31 December 2002 | WENN | See recent WENN news »
Hollywood star Antonio Banderas is under fire from the Mexican public for his portrayal of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa in a new film. Audiences are not taking kindly to the idea of the stout, pistol-packing hero of the 1910-1917 revolution being played by a Spaniard for an American audience - two nationalities Villa loathed. Banderas filmed the HBO movie And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself at a time when Hollywood's treatment of history is becoming a sensitive point for Mexicans. Actress Salma Hayek recently starred as Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in a Hollywood movie filmed entirely in Mexican-accented English. Adolfo Lopez Villarreal - who founded the Francisco Villa Popular Front in Mexico City in 1988 - is one who's unhappy about the HBO film. He says, "They should have given the role to a Mexican. I like Banderas, but he's a Spaniard. I think there are Mexican actors who could do the role well." Student activist America Del Valle adds, "It's very Hollywood, to use big- name actors who have never participated in real-life political movements to depict revolutionaries. I'm sure they'll do Che (Guevara) next. It's playing marketing with the truth. I just hope they'll respect the historical reality, and not paint him all black or all white." »
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