Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Amores Perros : Exotic Violence And Neoliberal Fear1

2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13569320600596991

1469-9575

Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado,

Latin American Literature Studies

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1 The final version of this paper was possible thanks to discussions and suggestions made by various people. I want to thank Mabel Moraña, Joshua K. Lund and Hermann Herlinghaus for the initial dialogue and debate on the ideas presented here. I also want to thank Juan Poblete and Emanuelle Oliveira for their comments during the presentation of an earlier, much shorter version of this paper in the LASA conference held at Las Vegas. Roberto Fernández Retamar, John Kraniauskas and Philip Derbyshire were of great help in the publication of this text, which first appeared in Spanish in Casa de las Américas 240 (2005). The present translation presents some additions and modifications with respect to the Spanish publication. Finally, I want to thank Kara N. Moranski for her translation and Citlali Martínez for the revisions to this version. 2 México: Altavista Films/Zeta Films, 2000. 3 See, more specifically, the collected volumes Ciudadanías del miedo, edited by Susana Rotker Susana, Rotker, ed. 2002. Ciudadanías del miedo, Caracas: Nueva sociedad. [Google Scholar]. Caracas: Nueva Sociedad, 2002 y Espacio urbano, comunicación y violencia, edited by Mabel Moraña Mabel, Moraña and Herlinghaus, Hermann, eds. 2002. Espacio urbano, comunicación y violencia, Pittsburgh: Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana. [Google Scholar]. Pittsburgh: Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana, 2002. These volumes compile an ample representative sample of this theoretical turn to violence. 4 Ciudadanías del miedo: 14. 5 Amores perros. London: British Film Institute, 2003: 14. 6 Amores perros: 44. 7 ‘Affecting legacies. historical memory and contemporary structures of feeling in Madagascar and Amores perros’. Screen 44(3) 2003: 284. 8 ‘El melodrama: “No te vayas, mi amor, que es inmoral llorar a solas”’. Narraciones anacrónicas de la modernidad. Melodrama e intermedialidad en América Latina, edited by Hermann Herlinghaus. Santiago de Chile: Cuarto Propio, 2002: 120. It should be pointed out that here Monsiváis exemplifies this process with Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, a film with an enormous resonance in Amores Perros. 9 See Claudia Schaefer Schaefer, Claudia. 2003. Bored to Distraction: Cinema of Excess in End-of-the-century Mexico and Spain, Albany: State University of New York Press. [Google Scholar]. Bored to distraction. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003: 87. 10 Ciudadanías del miedo: 18. 11 Eduardo Antonio Parra Parra, Eduardo Antonio. 2003. Nostalgia de la sombra, México: Joaquín Mortiz. [Google Scholar]. Nostalgia de la sombra. México: Joaquín Mortiz, 2003. 12 I will address in greater detail the production of Amores perros and its publicity campaign below. 13 In fact, Todo el poder falls far short of being a movie that could be held up as a model for Mexican cinema. Jorge Ayala Blanco Ayala Blanco, Jorge. 2001. La fugacidad del cine mexicano, México: Océano. [Google Scholar] quite precisely points out the film's profound ideological problems: ‘[Todo el poder] is a phoney thriller whose success is prefabricated, classist and completely leaving out the theme of poverty … an ode to the trivial dilemmas of the autistic national middle class with a thievable this-year's-model Cherokee’ (La fugacidad del cine mexicano. México: Océano, 2001: 471). In spite of the fact that I share Ayala Blanco's critique, it still seems worth mentioning that, being a film that is cynically (or honestly) commercial, it has a political dimension simply absent in a more pretentious film such as Amores perros 14 Bored to distraction: 87. 15 Cited in Bored to distraction: 87. 16 I owe this point to Juan Poblete, who brought it to my attention during my presentation of an earlier version of this work at the LASA conference in Las Vegas. 17 Daniel and Valeria's story has also been the object of feminist readings. Deborah Shaw's Shaw, Deborah. 2003. Contemporary Cinema of Latin America: Ten Key Films, New York: Continuum. [Google Scholar] interpretation, for example, suggests that the characters represent the collapse of the discourse of ‘machismo’, therefore articulating a critique of patriarchy itself. Valeria is interpreted as a character that validates the social and racial structures of patriarchy (she is a European model that validates the racism of the media, oppressing people of colour). Her accident and ensuing mutilation can be seen as a sort of ‘happy ending’ that opens the door to the possibility of a ‘post-model’ life for her. (Contemporary Cinema of Latin America: 10 Key Films. New York: Continuum, 2003: 64–6). Even when Shaw recognizes the dimensions of Amores perros's conservative discourse (such as the way El Chivo's life turns out by comparison with his revolutionary ideas), the interpretation based on a critique of patriarchy seems somewhat voluntaristic. I do not share her conclusion with respect to Valeria. While she is right in pointing out that Valeria plays a role that legitimizes patriarchy (in that she accepts that a man would leave his family for her) and racism (capitalizing on the fact that she is European in a television industry that excludes the country's racial majority), Shaw's ‘happy ending’ does not exist. There is, however, a moral justice that cannot be explained by the critique of patriarchy but rather demands it own logic: Valeria receives a fairly severe punishment in return for participating in an adulterous relationship, whereas Daniel simply returns to his family. There is, thus, a crucial gender difference in the punishment for the same deed. 18 ¿Guerreros o ciudadanos? Violencia(s). Una cartografía de las interacciones urbanas. Espacio urbano, comunicación y violencia: 56. 