The Three Caballeros and Goldman article

The Three Caballeros and Goldman article

The bird Joe Carioca speaks in Portuguese and is dressed elegantly in clothes that look expensive. The scenery of the city Baía is very rich in color and shows a beautiful church. Joe mentions all of the wonderful things they have in Baía and that they do the Samba. He even dances in a traditional dress. Yayá is a stereotypical woman of Baía. Donald (the bird from the US) seems to be infatuated with the Brazilian woman Yayá. Donald wants to take have control over the women and take them for himself just like the US wants to consume the goods and labor of Latin America and assert their privilege over places that are not theirs to claim. The movie paints vibrant and exotic picture of the Latin American cities it portrays. It is interesting that Donald what Donald takes away from his experience in Baía is the pleasant song that the people were singing. I found it funny that Joe did some type of “black magic” to make himself bigger. Of course Joe can play the guitar. Panchito enters dressed like a Mexican cowboy and is shooting off guns (how stereotypical). The first thing he does is give Joe and Donald sombreros. Panchito seems like the typical passionate Latin caballero. The items presented in the film (ie: the piñata) represent all the stereotypes that the makers of this movie (from the US) have. The scenery and dress of the people in Mexico show an idealized version of the country based of US perception. The film creates the idea that all men from Mexico are caballeros. The film also portrays the people of these Latin American countries as blissful and carefree dancers and singers. The extravagance of the culture and happiness that these places bring create an ideal image of the countries represented. Donald enjoys himself very much and doesn’t want to leave (no US citizens ever do). He is furious when the other birds make him leave and even says “this is a free country” (I guess he doesn’t realize that where he is actually isn’t a free country). The film also includes bullfighting, which is a part of Spanish culture (those who colonized Latin America). 

The images of the people in these exotic countries that appear to be authentic are “framed for consumption, and repackaged as a Hollywood product for US consumers as well as those same exotic Others that the films putatively seek to represent”. “Consumption of the exotic is not only the process of consuming products from elsewhere; it is also a process of differentiating between us and them”. The specific example of the boy in the Burrito short is “rendered unthreatening through cultural appropriation…and then repackaged for international consumption as a Hollywood product by a studio that represents the best of American capitalism (the feature itself)”.  

Pablo the penguin lives in the South Pole and wants to move somewhere warmer. Every time he tries to leave he gets too cold. He gets the idea to go to a beach on a boat. He sails towards the coast of Chile and sees the island “where Robinson Crusoe once lived”. He arrives at the Galapagos islands and it is too hot there for his iceburg boat and igloo to stay frozen. He finds himself missing the cold. He’s “never satisfied”. The next short introduces bird species in the Amazon. Donald is intrigued and enjoying his peek into the life of birds in Latin American countries. The gauchito is a Latin American stereotype. The games and actions of the gauchos are also stereotypical. I’m not exactly sure what the point of the Burrito story was. 

It is interesting to me that the film’s title is in Spanglish. Also a caballero is a “Spanish or Mexican gentleman” or, in the US “a horseman”. The title seems to portray a whitewashed version of US portrayal of these characters in the movie. It seems to be another form of cultural appropriation to me, and also presents false pretenses. 

This film makes me think that the US wanted to connect these three birds who are all from different countries who speak three different languages to try to create a false bond and seem connected to Brazil and Mexico. This film creates the image of Donald (who is from the US) as a “Good Neighbor”. Donald has the privilege of visiting these countries and taking what they have to offer. The women seem to be extremely sexualized. Did Donald have a drug-induced hallucination? He may have consumed more than just music and culture. They even included a woman in cowgirl clothing dancing while Donald has a sombrero and dances with cacti. 

Consumption is seen in the film not just in a literal sense. But there are also a few direct references to consumption of these countries, for example the line: “You have more relatives here than there are coffee beans in Brazil”, and the image of a man carrying a basket of oranges on his head in “Brazil”. In terms of the idealized and most consumed language, There are a few phrases in Spanish but not enough to need to speak the language. The tag on Donald’s present changed from Spanish to English because Donald couldn’t read it. This shows that speaking English is idealized as Donald's monolinguistic tendencies are catered to.