1	BOOKS News anchor Teresa Rodriguez takes on the deaths of the women of Juárez, Mexico; young writer Daniel Alarcón rises to the occasion of his first novel; and José Cancela keeps Hispanic marketing simple. read more...
2	FILM & TV It’s hip, it’s cool, it’s very Mexican; it’s Nickelodeon’s El Tigre: the Adventures of Manny Rivera. read more...
3	MUSIC The work of independent artist Fulano, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Belize’s Andy Palacio and the return of Alejandro Sanz. read more...
4	CALENDAR Our monthly list of premier events throughout the U.S. read more...

THE LATIN FORUM

FIlm&TV

Holy frijoles, Batman, it’s El Tigre!

Epic battles between zombie guacamole monsters and macho superheroes, elaborate bank heists pulled off with the help of giant jalapeños, and vendettas against middle school foes planned in sinister detail: It all goes down in Miracle City, hometown of Nickelodeon’s new cartoon super star, Manny Rivera, in
El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera.
This curly haired kid is part-time teen and part-time super power. With a spin of his magical belt buckle, Manny morphs into El Tigre, whose costume is complete with claws, tiger ears and a tail. Son of superhero White Pantera and grandson of notorious super villain Puma Loco, Manny has both good and evil in his DNA and must decide with every battle which side he will choose. That’s a tough job for any kid just trying to survive middle school.
Premiering March 3 at 10:30 a.m. EST, it’s one of the channel’s most anticipated new series. Touted in promos as the next Spongebob Squarepants and Ren & Stimpy, El Tigre definitely has the qualities of both: witty kid humor that’s appealing to adults, sympathetic characters, undeniably cool graphics and just a touch of the gross-out factor. The fact that all the characters are Latino (very, very Latino) is just an added bonus.
Manny and the other residents of Miracle City (an imaginary mix of cities like Mexico City, Acapulco and Los Angeles) are the brain children of series creators and dynamic married duo Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua. The Mexican natives have a decidedly tongue-in-cheek approach to Hispanic culture, and that’s a new departure for children’s television.
“Why not take the idea of Mexico and make it crazier?” asks Gutierrez. “We like to push stereotypes to the point where they are incredible and take Latin culture back from other cartoons that have either been so respectful of it so as to be preachy or made fun of it.”
And push stereotypes they do. Characters sport lucha libre masks, clash with villains to a guitar-and-castanet soundtrack, and speak in accents so thick they are comparable only to Speedy Gonzales or Ricky Ricardo. And sombreros, of course, are a staple. “This show will have more sombreros than any other show on television!” proclaims Gutierrez.
However, juxtaposing the over-the-top animation and humor are storylines based on the real-life importance of family and relationships.
The stories are all based on things that happened to us,” says Gutierrez of himself and his wife.
“Manny and Frida [Manny’s female best friend in the series] were based on Jorge and myself,” Equihua says. “We met at age 17, and we think that’s what we would have been like if we had met as children. We were both mischievous.”
In fact, Manny’s family is based on Gutierrez’s family. His father was an architect and an artist, and his grandfather was a military man. When he would request drawings of particularly difficult animals or buildings from his father, Gutierrez was inevitably impressed. It was the same feeling he got upon spying the military honors, guns and paintings of war that lined his grandfather’s walls.
“I thought my dad had super powers,” he says. “And I thought my grandpa was a superhero.”
Frida, a blue-haired lead singer of a punk band aptly named The Atomic Sombreros, and her family cops and legal eagles are based on Equihua’s family. “My family is all in medicine,” she says. “I am the only one that ended up in art.” Equihua has a little atomic in her, as well. When the couple met, she was being courted to be the lead singer of a punk band.
“Punk music was one of the things we both loved when we were growing up,” says Gutierrez. “We love bands like Café Tacuba, and we met at a La Lupita concert. Bands were taking classic Mexican music and adding punk elements. We thought, ‘Why not do that visually?’ ”
And elements of punk culture undertones are evident, if you pay attention. It’s one of the things destined to attract an adult audience but which doesn’t adulterate the content, just as pop culture references draw grownups and older teens to Spongebob while the show overall still caters to kids’ TV tastes.
“When I watched TV as a kid, I saw Batman and Superman, but I could not relate,” says Gutierrez. “But, when I saw [lucha libre stars] El Santo and Blue Demon, they seemed a lot more real to me. They were Mexican superheroes.”
Rest assured there is enough in El Tigre to make anyone enjoy the show regardless of ethnicity. But, as Gutierrez says, “If you are Latino, you see the show on a whole other level.”

Top 10 DVD Releases
February

Blood Diamond
(Release Date: March 20; Rated: R; Drama)
A search for a rare pink diamond in war-torn Sierra Leone brings two African men from different backgrounds together through their trek to find it.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit...
(Release Date: March 6; Rated: R; Comedy)
Kazakh reporter Borat fumbles through a documentary about America and makes more enemies than friends along the way.

Casino Royale
(Release Date: March 13; Rated: PG-13; Action)
In his very first 007 mission, Bond must stop a notorious financier from winning a multimillion-dollar poker game and funding a terrorist organization.

Everyone’s Hero
(Release Date: March 20; Rated: G; Family)
A boy must get Babe Ruth’s bat to him before the end of the 1932 World Series.

Fast Food Nation
(Release Date: March 6; Rated: R; Drama)
From pasture to landfill, the life cycle of fast-food products comes to life in this account of Eric Schlosser’s nonfiction book of the same name.

Happy Feet
(Release Date: March 27; Rated: G; Family)
A dancing penguin sets out to find the cause of his flock’s depleted fish supply.

Night at the Museum
(Release Date: March 27; Rated: PG; Comedy)
An evening security guard is perplexed when the exhibits at the museum he works for come to life and make trouble.

Pursuit of Happyness
(Release Date: March 27; Rated: PG-13; Drama)
Based on the biography of Chris Gardner, this is the story of his life as a homeless single father just before he made it big.

Rocky Balboa
(Release Date: March 20; Rated: PG; Drama)
The latest installment of the Rocky saga, the boxer, now retired, steps back into the ring to face the current heavyweight.

Walkout
(Release Date: March 6; Rated: NR; Drama)
The true account of Chicano students who led a walkout of five East Los
Angeles high schools in 1968.