19 Here I do not wish that my discourse be reduced to the anachronistic argument of the novel being a genre ‘superior to’ or ‘more complex than’ cinema, nor am I interested in a nostalgic defence of the novel as the figuration of all things social. The point that I am illustrating is a conceptualization of violence as something more complex than a series of moral decisions, which is seen very clearly in Nostalgia de la sombra. This has much to do with the simple fact that Parra's novel has no need to meet the commercial expectations of Amores perros or Todo el Poder and, therefore, is not anchored in this middle-class vision of the world. 20 Nostalgia de la sombre: 55. 21 Sin límites ficcionales. Nostalgia de la sombra de Eduardo Antonio Parra. Revista de Literatura Mexicana contemporánea 2, 2003: 69. 22 This point is illustrated, for example, by the comparison that John Beverley Beverley, John. 2004. Los últimos serán los primeros. Notas sobre el cine de Víctor Gaviria. Osamayor, no. 15: 34 [Google Scholar] established between Fernando Meirelles's and Kátia Lund's Cidade de Deus and Víctor Gaviria's films. Beverley observes that, even if both address analogous problematics (for example gangs, drugs, etc.), there is an important structural difference: the first is the Bildungsroman of a youth who leaves the ghetto and enters the bourgeoisie (consequently supporting an ideology that is, ultimately, middle class), while Gaviria is more concerned with a project representing subalternity. ‘Los últimos serán los primeros’: Notas sobre el cine de Víctor Gaviria. Osamayor XV: 34. 23 One example is La génesis del crimen en México (1900) by Julio Guerrero Guerrero, Julio. 1996. La génesis del crimen en México, México: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes. [Google Scholar] (México: Conaculta, 1996), which condenses the positivist visions surrounding the theme. It would undoubtedly be instructive to make a comparison between the arguments of books such as this one and the stereotypes presented in many contemporary accounts of violence. 24 The overview of the production of Amores perros that I make here is amply based on the detailed assessment elaborated by Smith in his book about the movie. 25 A brief summary of the failure of Imcine and the emergence of commercial cinema can be found in Shaw, Contemporary Cinema of Latin America: 52–3. 26 Un puzzle canino Zayas, Manuel. 2001. “Un puzzle canino. Entrevista con Iñárritu”. Available at: http://www.clubcultura.com/clubcine/amoresperros/perros02.htm; INTERNET (accessed 8 December 2005) [Google Scholar]. Entrevista con Iñárritu. Available at: http://www.clubcultura.com/clubcine/amoresperros/ perros02.htm; INTERNET. 27 Sexo, pudor y lágrimas is perhaps the first representative of the commercial Mexican cinema that emerged in the late 1990s. The movie is a comedy of errors that tells the story of two couples with their relationships in crisis, and of two external figures putting them in further danger. The film's logic is similar to that of a myriad of Mexican movies from the latter part of the last decade whose plotlines centre on infidelity, a logic that resounds in Amores perros. Fidel Moral has stated that the movies’ logic is based on ‘punishing the free and condemning the disfunctional to stay together’ (cited in La fugacidad del cine mexicano: 443). This logic is not far off from that of González Iñárritu film. To address the soundtrack, its title track was recorded by pop artist Aleks Syntek; the song's success doubtlessly generated interest and contributed to the film's eventual success. Martin D'Lugo has also studied the soundtrack strategy in Quentin Tarantino's films. (Amores perros. In The Cinema of Latin America. London: Wallflower Press, 2003: 227.) It is fitting here to address the fact that there is something different at work in Tarantino's films: while his soundtracks are well articulated to the development and aesthetic of his films, a considerable portion of the Amores perros soundtrack is not even featured in the movie. 28 This point is made by Marvin D'Lugo. ‘Amores perros’: 229 29 Once upon a time in Mexico is the most obvious example. Robert Rodríguez takes his stereotyped vision of the border (developed since his first film, El Mariachi) and combines it with the visual language used in the Almada brothers' narcocine and also in the fichera cinema sponsored during the administration of President José López Portillo, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The result is an accumulation of stereotypes that shatters any cinematographic problematization of the country. It is, simply, a metacinematographic approach that has more to do with Rodríguez's textual and cinematographic references than with Mexico itself. This aesthetic is also present in the recent North American films such as Gore Verbinski's The Mexican or Steven Soderbergh's Traffic. 