Lupe Velez: The Burning of the Mexican Spitfire

Women They Warned You About is an ongoing series focused on Hollywood misogyny and how the term "difficult" has been used on women in the entertainment industry for decades. Each article spotlights a different woman, tracks her career, and how the term changed the perception of her in Hollywood.

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Being a difficult woman in Hollywood isn't a new phenomenon. Go all the way back to the early days of cinema and you'll see how the word was applied to actresses who didn't play by the rules. And after seeing Bad Bunny get some of the worst people big mad for just existing I knew I wanted to talk about a woman who similarly pissed people off for being "too Latin."

Much of Lupe Velez's life, over eighty years after her death, is still steeped in racism and misinformation. Those who have written about her, predominately white, argue about her scandalous personal life and how complicit she was in perpetuating Latino stereotypes that continue to this day. There's never been a biography to properly contextualize her, analyze her work, and give her her due. Even the majority of her films remain unavailable to see, especially if they're in her native Spanish language. All of this is to say what information out there about Velez exists, much of it used for this piece, must always be taken with a grain of salt.