What is it about?
This article is about the career as extra of Emilio Fernandez in early sound era Holloywood. Fernandez was a Mexican director well known for his films made during the 1940s and 1950s . This article is about the less well known years he spent in Los Angeles working as a daily player or extra. It focuses on 5 films he appeared in as an uncredited extra during the early era of sound films: The Broken Wing (1932), Girl of the Rio (1932) In Gay Madrid, (1930), Estrellados (1930) and Flying Down to Rio (1933) . This article analyses how the small and only briefly on screen parts he plays as extra are key to understanding the strategies of the representation of race that each film employs.
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Photo by B R on Unsplash
Why is it important?
This article is important because it uncovers a previously unknown history of one prominent figure from the era before he was famous. It is also important because by drawing out meaning from Fernandez' brief appearances on screen, it emphasizes the key role of extras of colour in early sound era Hollywood which had previously been unknown and unwritten.
Perspectives
It is particularly thrilling to find these images of a young Fernandez', so key to the Mexican film industry's development, sprinkled throughout significant early sound era Hollywood films. It's particularly interesting to see him acting alongside his compatriorts, Dolores Del Rio, Ramon Novarro and Lupe Velez who were all stars of silent and early sound era Hollywood.
Dolores Tierney
University of Sussex
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Finding Emilio Fernández: Mexican Extras and Latinx Representation in Early Sound Era Hollywood, Hispanic Research Journal, January 2022, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/14682737.2022.2112451.
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