UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Black Mexico’s Sites of Struggles across Borders: The Problem of the Color Line Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/92w469pn Author Bermudez-Castro, Christian Yanai Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Black Mexico’s Sites of Struggles across Borders: The Problem of the Color Line A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Languages and Literatures by Christian Yanaí Bermúdez-Castro 2018 © Copyright by Christian Yanaí Bermúdez-Castro 2018 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Black Mexico’s Sites of Struggles across Borders: The Problem of The Color Line by Christian Yanaí Bermúdez-Castro Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Languages and Literatures University of California, Los Angeles, 2018 Professor Héctor V. Calderón, Chair This dissertation studies the socio-cultural connections of the United States and Mexico’s Pan-African selected twentieth- and twenty-first century sites of struggle through literature, film, and music. Novels and movies such as La negra Angustias (1948/1950), Imitation of Life (1933/1959), Angelitos negros (1948/1970), Como agua para chocolate saga (1989, 2016, 2017), and film (1992), as well as music of racial activism by Mexican and Afro-Latino artists such as Negro José and Afro-Chicano band Third Root, are all key elements of my project to study the formation and understanding what of Mexico’s Tercera Raíz entails historically, politically, and culturally. I focus my study on the development of black racial consciousness in twentieth-century Mexican cultural life, and I consequently explore the manner in which Mexican writers, filmmakers and artists have managed the relationship between Afro-Mexicans and majority ii populations of white and mestizo Mexicans, as well as the racial bridge existent between the United States’ black history, and Mexico’s Third Root. After the realization that there are Mexican oeuvres (filmic and literary) with racial overtones have been inspired by works of American and/or African American authors, who approach racial consciousness in a completely different manner, I take into consideration such cultural philosophies and apply them to the Mexican context. With this said, a great part of my project on blackness in Mexico is based on African-American intellectuals that, due to the lack of black studies in Mexico, shed light on new ways of uncovering the racial consciousness of Mexican mestizos and Afro-Mexicans. To understand the cultural enigma of the Afro-Mexican, my project explores some of the following inquiries: the ideology of mestizaje directed towards the Spaniard-Indigenous binary; the representation of Afro-Mexican women treated in literature and film; mutual influences of the United States and Mexico through visual media and music to expose topics on blackness; the absence of official black intellectuals, centers of research, and curricula in universities in Mexico; and lastly, the benefit of drawing on foreign ideologies of blackness to explain Mexico’s tripartite racial origins. iii The dissertation of Christian Yanaí Bermúdez-Castro is approved. Patricia Arroyo Calderón Stephanie Frances Bosch Kevin B. Terraciano Héctor V. Calderón, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2018 iv Para mis padres, Salvador Bermúdez Caratachea y Ma. de la Luz Castro Herrera. Gracias por impulsarme a volar con mis propias alas sin dudar nunca que sería capaz de sostener el vuelo sola. Por su infinito apoyo y amor incondicional, esto es para ustedes. Para usted, Profe. Thank you for inspiring me to do this work, and for always believing in me. Para mi país, México, y nuestra tercera raíz; porque existe un México Negro. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION .............................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... vii VITA ......................................................................................................................................... ix INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE The Mexican Revolution and the Black Woman Warrior in La negra Angustias (1944), 1949)………………………………………………………………………………..………..…. 15 CHAPTER TWO Laura Esquivel’s Como agua para chocolate (1989), El diario de Tita (2016), and Mi negro pasado (2017): Northern Mexico’s Black Revolutionary Saga .................................................. 65 CHAPTER THREE Filming Blackness across Borders: Cheating on Color with Imitation of Life (1934, 1959) and Angelitos negros (1948)………………………………………………………………..……….131 CONCLUSIONS…………………………………………………………………………..…..195 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………..……………215 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I always thought that this was going to be the easiest page to include in my dissertation, but I have to say it has not been the case. It is a bit difficult to think about every person that, one way or another, have been there along the way to guide me, to help me, to give me that extra push that I often needed. This project has been the result of many long days and nights of hard work, that would not have been possible without the support of many people. I would first like to thank my advisor, Prof. Héctor Calderón, for his mentorship, and for his many hours of dedication to this project that is also his. I want to thank him for his friendship and unconditional support throughout my doctoral studies, and for helping me become a better student, a better writer, and a better academic. For being the inspiration behind the topic of this work —which I discovered while I took one of his classes as an undergraduate. I am forever thankful to him because I know his “Are you sure you want to do this?” questions were intended to guide me and make sure I really wanted to continue in this profession, and I did. Here we are now at the end of this part of the journey, and I cannot thank him enough for helping me keep my optimism throughout these years in academia and making it seem that it was doable when I questioned it: “work, work, work, fun, fun, fun.” But most importantly, I want to think him for believing in me when I doubted myself, ¡gracias, Profe! I would also like to acknowledge my doctoral committee members: Patricia Arroyo Calderón, Stephanie Bosh Santana, and Kevin Terraciano. Thank you for your wisdom, support, and enthusiasm throughout this process. I would also like to thank UCLA’s Graduate Division for the many scholarships I was awarded, and that made this dissertation possible. Without the Harry and Yvonne Lenart Graduate Travel Fellowship, Graduate Summer Mentorship, and Graduate Research Mentorships the completion of my graduate studies and research would not vii have been possible either. I am also thankful to the Department of Spanish & Portuguese for their support with the Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship and Ben and Rue Travel Awards, and to the administrative staff for their assistance and patience during our interactions. I am eternally grateful to my parents for their love and ongoing support throughout my academic life. To my mom, Lucha Castro Herrera, and my dad, Salvador Bermúdez: Gracias por siempre apoyarme y darme palabras de aliento cuando me sentía agotada. Gracias por su amor incondicional, por sus oraciones, y por nunca dudar que este día llegaría. Los amo. I also want to thank my fellow graduate students and friends who have been there sharing this journey with me. I would especially like to thank Verónica García Moreno, Alejandro Ramírez Méndez, Nitzaira Delgado García, Laura Muñoz, Renee Rivera, Alli Carlisle, and Jesús Galleres, my beloved cohort, and to Armando Guerrero and Ernesto Arciniega, my non-cohort amazing friends. Thank you all for being such a great system of support throughout our years together in graduate school. Vero, thank you for the many hours of laughter and always making sure I was okay; Ale, thank you for your unconditional support and the many hours we spent joking and laughing together; Jesús, thank you for always being yourself with me and considering me your friend. Nitzaira, thank you for your unconditional friendship, for always been there when I needed you, for the many trips we took together, for the hours of laughter and dancing we shared, for being the best roommate, but mostly, for becoming one of my best friends. Ernesto, thanks for coming into my life during the last years of graduate school, thank you for being YOU and showing me that I can always count on you. And lastly, thank you Armando for these years of friendship. Thank you for all the laughs and the jokes, for being my confidant and one of my best friends. I am glad we went through this process together, I know it would not have been the same without your company. Let’s do this! viii VITA 2017 – 2018 Teaching Fellow Department of Spanish & Portuguese University of California, Los Angeles 2016 - 2017 Graduate Research Mentorship Graduate Division University of California, Los Angeles 2016 Harry and Yvonne Lenart Graduate Travel Fellowship Humanities Division University of California, Los Angeles 2016 Ben and Rue Pine Travel Award Department of Spanish & Portuguese University of California, Los Angeles 2015 - 2017