Vasquez: El riesgo siempre vive // Let’s Rock!

Aliens (1986) is one of my all-time favorite movies, and I have watched it more than any other film. I was a child in the 1980s, and my mother let us watch and rent whatever we liked, and yes, that sometimes included rated-R flicks. My siblings and I loved it. We would get together and see who could quote more lines from the film. We’d make a game of it, or maybe we took it too seriously. In particular, we enjoyed recording ourselves on a regular voice recorder, portraying many of its characters. Why is this important? One of the best things we had ever seen was a Latina soldier in a blockbuster movie. Private First Class Jenette Vasquez, “¡El riesgo siempre vive!” 

She was badass in every way, from her haircut and muscular physique to her bigass M56 Smartgun. We would emulate her. Moreover, we didn’t see many brown faces as lead characters in our favorite movies. PFC Vasquez was a big deal. And she wasn’t just some disposable character added for a quick, cheap kill. It made us hopeful. Vasquez was the future, and we could be part of a team and a warrior, someone to look up to. So, why the brownface?

Please Rewind

There were many delays in beginning production of Aliens despite Alien‘s (1979) success. James Cameron was hired in 1983 because his scripts for Terminator (1984) and Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) were incredible. However, principal photography didn’t begin until September 1985, and Aliens premiered in July 1986. Aliens expanded the Alien universe with exciting backstories for the characters and the addition of the Colonial Marines. Then, there were video games, comics, toys, and merch. Cheers, hooray, and applause, please. And sometime during the casting process, Jenette Goldstein was hired to play Pvt Vasquez (no first name, as most of the Colonial Marines cast did not either). It was to be Goldstein’s first feature film. 

During the actors’ auditions, the women were all asked to read lines for Private Vasquez, as her dialogue was most dynamic. However, the casting team had already cast bodybuilder Rachel McLish as Pvt. Vasquez, but when she dropped out, the role was free. James Cameron liked Goldstein’s audition, and her physique was perfect for Vasquez. With the studio’s “okay,” Jenette Goldstein became Pvt Jenette Vasquez.

They chose a Jewish white woman who had to dye her hair black, sit in a makeup chair for an hour to darken her skin, cover her freckles, wear dark brown contacts, and adopt an ersatz accent. All of this, as if Latinos can’t be light-skinned or white-passing, blonde or red-headed, blue or hazel-eyed, or have an American accent, or even be Jewish. Not to mention that some of us have European last names. NO WAY! Not only do we come in many colors and have varied physical characteristics, but many religions also exist among indigenous Mexican families (including my own).

The Caucasity

There has never been a shortage of Latina or Hispanic actresses. They just didn’t get the part or weren’t offered auditions. Unsurprisingly, they wrote Vasquez as a “Chicana” character with a brief, stereotypical background. Sure, there are plenty of proud Cholas, veterans (my mother’s four children, including myself, who served in the US Air Force), and Latinas with many accents. However, Goldstein chose to study Mexican-American gang interviews as a resource to learn behavior and develop an accent. It just gets worse the more I think about it.

Obviously, the fault does not all lie on Golstein’s shoulders. Vasquez was her first feature role, a character with character. She researched and worked on her mannerisms, movement, speech, and attitude to portray Vasquez. The character was written that way! Cameron’s screenplay included a backstory that Drake and Vasquez were former criminals who were serving life terms for gang-related murder. They chose the Colonial Marines as an alternative to prison. They were raised in a “Hispanic slum.” Also, the “illegal aliens” joke wasn’t funny and was not improvised; it had already been written into the script. Yes, somebody wrote an “illegal alien” joke for two hundred years into the future, in space, along with a co-ed shower scene to show gender equality. Goldstein herself thought the movie was an immigrant story and dressed as such for her audition.

Imitation is Not the Sincerest Form of Flattery

So yes, I was heartbroken. Terminator 2:  Judgement Day (I didn’t see her in Near Dark until years later) solidified it when I saw Goldstein without all the makeup, her beautiful freckles just like my sister’s, and her hair just like my mom’s in the early 1990s. It didn’t start there either. We thought there was something strange about the actress portraying her. It picked at us. The name, Jenette Goldstein, didn’t give it away. But she did look very spray-tanned. We thought she was just playing up the character. POC are often asked to portray other ethnicities and use accents for those parts. It’s a long-standing tradition. Hell, even Sigourney Weaver portrayed a Chilean woman in convicted sex offender Roman Polanski’s Death and the Maiden (1994).

“The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity.”- Viola Davis

Sometimes I can’t decide which is worse: the white-washing of Latino characters (especially of notable real-life Latinos), the brownface and brown voice, or the colorism. Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Natalie Wood, Madonna, Ben Affleck, The Mask of Zorro (1998) cast (Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Antonio Banderas, who is Spanish and not Mexican), Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Lopez as Selena, Lou Diamond Philips, Willem Dafoe, Javier Bardem, Jack Black, Johnny Depp… OMG, I can keep going, but I’ll need to stop there. And yes, I am more likely to side with POC who take roles of ethnicities that are not their own, or languages, and the like. That doesn’t mean it’s right. Sometimes, you want the experience; these roles are all you get. This leads me to think of John Leguizamo speaking on this matter. 

Brown and Proud

In my 20s, I decided I would just have the memories of Private Vasquez. I was upset, and that was okay. The actress was in brownface, and it was shitty. Why did they do that? We had so little, and we clung to our Latina icons. I loved Rosie Perez, Lisa Vidal, Elizabeth Peña, Rosanna DeSoto, and Selena. Just because it happened long ago (and yes, it still happens!) doesn’t make it alright. Just because you’re a Latina and don’t mind, it doesn’t mean that all Latinas should feel the same. But we definitely took whatever representation we got.

I still love Aliens, and I made peace with myself. Private First Class Vasquez, Smart Gunner—She is a heroine, a leader, a warrior. She had a family, and she was a mom and a sister. She exists in comics, video games, books, and merchandise. The best one, of course, is Aliens: Vasquez, written by Violet Castro, a Mexican-American writer from a little north of me in San Antonio, Texas. 

Vasquez is a badass. I left the little girl who loved her behind, but I have many fond memories of her all these years later. She loved cosplaying Vasquez and feeling powerful. And I still feel powerful. Having said that, I will let anyone around me know that Vasquez was done dirty.

Okay, now let’s address the stereotypes and poor representation in film. Really? Fine, I’ll save that conversation for another day.