South of the Border: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Ah, [[Mexico]]. Home of the bustling, ancient and modern Mexico City, the gritty and industrial Monterrey, Puebla and its multiple hundred years of Spanish colonial history, the city called Guadalajara that mixes all the previous ones and adds a technological corridor, the heavenly beaches of Cancún and Los Cabos, the magnificent mountains of central Chihuahua and Durango, the lush wilderness of Yucatán...

 

 

As per this trope, the population of Mexico comprises six types of people: kidnappers, kidnappees, corrupt police, rich landowners, people without money and people who claim that the country is going down the drain, but do nothing about it. Go back a few years, and you'll also find ''[[Bandito|Bandidos]]''.

If you turn the clock back several centuries, expect to find jungle, terraced pyramid-temples, [[Mayincatec|elaborately costumed high priests with obsidian blades who are really after your heart]], and maybe some greedy conquistadores.

 

 

[[Vocal Minority|And no; like all stereotypes, not all Mexicans are like that.]]

 

 

 

* ''[[El Cazador de la Bruja]]''.

* [[Michiko to Hatchin]] mostly set in Brazil

* As part of its arc of visiting [[Hollywood Geography|strange interpretations]] of foreign countries, ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'' had Yamato and Ken stop by Mexico to return rogue Digimon to the Digital World. Even by the standards of this arc, the interpretation of Mexico was really, ''really'' strange - apparently there's a legally enforced curfew, and armed military personnel guard the Palenque ruins and don't have a problem with threatening to shoot Japanese teenagers for no reason at all. While people were shown living in normal apartment buildings, the sole known Chosen representative of Mexico lives in a fairly unusual and plain stone building.

 

* ''[[¡Three Amigos!|Three Amigos]]'': The setting.

* The [[Spaghetti Western]]. Literally hundreds of examples. Most took advantage of the fact that the drier and more run-down parts of southern Spain have a passing resemblance to the drier and more run-down parts of northern Mexico and the American-Mexican border country of the late 19th century. For the Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, you cast Spaniards, and for the Anglos you cast Italians, Germans, French, and the occasional token American actor looking for film work. A very cheap way to make westerns, especially if you have the actors mumble their lines in whatever language they might know, then overdub everything in whatever languages apply to the countries where you plan to distribute the film.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[A Day Without a Mexican]]'':

'''Note on screen:''' There are over 40 countries south of the border. }}

* ''Vera Cruz'', in which the Mexicans serve the purpose of poor victims or intimidation by sheer number, the French are there to look luxurious but impractical, and the Americans save the day. The love interest was portrayed by a Spanish actress (Sarita Montiel), and Cesar Romero, the only one of the main actors with Latino ancestry, appeared as a French officer; he used to be typecast before as a Latin lover.

* ''[[Species]] IV: The Awakening''.

 

* On ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' Mexico is where George Sr. went to hide while he was a fugitive. When the Mexican police arrest him for an unrelated crime, he's able to bribe the prison guards into faking his death so he can escape. This is referred to as "a loophole in the Mexican judicial system".

 

== [[Music]] ==

* As quoted above, [[Tom Lehrer]]'s "In Old Mexico" manages to pack just about feature of this trope into one four-minute song.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Exception: ''Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter'' takes place in a nicely accurate rendition of the Mexico City. In fact, one of the scenes involves a shooting in Reforma Avenue, an area of Mexico City that looks kinda like a cross-breed of Manhattan and Paris's Champs-Élysées.

* Part of ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'' is set in the Mexico of the [[Spaghetti Western]] and gets wrapped up in a civil war.

** Somehow justified on the fact that it only happens in USA and the Border of Mexico/USA. John never enters the real Mexico.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Any [[Looney Tunes|Speedy Gonzales]] cartoon.

* The first episode (not counting the pilot) of ''[[The Venture Brothers]]''.

* ''[[Wacky Races]]'': "Baja-Ha-Ha Race"

* The Kamp Krusty episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' ended with Krusty taking the kids for a day of debauchery in Tijuana. The montage of still frames depicted a colonial-era walled city with an arched gate entrance and carnival-style booth entertainment. In reality, Tijuana is a modern city, traversed by a number of highways, with the strip malls and storefronts one would expect in an American business district.

 

{{reflist}}