Lupe Velez Regurgitated
Lupe Vélez Regurgitated: Cautionary, Indigestion-Causing Ruminations on ʺMexicansʺ in ʺAmericanʺ Toilets Perpetrated While Covetously Screening ʺVeronicaʺ | 2007
Time to let this one free! Close the popup windows you’ll see when you land on the academia site linked below, access to this article should be free and in the clear!
#mextasy #lupevelez #femmefatale #latinasinhollywood
“Celebrities, our gods on earth, provoke a certain set of uncontrollable emotions—the outpouring of affect for the departed Princess of Wales was sincere (all the more scary, uncanny, and profound because it was so); alluding to Vélez as a goddess, or god on earth, is more than metaphorical—it reminds us of the power that projected, industrially reproduced and distributed bodies have on spying, consuming subjects. If I linger a tad too long it is owing to the depth, the ubiquity of this most fixed stereotype—the Latina bombshell. Lupe Vélez had a lot to do with the manufacture of this trope, and she profited handsomely from it as well. By the time she made Palooka with Jimmy Durante, she had managed, with her handlers, to perfect a loopy, sexy, hot persona that would hold her in good grace with American audiences for decades.”