Fronteras Americanas: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: Guillermo Verdecchia

First published: 1993

Genre: Play

Locale: Argentina; Canada

Plot: Autobiographical drama

Time: 1960s to early 1990s

Guillermo Verdecchia, an earnest, self-deprecating, and articulate man in his early thirties who struggles with his identity as an Argentine Canadian. The sole performer in this one-man autobiographical play, Guillermo recounts his life experiences as an immigrant struggling to find a place that feels like home. With his strong feelings about the negative stereotypes of Latin Americans in the media, Guillermo is the polar opposite of his alter ego, Facundo “Wideload” Morales Segundo, who embraces and embellishes on the tropes. One of his earliest memories of feeling like an outsider is when a teacher mispronounced his name. Another time, he auditioned for a Latino character in a movie, complete with an exaggerated accent and silly dialogue. For two years, he lived and worked in Paris, France, where he was an undocumented immigrant at the margins of society but felt strangely at home. Much of Guillermo's discussion on stereotypes concerns the border between North and South America, which, according to him, is substantiated by relations of power that reinforce negative stereotypes. If people consider the border more of a personal boundary within their minds, then through knowledge, the stereotypes will vanish, he argues. Guillermo addresses various Latin American stereotypes, including the “Latin lover,” the Latin dancer, and the Colombian drug lord, exploring them from historical, philosophical, and geographical perspectives. Throughout his discussion, he cites gossip, movies, and fashion magazines that exhibit actors such as Antonio Banderas as the definitive Latino macho men. He focuses much attention on the tango style of dance as the archetypal South American contribution to the world. Eschewing popular interpretations of the dance, Guillermo calls it music for exiles searching for home in a new land. He jokingly explains that it has not been thoroughly appropriated in North America because it is “impossible to shop or aerobicize to tango.” But he too admits to perpetuating stereotypes. He explains that one night, while in a public park, he was bothered by a Latino man trying to start a fight. He admits to thinking, “Stupid drunken Mexican,” which made him part of the cultural system that discriminates against Mexican men. After living abroad for fifteen years, Guillermo returns to his native Argentina, where he experiences culture shock and still feels out of place. He then questions why he left Canada, his supposed home, in the first place. Torn between places to call home and the imaginary borders within his mind, Guillermo visits El Brujo, a curandero (traditional healer), at the recommendation of his friend Jorge. El Brujo tells him that he has a wound and that wound is the border, but this border is also Guillermo's home. Guillermo sees the truth in this revelation, and it helps him accept his identity as a Latin Canadian. By recounting his experiences in his native country and in Canada, he is able to rediscover his roots and challenge his sense of displacement.

Facundo “Wideload McKennah” Morales Segundo, the rowdy Latin American alter ego of Guillermo. He is a cynical, condescending man who first appears in a bandit outfit, brandishing pistols and speaking in a strong, comically exaggerated Spanish accent. While Guillermo struggles to break free of Latin American stereotypes, Wideload embellishes them and acts as a composite of all of the popular ones about Latino men in order to draw in the audience. He then plays off their expectations, acts as a guide through the assumptions of Latin America portrayed by the media, and challenges the audience to reflect on what they are laughing about. Wideload too addresses the stereotypes of “Latin lovers” in the media, citing Carmen Miranda, Dolores del Río, Maria Montez, Rita Moreno, and Sônia Braga as examples of the Hollywood conception of the seductive Latina. He juxtaposes these with video clips of other television and movie images, including one of the cartoon character Speedy Gonzalez, who cemented an unattractive image of Latinos into North American culture. He then examines the history and development of this trope. Wideload himself is a prejudiced man who takes pleasure in making fun of Caucasian people, particularly the way they dance and their shopping habits. One of his ideas is to cash in on Latin American popularity in the media by building a “Third World theme park” for Caucasians to attend. There, visitors would experience the violence, police corruption, and lack of infrastructure that can be found in much of Latin America, juxtaposing it against the media's image of the region as exotic and sexy. Wideload then discusses his aspirations to leave his country, but he fears that no one in North America would have him as a neighbor due to fears that his culture would carry into their space.