Nostalgia for El Indio

FILMS NOSTALGIA FOR EL INDIO Fernando Fuentes This biography of Emilio Fernández, pacity creates a clear photographic Origins, Revolutions, Emigration one of Mexico's most famous film di- identity whether he portrays the Me- rectors of the so-called Golden Age of xican countryside or the urban scene. Emilio Fernández, known in the film Mexican film, was written with the All the solemn moments in his world as El Indio, was born in what is analytic professionalism and historic films are impregnated by a nostalgia now a ghost town but was part of a vision characteristic of Emilio García for the Revolution on the nationalist mining zone called Mineral de Hon- Riera. level, and by nostalgia for virginity do, in the municipality of Sabinas, In his detailed revision of El Indio on an emotional level, whether the Coahuila. He was the only child of Fernández' cinematographic work, film is set in the violence of the pro- Sara Romo, a Kikapoo Indian, and the author provides a critical evalu- vinces or in urban cabarets or bur- of Emilio Fernández Garza. ation of the film maker's produc- dels. The rhythm of his stories is He participated in the Revolution tion, and generally refers exactly to marked by impulses of a energetic as a boy, or at least, he dedicated his sources, be these material from sensibility and an admirable artistic himself to taking mental photos: "I newspapers, magazines or books, or capacity. had what all boys dream about: a pis- testimonies of those who lived or El Indio Fernández is a poet of tol, a horse and a battleground. These worked with El Indio Fernández dur- pure and solidary ideals, a figure be- were my toys and the revolutiona- ing his artistic career and whose testi- come legend. ries were my playmates. I grew up in mony sheds light on the film director's private life. Emilio García Riera, author of more than ten books about the cine- ma, dedicates this text to a study of one of the greatest figures of Mexican cultural nationalism; a vigorous film creator who, in spite of his numerous weaknesses, managed to mark his movies with his own unmistakable style, a remarkable achievement in a film world which tends to reduce those who should be creators to the mere level of doers. Emilio Fernández has been classi- fied by some film buffs as the best film maker in classic Mexican cine. When we see the movies he made in the 1940's we can appreciate that these are poetic creations; his senti- mentality is overwhelming but at the same time, lyrical, and his visual ca- Descendant of the Kikapoo Indians, he was proud of his indian blood. Photo by Héctor Journalist García/Foto Press 62 FILMS the Revolution. At ten years of age, they made me a soldier, that's how I grew up. I studied in one school and another, from here to there. I visited all the cardinal points. From corpo- ral, I became first captain." (Quote from García Riera.) According to El Indio, he fought on the side of Pancho Villa's troops under the command of General Felipe Angeles, who was famous for his knowledge of artillery and for his moral and political integrity. El Indio entered Military College in 1920, and became part of the founding team of the Military School's aeronautics di- vision. "My greatest pride in life is having participated in the Revolution, which left me four wounds earned during armed actions," relates Fernández, adding that in one battle he was taken prisoner in Puebla and condemned to 20 years prison. Afterwards he was transferred to a prison in Tlatelolco in Mexico City, and he was able to es- cape three years later, and fled to- wards the United States, where he lived for vine years, working in various agricultura) jobs. El Indio Fernández is a poet of pure and solidary ideals, a figure become legend In Hollywood He returned to Mexico only to go back to the United States a few months later, and headed for Chica- go. Here, he saved a young German With his daughter in 1951. Photo by Héctor García/Foto Press woman (Olga Freud) from drowning in a spontaneous act that brought him eventually to Hollywood. It turned cago on the way, and El Indio joined land, 1933), with the Mexican actress out that Olga Freud was the lover of a the funeral cortege to accompany Va- Dolores del Río. well known gangster, "Baby Face", lentino to his final resting place. He received his film education in who, in gratitude, invited Fernández This was how El Indio arrived in Hollywood: exaltation for the movies to eat and drink in a first class hotel Hollywood in the 1920's, and there he of Serguei Mijailovich Eisenstein, de- in Chicago, where the cine's first "la- met various people from Latin Ame- votion for the star system, faith in tin