Blue Beetle’s Top Ten Stereotypes
I wasn’t planning to write about Blue Beetle. It was just the movie available in the theatre, and I needed to redeem my birthday freebies before they expired. I usually like superhero movies, but I can’t deny that Blue Beetle stole my heart.
Not so long ago, I wanted to write about a Latine superhero, and this movie has reminded me of that. Set in Fictional Palmera City, Blue Beetle follows Mexican-American Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña), who just returned from college (he even shows his Gotham University hoodie in one scene), to his hometown. While trying to find a job, he accidentally gets in possession of an alien Scarab, which makes him a superhero.
In this DC superhero movie, Jaime Reyes is not the only superhero in the film — it’s the whole Reyes family — and I love that. At the beginning of the movie, I thought it was full of stereotypes, but when Jaime’s dad, Alberto Reyes (Damián Alcázar), asks him, ¿Por qué estás bichicori? I was hooked. “Bichicori” is the word for “naked” in Yaqui, the native language where I grew up in Sonora. I don’t usually hear Yaqui words outside the states of Sonora or Arizona, not even in places like Mexico City or other metropolises. Hearing that word made me start writing this piece about the movie. So, yes, I was that person who had her phone light up during the show, but that was the only way to remember all the details and stereotypes I loved about it.
Warning: There are tons of spoilers.
- Vicks VapoRub
When Jaime gets his powers, he flies out of space and returns to his home, crashing through the roof. His dad wakes him up by smelling Vicks VapoRub, aka Viks Vaporú. The cure-all menthol ointment is a medicine that can’t be missing from Mexican households. It’s supposed to cure all diseases. Even if that might be an exaggeration, it cured me of COVID last week. True story. So, it was fun to see that Viks Vaporú revived Jaime after passing out.
2. María la del Barrio jokes
In the 90s, Thalia became famous for portraying characters like María la del Barrio and María Mercedes in Mexican telenovelas. The plot is pretty similar — the rich boy falls in love with a poor woman (Thalia), taking her out of poverty. This joke prevailed the whole movie when Jaime and Jenny Kord (the millionaire girl portrayed by Bruna Marquezine) shared romantic moments. Jaime’s family joked that Jaime was like Thalia or a María from a telenovela. Even at the end, when Jaime and Jenny finally kiss, the family in the back starts singing, “Y a mucha honra, María la del Barrio soy.” I laughed a lot — it made me feel bad for those who didn’t know the reference.
3. Religion
The Reyes family are religious, even if they don’t beat us over the head with that idea. We see it when Jaime is descending from out of space back to Earth with his new superpowers — he doesn’t know how to control them yet. He is so nervous he starts praying in Spanish, “Padre nuestro que estás en el cielo….”
The religious part also blends with the Mexican culture when Jaime sees his dad in the más allá — in the beyond (I told you there were spoilers) — filled with lit candles, just like a Día de los Muertos altar. The dad’s purpose was to guide Jaime back to life, even if he was already dead.
4. Supportive family
Jaime is not the only superhero in this movie — it’s the whole Reyes family. They are so supportive — all of them picked him up from the airport at the beginning of the movie (something we usually do). They are so supportive that they went to drop him off when he was meeting with Jenny for a job. Jaime was the first to graduate college and felt the pressure to do something else with his life. They cheered Jaime outside of the company — he was embarrassed a little, but by his face, I could tell he loved it.
Jaime becomes a superhero in front of his whole family. Typically, superheroes become heroic on their own and hide their identities from their families. Jaime kept no secrets (even if his family hid that they were losing the house and the father’s heart attack) — he shared everything. He was never alone. When Jaime became a superhero, they discussed what they would do about it. When they feared being killed by Susan Sarandon’s character, Victoria Kord, they even joked about the Mexican sicarios and how they ran away from them.
Even at the end, the whole family went to rescue him. They might not have extraterrestrial superpowers. But they are super powerful, and that makes them all heroes.
