Oscars go south of the border
Mexicans rack up wins at the Academy Awards.
Mexico, America’s southern neighbor regularly slammed by America’s president, nevertheless got some love from Oscar Sunday night. Again.
And early Monday, President Trump issued a negative — though unrelated — set of tweets against Mexico. Again.
The most prominent winner Sunday night was Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and his fish-man fantasy love story, The Shape of Water, which won four Academy Awards, including two of the top Oscars, best picture and best director for del Toro.
The other two awards were for original score and production design.
Coco, the hit animated film marinated in Mexico’s unique cultural attitudes toward death and the afterlife, won two Oscars: one for animated feature and one for original song, Remember Me, by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.
In between, Mexican actors Salma Hayek and Gael García Bernal (who voiced one of the characters in Coco) appeared onstage at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles to introduce a performance or promote the Time’s Up movement.
Del Toro, 53 and born in Guadalajara, is the third Mexican filmmaker to win the directing Oscar, behind Alfonso Cuarón ( Gravity in 2014) and Alejandro González Iñárritu ( Birdman 2015, The Revenant 2016), who is the first Mexican to be nominated three times for best director.
In his acceptance speech, del Toro thanked all the usual people but added a tribute to immigrants and their contributions to the universal appeal of cinema.
He told reporters later that he was “speaking from my heart.” He didn’t have to use the words “wall” or “border” — everybody understood what del Toro was talking about when he reached the stage to claim his Oscar.
“I am an immigrant, like my compadres, Alfonso and Alejandro, like Gael and Salma, and like many of you,” he said. “In the last 25 years, I’ve been living in a country (the movie industry) all of our own.
“Part of it is here, part of it is in Europe, part of it is everywhere. I think the greatest thing that our art does, and our industry does, is erase the line in the sand. We should continue doing that when the world tells us to make it deeper.”
Backstage, he told reporters how important Oscar wins are for all of Mexico in an era when people feel free to trash a neighbor. “Every time we can demonstrate in any forum, be it sports, science, art, culture, anywhere, what we have to bring to the world discourse, to the world conversation, is extremely important. And it’s extremely important when we do it to remember where we’re from, because it’s honoring your roots, honor- ing your country.”
Coco director Lee Unkrich told reporters that when production started on the film six years ago, it was “a very different political climate.”
“While we were making the film, we had a change of presidency, and a lot of things started to be said about Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. That was unacceptable,” Unkrich said.
He never mentioned Trump’s name, but the reference to the Republican’s 2015 campaign announcement, during which the then-candidate said Mexican illegal immigrants were criminals, drug dealers and rapists, was unmistakable.
Trump, meanwhile was up early Monday tweeting, this time focused on the NAFTA trade agreement with Cana- da and Mexico. He also added an accusation that Mexico is not doing enough to stop the flow of drugs across the border that are addicting and killing millions of Americans.
“Mexico must do much more on stopping drugs from pouring into the U.S.,” the president tweeted. “They have not done what needs to be done. Millions of people addicted and dying.”
Mexico was not the only Latin American country to be honored Sunday: Chile’s A Fantastic Woman, a drama about a transgender woman who battles her lover’s family after he dies, won the Oscar for best foreign language film.
About two-thirds of America’s growing Latino population claims Mexican ancestry, but they have been few and far between in Hollywood in the past 90 years. Mexican and Mexican-American actors — and Latino actors in general — are still a rarity at the annual Academy Awards as either nominees or winners.
Only two Mexican-Americans have ever been nominated for acting Oscars, including the most recent, Demián Bichir for A Better Life in 2012. Anthony Quinn, who was half Mexican and born in Mexico (real name Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca), won two Oscars, in 1953 for Viva Zapata! and 1957 for Lust for Life, and was nominated two other times, including for Zorba the Greek in 1965.
Only a handful of Latina actresses have been nominated, including Mexican-born Hayek, for Frida in 2003. After her, Mexican-born Adriana Barrazza was nominated in 2007 for Babel. In 1955, Mexican-born Katy Jurado became the first Latina ever nominated, for Broken Lance.
“The greatest thing that our art does ... is erase the line in the sand.” Guillermo del Toro