How Nacho Libre is a respectable body of work for Mexican representation, despite being directed and written by a White person.
*As a quick disclaimer: I need to say that I will always support Latinx stories told by Latinx creatives and this essay is in no way dismissing the countless films made by Latinx directors/ writers nor supporting White directors in telling these stories. Nacho Libre is a classic film within my circle and in countless others and the purpose of this article is to highlight what an Anglo director such as Jared Hess gets right using Mexico as the backdrop of this movie and what other directors get wrong*
I speak for many Mexican Americans here in California when I say that one of the most definitive movies of my childhood was Jared Hess’ 2006 Mexican wrestler comedy Nacho Libre starring Jack Black. I grew up with the same nickname as Jack Black's wrestling sidekick, Eskeleto. My brother was nicknamed after one the child actors from the movie, Chancho. Nacho Libre is a staple within my household, yet after realizing that my childhood hero was played by White king Jack Black, I needed to revisit the film and observe it through an older perspective. Especially since the film uses Oaxaca, a famous city in Mexico as a backdrop. Something many White directors are notorious for when it comes to using foreign countries as the location for the story. Taking off the nostalgia glasses and going into this movie with a decolonized view, I was ready to fully observe the problematic aspects , aside from Jack Black’s Mexican impersonation, but I was shocked to see how well director Jared Hess manages to showcase seventies Mexican culture from a non native perspective while also being respectful of each element and quality of Oaxaca, the city where the movie takes place. The movie is far from perfect with certain problematic aspects being Jack Black, a fully White actor, being the canonically Mexican lead armed with a “Mexican” accent. But when putting this aside, the movie asks the question: can a non Mexican person present Mexico and Mexican culture in a respectful and non offensive manner?
Positive Latinx representation was not very common in North American films nor television during the 90’s and early 2000’s. White directors were just as guilty building upon this lack of diversity by reinforcing stereotypes through their characters and settings.
Mel Gibson’s 2006 drama Apocalypto garnered critiques of its characters, with some activist groups saying that the film depicted the Mayan people as more savage and unnecessarily violent. The Expendables (2010) creates its setting in an unnamed Latino territory, but creates a hostile environment where poor villages are under tyranny under a dictator modeled after Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Tony Scott’s 2004 Man On Fire generalizes a majority of Mexican people as either kidnappers or victims of kidnapping and drug smuggling.
These films continue the cycle of reinforcing negative stereotypes such as creating violent and “savage portrayals” of Latinx people, generalizing them into negative boxes and painting Latinx countries as poverty stricken hell holes. With these tropes being imminent for films based in Latin America by a White director, director Jared Hess strays away from these stereotypes and attempts to highlight the beauty of the culture of Oaxaca.
Nacho Libre tells the tale of Ignacio, a priest/ cook for a Catholic orphanage in Mexico who turns to the secret life of Mexican wrestling, or lucha libre, to financially support the orphanage. This is where we make first contact of one of two problematic aspects of the film.
Our lead Ignacio is played by the lovable Jack Black, a White actor from Santa Ana California despite Ignacio being Mexican. Black presents this persona with a tiny little moustache and a very thick Mexican accent. This means certain words are said with extra emphasis on vowels and a random word in Spanish thrown in the mix. Black even manages to fit in Mexican jargon in certain lines such as “my clothes they were a stinky” or “chocolo mano” both include improper grammar in both English and Spanish. The impersonation Black does is a presentation of stereotypes that have been demonstrated in most other mediums of film and television including a character of Latino or Mexican descent.
The whole movie takes place in Oaxaca Mexico where there’s a lot of different dialects, where most residents speak with more Indigenous mixed languages yet Black takes on a sort of Mexican American “L.A” accent. This is obvious the second he’s in a scene with another character who is speaking spanish such as when he is speaking with the priests. What makes it awkward is that there are multiple Mexican people in the movie speaking Spanish with a normal accent and dialect while Black is over pronouncing words in his accent making words like crazy pronounced as “cray-a-zi”. Black takes this idea of how Mexican Americans speak to one another and uses it to create his Mexican persona. But there is a counter argument to this and also tackles Black’s complexion. In the movie, his mother is a Scandinavian deacon and his father was a Mexican missionary so canonically he’s supposed to be half white and his accent is the product of being raised in the monastery which is again set in Oaxaca, Mexico.
