It's no secret that there is something magical about the movies and here is a bit of evidence: Last month, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, better known as the entity that awards the Oscars, miraculously resolved Puerto Rico's political status without a referendum and without telling anyone but the island's film commissioner, Mariella Pérez Serrano.
And this is how they did it: By simply writing a letter through which the Academy unceremoniously dashed the hopes of a Puerto Rico-made film titled América from being considered for an Oscar in the "foreign language" category. In snubbing América, the brief letter further reiterated the Academy's new policy toward submissions from Puerto Rico: that entries from the island will no longer be accepted under the foreign language rubric because its inhabitants are US citizens.
The reasoning behind this change of status is not clear. There are some who believe that the Academy stopped considering Puerto Rico-made movies for fear that they would have to accept Spanish-language films produced by US directors, a prospect that would open up even more opportunities of recognition for a cinema that can be seen everywhere in the world. Others think that Mexican-American directors want to put a stop to the policy out of the belief that island Puerto Ricans are getting a free ride since they can compete under the foreign language category without residing in a sovereign country.
Regardless of the Academy's motives, the first flaw in their logic is the very notion that Spanish is a language foreign to the United States. Spanish was not only the first European language spoken in the territory presently occupied by the US, it has also persisted as an important form of communication and expression across the nation ever since. Today, over 50 million Spanish speakers call America home, a fact that makes the US the second largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, only behind the Republic of Mexico. Equally impressive, any child currently born in Los Angeles, where the Academy has its headquarters, is equally likely to pick up Spanish or English as a first language.
But if the Academy insists that Spanish is an alien tongue, pues, muy bien. We can then move on to the second lapse in their reasoning: that Spanish-language movies produced in Puerto Rico should not be considered as foreign language films because islanders are American citizens, just like others that live in any of the 50 states.
In classic Hollywood Spanish: "Ay, caramba!" While it is true that the federal government treats Puerto Rico as part of the US when it comes to recruiting soldiers or collecting campaign donations for presidential candidates, it does not when it comes to fundamental citizenship rights. These include the right to vote for the same president that sends Puerto Rican soldiers off to war as well as the right to have representatives with both a voice and a vote in Congress. Even further, the nation's highest legal authority, the Supreme Court, has clearly declared that Puerto Rico "belongs to, but is not part of, the United States."
In other words, Puerto Rico and the United States are neither the same nor equal entities. As a result, a great part of the island's cinema not only looks and feels differently, it is also produced under conditions of cultural vulnerability and economic precariousness in an industry that is dominated by American, English-language productions made with enormous budgets. Within this context, to unilaterally annex Puerto Rican cinema to that of the U.S. will result less in it being recognized as a vital part of American culture than in rendering it invisible as a distinct form.
So, for as long as films from Puerto Rico comply with the Academy's criteria of being "feature-length motion picture[s] produced outside the United States with predominantly non-English dialogue," it is inexplicably punitive to exclude América and other island-made films from consideration in the foreign language category. Even if such foreignness is, as we know, made in America, no accent on the "e."
Frances Negrón-Muntaner is the director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University.
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You make relevant observations and I can't disagree, but here are few more.
1. Hollywood is the land of make-believe and nowhere is that more evident than in its depictions of anyone from any Spanish-speaking context. This deliberate marginalization of the cultural "other" has a long-standing history in the land that gave us Zorro, West Side Story and Chico and the Man. Stereo-types of all Spanish-speaking people as "less-than" abound and sadly there is NEVER a shortage of "latino" clown cars to pull up to any Hollywood lot to drop off "latino" caricatures. Don't make me list them. HP doesn't allow space for that treatise.
2. As the Spanish-speaking population grows in the US, so does the PERCEIVED cultural threat to the English-speaking population and the Hollywood "mine canaries" are only expressing their cultural gasps before they HAVE to accept the fact that an endless flow of insipid "movies" that represent their toxic mediocrity and provincialism will soon be unacceptable to those whose world view is bigger than that of "Friends", "Sex & The City" or the Kardashian Zombies. And All this DESPITE the endless and dishonest harangue that we hear from Columbia to UW-Madison to UCLA and back, about being "inclusive", "tolerant" and yes I'm going there...".embracing diversity". ANYONE with integrity knows this is a LIE and while it makes for cute bumper stickers on mopeds, is just as irrelevant and dishonest..........
4. "mexican-american" film-makers? While certainly a very valid point to consider, having lived in TX and CA, I am well aware of the resentment felt by many from this cultural reference toward Puerto Rico and all of its culturally inherent "foibles". Sort of like, since they haven't seen it in a George Lopez routine, then they just can't grasp Puerto Rico-made film. For many of these American "latinos", their references have been engrained by the very industry that morphed them from authentic "mexican-american" to acceptable film caricatures.
That has nothing to do with art and everything to do with politics. Stop mouthing off and inform yourself about the struggle of many PuertoRicans who desire to acknowledge the entirety of their cultural heritage, the resulting psycho-social structures and very different world views that have little to do with being US citizens than of being the result of many difficulties, struggles and stigmas of three races: Tainos, Spaniards and Africans.
Your sentiment is valid, but your summary is a bit faulty.
Very few of us are jumping into to the big "rican" blender of angst in el cielito lindo.
Most of us lead fully-integrated, fulfilling and gratifying lives REGARDLESS of our individual racial coordinates which are NOT universal nor unanimously experienced.
But what would I know, I am only born and raised in Puerto Rico.