On (Dang) Quesadillas and Nachos : Mexican Identity and a Mormon Imaginary in the Films of Jared Hess

Abstract

Mormon director Jared Hess has produced several films, but none have achieved the popularity of Napoleon Dynamite (US 2004) and Nacho Libre (US 2006). These movies share several similarities: an interest in characters who do not fit the societal mold, lowbrow humor, and – crucially for the current study – a fascination with characters of Mexican and Latin American descent. Hess’s representation of Mexican and Latin American people is difficult to place within current US discourses on race and ethnicity because it upholds racialist divisions within humanity even as it decries racist acts against societal Others. As Hess affirms the humanity of the US’s southern neighbors, for example, he denounces xenophobic and anti-immigrant points of view. At the same time, however, he signals his Mexican characters as irreconcilably different from – and perhaps simpler than – their North American counterparts. In this article, I argue that Hess’s ambiguous representation of Mexican peoples and cultures reflects a type of “benevolent racism” that is common within white, North American Mormon communities who paradoxically view people of Mexican descent both as Others and as the physical and spiritual heirs of the peoples of the Book of Mormon.

Keywords

• book of mormon
• immigration
• lamanite
• nacho libre
• napoleon dynamite
• mormon studies
• race and religion