“Blue Beetle” celebrates the little-explored facet of Latino heroism

The new superhero movie “Blue Beetle” by Puerto Rican director Ángel Manuel Soto, explores an unusual facet of the latinos in it cinemathat of the hero: “Our superpower is in who we are”he asserted in an interview with EFE.

The plans to get a decent job for Jaime Reyes, a young Mexican-American who has just graduated from Law, change abruptly when he is asked to safeguard a strange relic in the shape of a beetle.

Reyes is chosen by the curious alien biotech object and, despite all his attempts to reject the new life that is presented to him, he becomes a superhero, more specifically the first Latino superhero in the DC universe, whose film opens on next August 18.

The young man played by Xolo Maridueña (“Cobra Kai”2018), is the first member of the family of Mexican immigrants to finish a university degree, but also the only one who dreams big, because even his little sister, Milagro, has lost faith that “people like them” -Latinos in the US- have opportunities for development and success due to the hostility that surrounds them.

“It was important to be able to break those schemes and be able to see ourselves as heroes, since we have never had the opportunity to see ourselves like this on the screen, we are always the villain of others”Soto says.

Comedy, reality and social criticism

The director, who is best known for works of a social nature such as “The farm” (2015), or the 2020 Sundance Independent Film Festival-winning film, “Charm City Kings”says that he wanted to bring to reality a story that at first could feel very distant and alien.

“Why does everyone (superheroes) have to live in a fantasy where you can’t relate to the conflicts of the character? There are things in our daily lives that are more horrifying than any alien invasion.”Soto says.

With the intention of accentuating problems of the Latino community in fiction, the filmmaker inserted the Reyes family in a context threatened by gentrification, displacement, exploitation, and military interventionism.

“To some extent (those issues) unite us as Latinos and with other marginalized communities in the world,” deepens the director.

Despite the density of these themes, Soto also managed to imbue the story with humor through the naivety and spontaneity of the characters, the eloquent profanity in Spanish in moments of tension, and even by portraying the overflowing -and sometimes exaggerated- family love. .

And although Jaime and his family are Mexican, the story is not limited to making cultural references to the North American country, such as the soap opera “María, la del barrio” or Chapulín Colorado, but also highlights the legacy of other countries by presenting music. de Soda Stereo (Argentina), Los Saicos (Peru) and Calle 13 (Puerto Rico).

“Through art, music and television, all of Latin America could unite”, Soto expresses.

The director also wanted to capture a lot of him in Jaime, and among the experiences he shares in real life with his main character there is a scene in which the father of the family, played by Damián Alcázar, confesses to his son that he had a heart attack. and that they had hidden it from him so as not to worry him.

“That is something that happened to me when I was in the pre-production of the film, there we literally went well with the things that happen to Jaime”, confess.

The film also features Mexicans Adriana Barraza, in the role of the rebellious grandmother, and Elpidia Carrillo, who plays the superhero’s mother, as well as the Los Angeles actor George Lopez as his uncle.

Finally, Soto hopes that “Blue Beetle” will have a positive impact on the public.

“I hope to inspire lives so that they can tell their own stories because our superpower is in who we are”, aim.

Source: EFE