While one thanks God or whoever that Madonna was able to release some of her best work while being afforded the luxury of living in a time before the Ethnicity Police were in full effect to ensure that only the “correct” ethnicity could represent the “totems” of their culture (save for Beyoncé, who can appropriate whatever she wants based on her inherent “likeability”/non-blanca factor), that place in the “getting away with appropriation” sun has nonetheless been questioned by many before. Including the likes of bell hooks, who cut M down to size in a way no critic ever had prior with her 1995 essay, “Madonna: Plantation Mistress of Soul Sister?” Calling Madonna out for her exploitation of Black culture, which was of glaring note to her after watching Truth or Dare, this marked the first shift in the approach Madonna’s detractors would take in appraising her work.
Of course, the same year, Madonna also appeared in the “Human Nature” video sporting cornrows, so it’s not as though she took any such criticisms to heart (being too busy boning 2Pac, as it were, for most of ’94). To be fair, Madonna has dipped her toe in just about every culture, sponging up some aspect of it for a reinvention that suits her latest mindset, from “Eastern promises” during the Ray of Light era to taking on a British accent while married to Guy Ritchie. In short, one should note she’s an equal opportunity appropriator.
Yet the one culture she’s remained consistent in displaying “homage” to is that of the Latin variety. Starting as early as the “Borderline” video, Madonna’s fondness for a particular flavor was manifest. In this case, her love for Puerto Rican men (or, as legend has it, the barely teenage Puerto Rican boys she used to cruise in a limo on the Lower East Side with Erica Bell). Filmed in Los Angeles, the prevalence of the Hispanic demography in Downtown LA is present throughout the video, directed by Mary Lambert. Madonna’s “fetishization” of the Puerto Rican boy ends up proving so strong, in fact, that she ends up choosing him over the yuppie photographer despite the obvious volatility of their relationship. But at least her Puerto Rican beau (played by Louie Louie) can handle a bit of irreverent fun, stoking the trope that white men just don’t get it.
It wasn’t until 1986, however, that Madonna really ramped up her showcase of Latino enthusiasm with “La Isla Bonita,” the fifth and final single from her third record, True Blue. Speaking almost as though from the tourist perspective of Katey Miller in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, Madonna seems to be reminiscing of a brief excursion in some far-flung country (many have speculated Belize) where she was able to secure the affections of “one of the natives.” Hence, the somewhat difficult lyric that treats said natives like spectacle as she sings, “When it’s time for siesta, you can watch them go by.”
In the visuals for the video, Madonna’s long-standing enthusiasm for Frida Kahlo was also likely some factor in the set design (lest one forget she had also just recently paid tribute to Tamara de Lempicka in the “Open Your Heart” video), along with, what else, Catholicism. As is her usual wont in music videos, M tells a tale of two Madonnas: one pious, one passion-crazed. The sparse decor in one version of the apartment, paired with M’s demure, stripped down look is contrasted against the bright red flamenco dress worn by her alter ego in a room filled with candles. The intent being to represent the inner struggle of the “good Latino Catholic” to suppress their inherently ardent nature (again, here Madonna treads on something of a dangerous stereotype, but then, Latinos are usually the first to admit to their fervent tendencies. At the same time, “insta-classifying” in such a way tends to lead to an inevitable fetishization on the part of the white folk).
As for the Kahlo angle in Selena Gomez’s latest video, “De Una Vez,” Tania Verduzco and Adrian Pérez, the creative duo behind Los Pérez, were also sure to point out, in case the non-erudite Gomez fandom couldn’t pinpoint it for themselves, “We wanted to have these connections, to create this look, and to play with the amazing flowers the way Frida [Kahlo] did, but making it modern and cool for right now.” “Modern” and “cool,” indeed. Save for the fact that Madonna already embodied this concept long ago with “La Isla Bonita.” The problem with making that declaration now, of course, is that Madonna is not Mexican, therefore cannot lay claim to this Hispanicness as Gomez can. The choice to pay tribute to one of the most renowned Mexican artists in a more overt way lends Gomez’s “De Una Vez” the cachet of “greater authenticity” as well. Yet Madonna was already there, in that lonely apartment by herself, coming to terms with her feelings, as some inner war raged inside her. While M might not have hit us over the head with a Sacred Heart milagro, Gomez, likewise, ambles through, sits in or dances inside of a home she’s alone in. An aloneness that seems to be very much a conscious choice, as it is for Pious Madonna while she continues to resist the invitations of the revelers outside her window.
But Gomez, in her garishness, is also doing what amounts to “a sendup” of Hispanic culture, despite herself being “permitted” to because she has third generation heritage (hopefully, that turns out better for Mexican representation than it has for the Italians with Italian Americans). Her emulation of the “La Isla Bonita” tableau and mannerism reaches a crescendo particularly at the one minute, fifteen second mark, during which Gomez dances whimsically in a hardwood-floored room in a fashion that immediately harkens back to what Madonna was doing in that flamenco dress. At the one minute, thirty-three second mark, Gomez is lying on the floor in the same yearningly erotic way as Madonna around the two minute, twelve second mark of “La Isla Bonita,” the parallels of agony and ecstasy in isolation continuing.
Elsewhere, a lone tear streaming down Madonna’s face is her own homage to the Virgin Mary (as well as a nod to the whole “weeping for Jesus” concept), as opposed to wielding something more obvious, like an Immaculate Heart (granted, the Sacred Heart of Jesus has appeared in Madonna’s work, too, most memorably during a performance of “Mother and Father” for The Reinvention Tour). Although Madonna’s concept never takes a magical realism route, there is something of the divine in her longing glances and repressed whims. Again, speaking to the dichotomy of Catholicism that causes the strange war that is piety versus sexual appetitiveness, Madonna’s passionate side wins as she walks out the door (just as Gomez will at the end of her video)–with her counterpart remaining inside, seemingly to pray for her. It appears as though both sides need the healing that comes with giving in to their extreme personalities, yet the one cannot exist without the other. And “Flamenco Madonna,” for as “reckless” as she is, never fully gives in by joining in with the people outside. She indulges in a dance “for” them, but not really “with” them, soon after traipsing down the street away from the crowd.
Perhaps all she needed was a quick indulgence to be sated, and the final scene is actually a reveal that she’s returned to her devout, reserved self after “unleashing the beast.” Gomez unleashes the beast, so to speak, of her own emotional baggage as well, noting of the healing and rebirth motifs (also purportedly present in J. Lo’s recent “In the Morning” video, in addition to the paintings of Kahlo) in “De Una Vez, “We all have the pain and the scars from various experiences we go through in life, but it’s really how we heal ourselves. Not only is it about leaving the past behind and forgiveness, but more importantly, it’s also about strength, moving forward, and starting your next chapter.” For Madonna after “La Isla Bonita,” that chapter would be healing from Sean Penn, who definitely puts Justin Bieber to shame in terms of “wrath incurred” during a relationship.
