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This article looks at the role of Spanish speaking actresses in the femme
fatale genre and also some of the films and TV shows which have some kind of Hispanic
influence.Saundra Santiago is an actress who has enjoyed much success in all aspects of the entertainment industry. She first came to light in the MTV style cop show 'Miami Vice' but has featured in many series since then either as a guest star or a retained actress. Most of the vidcaps below show her guest starring (as a baddie of course) in the gritty TV show 'New York Undercover'. There's also one from her days in 'Miami Vice'.
As it turns out 'New York Undercover' had a high number of Hispanic actresses. Lauren Velez played one of the team of New York detectives but for the most part the roles were those of gang members or other shady ladies. Here are a few stills show showing the good and bad girls.
Robert Rodriguez is a director with flair. He made the ground breaking 'El Marachi' on a shoestring but following it's unexpected success the Hollywood film studios just couldn't wait to throw money at him so he could do the same for them. So what did he do? - he more or less re-filmed 'El Marachi' with a bigger budget and bigger Hollywood actors and called it 'Desperado'. Antonio Banderas played the role of the guitar player who learns to be a gunslinger and Salma Hayak provided the glamour. The final part of the trilogy was made last year and called 'Once Upon a Time in Mexico' and if it as good as the first two will definitely be high up on my list of films to catch up on. The other Hispanic actress here, who plays the baddies gun moll, is played by Angel Aviles.
Rosie Perez is one of the better known
Hispanic actresses. She played Perdita Durango in the film of the same name. It is one of
those films where it seems the director has deliberately tried to make a cult movie rather
than let the audience decide. Regardless, we still have an enjoyable if bizarre
action movie.
Perdita Durango's lover is some sort of cult leader who demands human sacrifice for his rituals. Throw in some kidnappings, drug deals and a morally ambivalent anti-heroine and you have something a bit different from the mainstream action genre. Rosie Perez gets to play something different from the shrilling harpie role she often gets lumbered with and the film is all the better for it.
A while ago I had an article called 'Spitfires' which concentrated on Mexican women in the Western genre. Here are a few vidcaps from this genre and the films featured include 'El Topo', 'The Professionals, 'The Wild Bunch' and an old 1950's western whose name escapes me and 'Pancho Villa'.