5. La Abuela
La Abuela is one of my favorite characters and a superhero. She doesn’t patiently wait for the others to rescue Jaime, no, no, no. She is the one who stitches the family together and orders everyone to go and save Jaime. It was revealed later she was in the revolution. I want to assume the Mexican Revolution is like an Adelita due to her braided hair and her shouting, “¡Abajo los imperalistas!” Even if the timeline doesn’t make sense, I liked that she was part of the revolution. I guess this is not a stereotype, then. Maybe the stereotype here is that we have a strong storyteller as the grandma, something we often see.
6. El Chapulín Colorado
Seeing a dear childhood character, El Chapulín Colorado, was so cool. Rudy Reyes (George Lopez), Jaime’s uncle, uses his image to distract the Kord security when trying to find a cure for Jaime’s superpowers. It was interesting to see how this character intersected with being a superhero. For so long, that was one of the main superheroes we knew (besides luchadores enmascarados), and now, funny enough, we have Blue Beetle.
7. All the Latino songs
From the beginning of the movie, we were able to experience Latinidad through the music. “Atrévete-Te-Te” by Calle 13 sets the mood for the whole movie. We then hear Selena, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Los Panchos, Luis Miguel, Vicente Fernández, Celso Piña, and Soda Stereo, among many others. You can listen to the entire soundtrack here.
8. Names being mispronounced
I’m not a stranger to having my name mispronounced in this country. I often say, “Ofelia,” and people repeat, “Ophelia?” Sometimes, I correct them again, but I often give up. The same happens with Jaime. The receptionist at Kord calls him “Yeimi” instead of Jaime. I like this because this is something we go through every single day. Also, Americans sometimes use phrases like “ándale, ándale,” to call us. I must confess that I use that word every single day of my life, but it feels weird when someone says it to make fun of us.
Another example is when Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon) often calls the scientist who helps her “Sánchez,” even if he had repeated her over and over, that is not his name. Before sacrificing himself, he says his whole name, José Francisco Morales Rivera de la Cruz — and I couldn’t be more proud of that. You have no idea how often I have to chop my last name to assimilate into this one-last-name culture.
9. The nicknames
Los mexicanos somos bien carrilludos. There is no exact translation of that, but it basically means we Mexicans like to joke around. We give nicknames to all of our family. The Reyes family are no strangers to this tradition. Jaime was called “Cabezón” as a term of endearment by his tío. Cabezón means big-headed or stubborn, depending on who you ask. Jaime’s dad calls him “Flaco” or “Thin.”
I have my own nicknames that, for other cultures, might be offensive, but it’s part of our culture.
10. An immigration story
The Reyes family story is not so different from so many other stories of immigration in this country. Jaime’s dad crossed the border from Sonora to the United States, looking for a better life. It’s often repeated, “We are resilient people.” The We, being us — Mexicans, Latinos.
The movie even reflects on the word “alien.” A word that has been used to describe people who were not born in the United States. For the first nine years in this country, I had an “alien” number. In a conversation with Jenny Kord, Rudy, and Jaime, she mentions that the blue beetle or Scarab inside Jaime’s body is an alien. “I don’t really like that term,” says Rudy. Some gazes are exchanged, but nothing else is said. The ones who have been “aliens” know exactly what he was referring to.
Another immigration-like moment is when the villain, Victoria Kord, is looking for Jaime and invades his home. The whole moment felt like an ICE raid — the armed men going inside without authorization, the way they were not listening to the people being taken — all of it felt like a simulation of immigration enforcement.
The last moment was when we discovered that the villain-robot Conrad Carapax (Raoul Trujillo), who spent the movie trying to kill Jaime, is a Guatemalan ex-soldier taken by Victoria, converting him into a killing machine. The scene when we see his past reminded me of the complicated history between the United States and Central America — and the years that this country has spent financing civil wars that have helped collapsed societies and forced migration.
Ultimately, even if we lost some characters and a few tears, the community showed up to help them rebuild their home. And this inspiring community is the best stereotype ever.
I probably got some details mixed up because I only watched once and took notes under the radar. I might go back again and enjoy since the beginning of all the outstanding details the movie is trying to remind us — perhaps I’ll find more. If you find more, let me know!
Best,
Ofe