30 Cited in Deborah Shaw. Contemporary Cinema of Latin America: 54. 31 For a contrast of this film and Amores perros, refer to Contemporary cinema of Latin America: 36 and ss. 32 See, for example, Serna, Juan Antonio Serna, JuanAntonio. 2002. “El discurso de la subculture transgresora en el film mexicano Amores perros”. In Ciberletras no. 7. Available at: http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/faculty/guinazu/ciberletras/v07/serna.html; INTERNET (accessed 8 December 2005) [Google Scholar]. El discurso de la subcultura transgresora en el film mexicano Amores perros. Ciberletras 7. Available at: http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ faculty/guinazu/ciberletras/v07/serna.html; INTERNET. 33 See D' Lugo ‘Amores perros’: 227, Bored to distraction: 86–8. 34 The most interesting study of the climax of Tarantinesque cinema and its implications can be found in Botting, Fred, and Scott Wilson Botting, Fred and Scott, Wilson. 2001. The Tarantinian ethics, London: Sage. [Google Scholar]. The Tarantinian Ethics. London: Sage, 2001. 35 Al sur de la modernidad. Comunicación, globalización y multiculturalidad. Pittsburgh: Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana, 2001: 127. 36 Las ciudades que median los miedos Martín-Barbero, Jesús. “Las ciudades que median los miedos”. 19–36. In Moraña y Herlinghaus: [Google Scholar]. Espacio urbano, comunicación y violencia: 25. The Benjamin Benjamin, Walter. 2003. La obra de arte en la era de su reproductibilidad técnica, México: Ítaca. [Google Scholar] text referred to is ‘The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’. 37 D'Lugo D'Lugo, Marvin. 2003. “Amores perros”. In The cinema of Latin America, Edited by: Elena, Alberto and López, Marina Díaz. 225–35. London: Wallflower Press. 2004: [Google Scholar]. ‘Amores perros’: 227. 38 Al su de la modernidad: 127–8. 39 La fugacidad del arte mexicano: 486. 40 Un puzzle canino. 41 La obra de arte en la era de su reproductibilidad técnica. México: Ítaca, 2003: 96–9. 42 An example of a possible counterpoint can be found in the work of Carlos Monsiváis Monsiváis, Carlos. 2002. “El melodrama: ‘No te vayas, mi amor, que es inmoral llorar a solas’”. In Narraciones anacrónicas de la modernidad. Melodrama e intermedialidad en América Latina, Edited by: Herlinghaus, Hermann. 105–23. Santiago de Chile: Cuarto Propio. [Google Scholar], who seeks to explain the metropolis from the point of view of its public spaces, while articulating a profound critique of the bourgeoisie's moral discourses. See Los rituales del caos. México: Era, 1996. I have discussed this point in my article, De ironía, desubicación, cultura popular y sentimiento nacional: Carlos Monsiváis en el cambio de siglo. Revista de literatura mexicana contemporánea 20 (2003 Sánchez-Prado, Ignacio M. 2003. De ironía, desubicación, cultura popular y sentimiento nacional. Carlos Monsiváis en el cambio de siglo. Revista de literatura mexicana contemporánea, : 15–23. no. 20: [Google Scholar]): 15–23. 43 This term refers to the recent Columbian narrative that depicts violence from the perspective of the sicario, the name for a young assassin working within the world of drug cartels. Notable authors in this genre include Fernando Vallejo, Jorge Franco Ramos and Mario Mendoza. 44 See Braham Braham, Persephone. 2004. Crimes against the state, crimes against persons: detective fictions in Cuba and Mexico, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. [Google Scholar], Persephone. Crimes against the state. 45 Latin America in the US imaginary: postcolonialism, translation and the magic realist imperative. In Ideologies of Hispanism, edited by Mabel Moraña. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2005: 189–200. 46 El boom del subalterno. Teorías sin disciplina. Latinoamericanismo, poscolonialidad y globalización en debate, edited by Santiago Castro-Gómez y Eduardo Mendieta. México: Miguel Ángel Porrúa, 1998: 239. 47 ‘El boom del subalterno’: 240. 48 This account can be found in Smith Smith, PaulJulian. 2003. Amores perros, London: British Film Institute. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]. Amores perros: 13–27. 49 Smith observes that this year's Oscar awards were characterized by the press as having a ‘Hispanic accent’, due to the presence of Amores perros along with two of the United States' most recent neo-exotic films: Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls and Steven Soderbergh's Traffic. 50 A través del espejo. El cine mexicano y su público. México: El milagro, 1994 Monsiváis, Carlos y Carlos Bonfil. 1994. A través del espejo. El cine mexicano y su público, México: El milagro. [Google Scholar]. This book also includes a text by Carlos Bonfil. 51 ‘Droga y violencia: fantasmas de la nueva metrópoli latinoamericana’. In Espacio urbano, comunicación y violencia: 69–88. After a lengthy social analysis, Hopenhayn demonstrates that the reality of drugs and violence often operates counter to ideas generated by cultural manifestations. 52 ¿Guerreros o ciudadanos?: 60.