"The Three Caballeros"

The three caballeros seems to be a play of the Three musketeers, however the irony of the title is plain as day, especially in this movie. Though caballero means gentleman, the make characters are anything but. The stereotypic image of a gentleman would be a man who fights of the honor of women and to protect her virtues. However, in this film, the meaning of the word caballero is turned on the head and becomes more superficial. Instead of protecting the virtues of the women they come across or respecting their virtues, they instead exploit them and try to consume them, as seen the numerous times that they call Donald a “wolf in duck’s clothing.” In fact, a great majority of the film is spent focusing on women and the feminine assets of a culture that is much more diverse than women and food.

In an effort to be representative, the three caballeros instead appropriates, manipulates and sexualizes almost an entire hemisphere. Instead of creating an image meant to be wholistic and authentic, it instead creates a warped, infantile image, with underscores of sexual frustration yet also trying to show restraint, representative of the US’s desire to be a “good neighbor.” Instead of using military force and taking things, it seems that the US and by extension the US representative, Donald , aims to be more coercive, generous by promoting “worldliness and education” however the ultimate aim is to forward their own economic expansion and economic aims through commodities such as oil, rubber and fruit. They almost create an image that latin America is lucky to have such a well known figure gracing their lands and consuming their culture, regardless of their reluctance (as seen by women running away from Donald.) Donald will acquire these women, "por las buenas or por las malas."

Another point in regards to sexualization is that all the females who are meant to be seen as desirable, are light skinned. All this is meant to make an exotic culture more palatable—even though the intended audience are the people of Latin America. Even in an effort to create representation and cater to their foreign audience, they racially exclude them by homogenizing color in countries that are historically incredibly racially diverse—falling short of their intentions. this perverse re-imagining of Latin America is anglo-centric and would be best served to an audience ignorant and abstinent to actually appreciating a culture different from their own--one that values blind consumption above all else.