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Latinos in Film Archive at Michigan State University Libraries

By Diana Rivera, Cesar E. Chavez Collection/Coleccion Cesar E. Chavez, Michigan State University Libraries, Michigan Libraries, November/December 2007

Posters for The Bad One starring Dolores Del Rio and Strictly Dynamite starring Jimmy Durante and Lupe Valez.

A major archive of rare ephemera relating to Latinos in film has recently been acquired as part of the Cesar E. Chavez Collection at Michigan State University. This collection includes almost 600 scripts, lobby cards, photoplay editions, press books, and press kits dating from the silent films of 1916 (many of which have been lost) to examples of contemporary film as recent as 2005. It will serve as a resource on how Latinos have been depicted in film during the past 90 years for researchers in such fields as women’s studies; American studies; film studies; Chicano, Latino, Ethnic, and Latin American studies; history; and art.

Latinos, in general terms, are descendents of Latin American immigrants in the United States. The collection focuses primarily on U.S. films in which Latinos were characters. The range of roles portrayed by many of the great Latino movie stars in early Hollywood films are represented by such stars as Rita Hayworth, Anthony Quinn, Lupe Velez, Cesar Romero, and Duncan Reynaldo. Westerns are heavily represented.

The treatment of Latino characters in film and television varies from decade to decade. Early films almost exclusively portrayed Mexican characters and usually not in the best light. In the silent era, major Latino stars were cast as the “Mexican spitfire” or sultry seductress—Velez and Dolores Del Rio are two examples. Both are well-represented in this collection. In the 1930s and early 1940s, actors such as Romero and Carmen Miranda often portrayed Latino characters in comedies and musicals.

In the post-World War II era, new Latino actors such as Ricardo Montalban and Fernando Lamas emerged as legitimate stars in a wide range of films, some of which attempt a more realistic view of social problems (such as Border Incident in this collection). Early television icons such as “The Cisco Kid” of the 1950s, gradually yielded to the urban character of Chico in the 1970s’ “Chico and the Man.”

The collection also contains a few examples of Cuban, Mexican, and South American film, plus a collection of campaign sheets and posters from Britain, Italy, Mexico, Cuba, East Germany and other countries (based on Hollywood releases).

We believe this significant archive on Latinos in film will be of great sociological importance to scholars. It also could be the nucleus of a major exhibition on the subject.

How to Go: MSU Libraries Special Collections is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

On the Web: See the catalog record for the Latinos in Film collection.