On Independence Day, one writer reflects on the narratives we've been told.
Last week, I wrote an essay that was pretty critical of "Flamin' Hot," a movie about the alleged creator of Flamin' Hot Cheetos. My main gripe with the film, Eva Longoria's feature directing debut, wasn't that it was propaganda, a Latino feel-good movie. It was that it wasn't effective even on those terms. |
In hindsight, I could have gone even further. Sure, recognizing the ways in which this movie, ostensibly for Latino people, failed Latino people, was worthy of an essay in itself. But if this movie wasn't for Latinos, who was it for? |
While "Flamin' Hot" is a poor piece of Latino propaganda, it is an excellent piece of American propaganda. The points for that argument stand in almost direct contrast with the points for my original argument. According to the film, it is through initiative and hard work that Latinos will earn their place in America. It is through our cultural assets — burritos, Flamin' Hot Cheetos — that white America will begin to accept us. And we should aspire to succeed individually, to join the C-suite and go to fancy restaurants, not caring if the only other people who look like us are the custodians, the waiters, the valets. This is America, after all; we all have to make our own way. |
Or so the story goes. It's a simple story, as simple as the ones that tell us that America is a perfect place or a uniquely evil one. |
Such narratives about America abound on a day like the Fourth of July. Maybe you're tempted to believe them; it can be nice to just have a hot dog and not think too hard. |
But as you stare up at the fireworks, their light illuminating the country all around us, I hope you think, even for just a second, about our nation's complexity. It's what America's history calls for. It's what we deserve. And I hope that after considering that complexity, you begin to seek it out: in our politics, in the stories we tell ourselves, and, as part of that, in our movies. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
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