lover", Rodolfo Valentino, was rica, including Alfonso Sánchez John Ford for his methods of historic staying. Valentino, impressed to see El Tello, Chano Ureta, Ramón Pereda, reconstruction, and the conviction Indio dance a perfect tango, invited Roberto Gavaldón, the Cuban René that melodrama is the best means to him to a drink, and offered to take Cardona, the Chilean Tito Davison transmit the pulse of life. him to Hollywood. Valentino was on and Gilberto Martínez Solares, all of tour with his wife, Natasha Ramvo- whom later became directors of Mexi- Return to Mexico va, and they went from Chicago to can cine. El Indio began to work with New York, but it was precisely there, them in Hollywood in the film in- Before returning to his native land, El in New York, where Valentino died. dustry, as extra, double, in secondary Indio posed as model for the statuette His body was taken from New York roles and as dancer, for example, in used in the Oscar Awards, given by to Hollywood, passing through Chi- Flying down to Rio, (Thornton Free- the recently founded Motion Pictures 63 FILMS Academy. This was an act of symbo- tón (Fernando A. Rivero, 1938), Los esque details and counts with the lic importance in his film career, and de abajo (Chano Ureta, 1939), Juan participation of convicts. it was thanks to his athletic and well- sin miedo (Juan José Segura, 1939), Soy puro Mexicano, directed by proportioned physique that he was El Charro Negro (Raúl de Anda, Fernández in 1942, starred Pedro Ar- "immortalized" in the statue design- 1940), and Rancho Alegre (Raúl de mendáriz and David Silva. Here El ed by Cedric Gibbons and sculpted by Anda, 1940), among others, in which Indio demostrated that Mexican George Stanley. he worked as director's assistant and machismo could be useful to Mexico's Back in Mexico in 1934, Emilio script writer as well as actor. allies in the Second World War, but Fernández began to work in the na- in spite of its patriotic excesses, it was tional film industry as actor in Janit- not a box office success. zio (Carlos Navarro, 1934), a movie Emilio Fernández' real film ma- considered significant because it be- All the solemn moments in his king career began in 1941 with Flor Silvestre, film set in the revolution, gan a certain "erotic struggle" with films are impregnated by a established traditions. Thanks to Ja- where for the first time he worked nitzio, El Indio discovered Mexican nostalgia for the Revolution with a cast and collaborators of the esthetics: the conquest of nature by on the nationalist level best quality and highest prestige in the camera, and the taming of the hu- Mexican cine of that epoch: script man being by tragedy. writer Mauricio Magdaleno, the ac- He also worked in films such as Co- tors Dolores del Río and Pedro Ar- razón bandolero (Raphael J. Sevilla, His Films mendáriz, and, most importantly, the 1934), Cruz Diablo (Fernando de photographer Gabriel Figueroa, who, Fuentes, 1934), Celos (Arcady Boy- The first film he directed was La Isla due to the various movies he filmed tler, 1935), Las mujeres mandan (Fer- de la Pasión, with David Silva and with Fernández, won international nando de Fuentes, 1936), Allá en el Isabela Corona, about the tragic ad- awards, and who would be consider- rancho grande (Fernando de Fuentes, ventures of a Mexican batallion ed one of the best, if not the best 1936), Almas rebeldes (Alejandro Ga- which fought until death to defend camerographer in the world during lindo, 1936), Adiós Nicanor (Rafael the desert island of Clipperton (or of the decade of the 40's. E. Portas, 1937), with a script written the Passion) in the Pacific Ocean, The movies made by El Indio by El Indio himself, and starring him which belonged to Mexico up to 1931. express tendencies inspired by Eisens- in the main role), Aquí llegó el valen- The film abounds in strong pictur- tein, which can especially be appre- He is remembered as a lover of his country and a defender of Mexican romanticism. Photo by Héctor García/Foto Press 64 wIcsa FILMS ciated in another film made in 1943, with María Elena Marquez as the fe- and other progressive sectors of the Maria Candelaria, where he worked male star, he made what was perhaps country, acclaimed the director and with the same crew as in Flor Sil- his best film, La Perla. The story is named him the "film champion" the vestre. This story relates the vicissitu- based on a novel by John Steinbeck, people needed. des of an indigenous couple from and for the first time, deals with the Thus began the great epoch of Emi- Xochimilco, convincingly acted by social problems of the indigenous lio El Indio Fernández.

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