Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Scary South Americans!
Pregunta del Dia by Esther J. Cepeda
Bum bah dum-dum, bum ba-dee! Bum bah dum-dum, bum ba-dee-Dee-DEE!!
"Pregunta del Dia" translates to Question of the Day and today’s comes from a loyal, albeit bitter, Westchester, IL reader who preferred to remain nameless:
Q. Did you see that Indiana Jones movie, just about a buncha white men looting our culture?
A. Whoa, Nelly! (No, not really "Nelly," though that is a popular name in Latin America.) Take a chill pill, will ya – not everything is about "da man" trying to keep us down.
Monday morning I sat in an audience of predominantly white movie-goers practically vibrating with glee that the long-awaited summer blockbuster chose to highlight my beautiful ancestral South America.
There were jungles, maps of Peru (darned close to Ecuador), mentions of Quechua – a native tongue my own father has referenced many times in passing conversation about his youth in Quito – and gorgeous pyramids, waterfalls, and indigenous women in their traditional multi-colored ponchos and felt bowler hats.
Ok, so the only people of color in the movie where those baddish, scary-exotic loin-clothed Indians oddly reminiscent of Jack Black’s toothy sidekick "Esqueleto" in Nacho Libre. But aside from a drop-dead-gorgeous Cate Blanchett the real star of the movie is its location.
Ok, ok, so the Peruvian town was actually a backlot in California and the jungle was in reality in Hawaii, details – mere quibbles! I felt the director’s and producer’s love, and in this time where anyone brown is either looked at with suspicion because they might throw an election or scam someone out of their social security debt – ahem, I mean, benefits – we need all the Latin American lovin’ we can get.
As for the tall tale of the crystal skull, the official Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull web site has a nice, long explanation of its’ origins and whether there might be any truth to it. Better still, read Benjamin Radford’s column on livescience.com, there he describes the real-life quartz Skull of Doom "supposedly found in the 1920s at a lost Mayan ruin in Central America by an explorer named F. A. Mitchell-Hedges…rumored to have the power to kill." His florid description ends with a less-than-mystical forgery theory, but hey, where’s your benefit of the doubt?
I won’t take any mind-altering substances and peer into the misty corridors of "my people’s" collective knowledge for the truth – you can do that yourself – but I don’t need to. Not only do "I want to believe," but what I know for a fact is that South America truly is lush, gorgeous, and full of nice monkeys. There really are glittering water falls, ancient mysteries, and is to this day home to women who wear the colorful ponchos and bowlers everyday. And I’m eternally grateful to Doctor Jones for pointing it out.
Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com
No matter what they call the movie they are just recycling Tarzan. Great white man has insight into the world and culture of native peoples far beyond the brain power of the simple natives who lived there for eons. A written language has been created independently five times in the history of the world. Maya is one of the five. Civilization developed independently in Peru and Mexico at the same time as in Ancient Egypt and the Fertile Crescent.
Posted by: blackmamba | May 30, 2008 at 01:46 PM