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By José Juan de Ávila
Pedro Infante and Arturo de Córdova, two icons of masculinity in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, made gay movies, according to Sergio de la Mora, researcher at the University of California, who considers that the actors were "revolutionary" for opening up sexual diversity on the screen.
De la Mora argues that in films like "El gavilán pollero", "A toda máquina", "¿Qué te ha dado esa mujer?" or "Dos tipos de cuidado", Pedro Infante played on purpose with homosociality, homoeroticism and homosexuality and added that in "Pablo y Carolina" he even explored transvestism.
Regarding Arturo de Córdova, the researcher suggests that his participation in movies such as "El hombre sin rostro" or "Cuando levanta la niebla" lifted the veil on queerness.
In 2006 the researcher published the book "Cinemachismo: Masculinities and Sexuality in Mexican film", that has not been translated into Spanish.
In the book, a finalist in the 2007 Lambda Literary Awards in the category of Arts and Culture, he revised the terms "macho" and "machismo" while analyzing revolutionary melodrama, musical comedy, prostitutes films and their locations in bars and cabarets, which he considers important scenarios because they "help determine the role of male homosexuality in the subjectivities of men and, in particular, when considering how homosexuality fits into Mexico's popular culture".
In an interview, De la Mora said that Pedro Infante's movies play with male honor. For example in "Dos tipos de cuidado" Pedro Infante tries to save his female counterparts but his character is "homosexualized" because he endures all kinds of humiliation from the macho character played by Jorge Negrete.
He added that gay characters are present in popular theater and sensationalist journalism as well as in ranchero comedy and that some movies from the 30's included gays, but regularly as a comedy character.
"Homosexuality can be talked about through humor, which goes beyond humiliating homosexuals or taking them as object of laughter. It is also an object to celebrate differences, not simply as something negative or stereotyped. I see it more as a way to celebrate the ways of being a man in Mexico," de la Mora explained.
The researcher added that even though in the beginning Carlos Monsiváis said that Pedro Infante's buddy movies had nothing to do with homosexuality, after several years he changed his mind and concurred with him.
