A Mexican movie, El Americano: The Movie, or The American: The Movie, has been causing controversy as of late in the Mexican and Mexican American community.
This controversy has several parts to it. The first is that people are still sceptical of Mexican and American actress Kate del Castillo because she has strong ties to one of the most powerful and dangerous drug lords of today: Joaquin Guzman, better known as El Chapo.
El Chapo asked del Castillo to be in charge of telling his life story after she made a series of tweets about many controversial topics like politics and religion. One of the tweets was one where she said at this point, she trusted El Chapo more than the Mexican government because unlike the government, El Chapo is not a hypocrite. From there, the relationship between del Castillo and El Chapo continued to grow.
As one of the biggest actresses in Mexico, del Castillo got a lot of backlash from the community for associating with a criminal. She said as an actress and producer she just wanted a “good story”.
El Americano: The Movie is a good story, too. It shines light to immigration issues and a lot of other stories that are important to the Mexican people. With that being said, Kate was very proud to be apart of this animated film. Over 80 countries have classified the movie as a children’s movie but Mexico classified it as an adult movie.
Del Castillo was very upset and because this small detail made it so that the movie would not be shown to as big an audience as it was intended. Del Castillo thought that the story of the movie is so important and should be seen everywhere.
The final part of the controversy is that del Castillo was not allowed to promote this movie in Mexico. This obviously affects the popularity of the movie. The more promotion the better but that simply was not an option for del Castillo.
…she trusted El Chapo more than the Mexican government because unlike the government, El Chapo is not a hypocrite.
Now, this may just seem like gossip but it goes beyond that. The Mexican government, unfortunately, is known for being corrupt. It is more likely than not that this situation is another censorship stunt by the government. With del Castillo’s association to El Chapo, her outspokenness about the government, and the message of the movie, it is not surprising that the movie was restricted and that promotion was limited.
Although, El Americano: The Movie has no release date for the U.S., be on the lookout for it as it entails an important message, especially with the current administration in office.