While Black performs a living stereotype of Mexican people, Jared Hess actually aims for authenticity with the visual and audio elements of this film and it’s that attention to authenticity that gives respect to a culture and its people. One critique I heard of the film is that it presents each character as stupid and the city as impoverished, but after viewing it none of these claims are accurate. Characters are well written if not just okay but none show a lack of intelligence or capacity and there are multiple scenes that showcase a wealthy setting. Multiple luchadors dressed in suits, high profile homes, beautiful garbs for the women, etc. The setting showcases a higher class for the people of Oaxaca with the only aspect showcasing poverty is Jack Black's sidekick Esqueleto, who is houseless.
The film does an excellent job of displaying the city of Oaxaca as well as Oaxacan culture in a manner that arranges the setting without forcing it. One troupe that’s common in media when presenting anything Mexican is showing that Mexican people love eating churros, a popular Mexican dessert. In most cartoons based in Mexico or with Mexican characters there are always churros or tacos present, but in this film, there isn’t. That’s small but I appreciate it. There’s a scene where Ignacio smacks his opponent with a churro but this is only after being flung into the audience where there was an elderly woman eating one right beside where he lands. The film actually has the character eat a popular street vendor delight called “elote” which is just a corn on the cob with mayonnaise and cheese. There is the traditional architecture of the citizens’ homes. There are no huts or damaged houses but beautiful one and two story houses. In one scene they show off a Mexican “tianguis” which is the equivalent of a farmers market. There’s even a scene at the end right before the credits roll that show off one of Mexico’s prized locations: the Aztec pyramids.
One quality about this movie that doesn’t get enough praise is its soundtrack. The range from early seventies soulful arrangements from John Cameron to traditional cumbias to Mexican rock music creates a fun and energetic atmosphere to accompany every scene. The soundtrack is organized by a mister Danny Elfman and Beck, both prestigious White musicians yet the music doesn’t reveal that. Each track that transitions a scene or plays behind a bit of dialogue is accompanied with soft spanish guitar strings and beautiful horns as well as more native instruments such as mandolins and bamboo flutes. The music enriches this film as it showcases a variety of Mexican artists, some more local such as Los Angeles rock band Los Lobos or the seventies Mexico City group Mister Loco along with wonderful moments of mariachi music or beautiful flutes. It captures the sound of the times and presents the true style of Oaxaca culture.
After some research, I discovered production notes about the film from a website called cinemareview.com and in these notes, it’s highlighted that director Jared Hess shares a deep appreciation for the Mexican culture and even lived in Mexico City for some time. Despite casting Jack Black as the protagonist and having White musicians such as Danny Elfman and Beck with the soundtrack, Hess utilized the mexican crew and cast at his disposal. Each background character is a citizen of Oaxaca and each luchador is an actual professional wrestler either from Oaxaca or Mexico City. The main bad guy whom Ignacio (Black) faces in the final battle of the movie is famed Mexican wrestler César Cuauhtémoc González Barrón or The Silver King (rest in peace).
My household for the past decade has been filled with inside jokes from that movie, but it wasn’t until recently when I decided to take the nostalgia goggles off and look harder at the framework of this film. At first glance, this is just another White actor imitating Mexican people and attempting to take one aspect of Mexican entertainment and commodify it for a White audience. But I was wrong. Despite Jack Black’s Brown impersonation, this film is a love letter to Oaxaca and Mexican culture glorifying a city and the people who inhabit it. The writer of said love letter just turns out to be a White man but still manages to present a Mexican story with Mexican people in a city that can be defined as the heart of Mexico in a respectful and loving manner. This movie demonstrates the heart of Mexican people and just how beautiful the culture can be.
Bibliography
- Arcos, Betto. “With No Museum, Thousands Of Mexican Instruments Pile Into This Apartment.” NPR, NPR, 30 Dec. 2015, www.npr.org/2015/12/30/461484380/with-no-museum-thousands-of-mexican-instruments-pile-into-this-apartment
- “Is Nacho Libre Racist?” FreakyTrigger, freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2006/08/is-nacho-libre-racist/
- “Nacho Libre.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt0457510/soundtrack.
- “Nacho Libre Production Notes.” NACHO LIBRE — Movie Production Notes…CinemaReview.com, cinemareview.com/production.asp?prodid=3462#.
