, cultural life, sports, and politics.8 Regardless of whether this media emphasis reflected actual or lasting changes, an interest in all things Latin seemed to have taken hold, at least temporarily, in American popular culture. While the success and grand-scale promotion of such performers as Lopez and Martin perhaps signaled progressive tendencies afoot within the U.S. entertainment media in relation to Latino culture and entertainers, however, the actual behind-the-scene scenarios and media artifacts of Latino stardom didn’t always match the optimism nor the hype. Most notably, hints of contradiction could easily be discerned. Today’s Latino stars, as even the most cursory of surveys of Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin’s publicity reveals, tread a delicate balance between stereotype and authenticity in their star promotion,
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