1. 2. 3.

Plus: What do you now know about Afro-Latin@s? This semesters film preferences Options for future film classes

Eva Aylln

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH7I RF-FFgY

Tlacotalpan

fandango

Memn Pingun is a fictional character from Mexico. Stories featuring him, a very poor Cuban Mexican boy, first appeared in the 1940s and have remained in print since.

Memin is a restless child, not a very good student, not for lack of intelligence, but for not being able to pay attention (he is surprisingly good at arithmetic). He helps his mother working in the street, selling newspapers, and as a shoe shine boy. Memin reflects the life of a poor Mexican boy in Mexico City. Memn and his mother are the only Afro-Mexican characters.

While Memn suffers a degree of racist taunting, especially in the first issues, the characters mocking him are depicted as either cruel or ignorant. As the story progresses, his race becomes less of an issue.In one famous issue, Memn, having read that Cleopatra VII of Egypt took milk baths to lighten her skin, tries the same treatment. His mother weeps with sorrow that her son would want to change his skin color. A repentant Memn decides to be proud of his race and color to honor his good mother.

In June 2005, as part of a "History of Mexican Comics" series, the Mexican Postal Service (SEPOMEX) issued a series of postage stamps featuring the character of Memn. The stamps were deemed offensive by a number of African American community groups and politicians in the United States, including Jesse Jackson, prompting the Mexican government to assert that Memn had done a lot to oppose racism and that the stereotypical Warner Brothers' character Speedy Gonzales was never interpreted as offensive in Mexico.** LULAC and NCLR, Hispanic Americans civil rights organizations, also issued statements calling the stamps racist.

The charges of racism stem from the manner in which Pingun and his mother are rendered, in the style of "darky iconography" (a form which, in the United States, has its roots in blackface and the American minstrel show tradition.)

According to Enrique Krauze, these different opinions may owe to the very different racial attitudes held by the British colonizers in the United States and the Spanish in Mexico, the much earlier, and nonviolent, abolition of slavery in Mexico (1810 through federal decree in Mexico versus 1865 through a civil war in the United States) and the nonexistence in Mexico of what in the United States were known as the "Jim Crow laws. The criticism from United States officials was not only ridiculed by public opinion leaders in Mexico and by most of the Mexican population, but it also spurred interest in the stamps: from the day they were criticized, they were offered in Internet auction sites for several times their face value, and Mexican collectors bought the full edition of 750,000 copies in a few days.

http://www.meminpinguin.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SJC qFDp0Uw&feature=related

Peruvian TV show; the actor Jorge Benavides is in blackface. The show was removed after viewers protested its racist content, and then returned to the airwaves.

MAY 27, 2011Racist Character Returns To Peruvian TV ScreensAfter a brief suspension, popular Peruvian television station, Frecuencia Latina, has brought back controversial comedy character El Negro Mama despite being attacked for being a racist caricature of a black man. http://racismdaily.com

Historical figures and incidents that surprise Gates [and you?] Gates reactions vs. reactions of natives

Anything else that catches your attention

The racism in the stamps and TV showis there a cultural or national difference in how they are perceived? Do we have the right to protest popular culture in other countries? In general, do you think that Gates presentation of information in the 3 episodes that we viewed was totally neutral? Can you think of an example when it wasnt? Any last comments (or forever hold your peace)?

The rats on the streets of Rio look like Skittles!

In Fall 2012 I will offer another film course, similar to this in structure, but different in content.

I have previously offered Cuban and Mexican film courses [in conjunction with a reader].

Please indicate any preferences or objections on the rate the films sheet.

There are also readers for Peru, Brazil and Argentina, along with a general Latin American reader.