The document analyzes the film Tortilla Soup and argues that while it attempts to showcase Mexican culture through food, it relies on stereotypes and presents a whitewashed view of Mexican-American family life. It discusses how food films can represent a form of "culinary tourism" that allows viewers to experience other cultures in a superficial way. The analysis suggests Tortilla Soup reinforces prejudices about Latinos rather than challenging homogenizing views.

1. • Tortilla Soup (2001,
Samual Goldwyn Co.) is a
TORTILLA SOUP film about a Mexican-born
widower living in Southern
California derived from Ang
Lee’s film, Eat Drink Man
Woman (1994), which is
about a Taiwanese star chef
• Tortilla Soup is a white
middle-class perception of
Mexican culture, which uses
stereotypes and beautifully
prepared Mexican cuisine in
an attempt to take
mainstream America on a tour
of Mexican culture

2. WHY STUDY FOOD FILMS?
• Studying food films allows insight into the
consumption of other cultures via their foodways
(Lindenfeld, 2007, p 305)
• Culinary Tourism is the idea that we can learn about
other cultures by learning about their cuisine and
dining experiences
• Culinary tourism is a factor in commercialism,
mainstream film, culture, and a desire to be
familiarized with different cultures without having to
actually interact with them

3. OBJECTIVE and RATIONALE
• Using the Critical Approach, Laura Lindenfeld
demonstrates how Tortilla Soup functions as a mediated
tourist experience, allowing us to visit a Mexican
American family to experience diversity… from a safe
distance (Lindenfeld, 2007, p 304)
• Lindenfeld suggests that while the film attempts to
deconstruct homogenizing notions of Latinadad, it is
unsuccessful, as it reaffirms hegemonic ideologies about
Latinos that privilege being white (p 304)
• Ultimately, Lindenfeld suggests through her
qualitative analysis, that Hollywood lacks educational,
accurate, and non-discriminatory perceptions that would
result in a realistic film about Mexican culture.

4. • Tortilla Soup’s
representation of Mexican STEROTYPES
Americans as white middle
class equivalents, do not
allow the viewers of the film
to experience a realistic
Mexican culture.
• Latina femininity
stereotypes are present as
the film stays consistent with
Hollywood by portraying
Latina women as either the
“sexualized spitfire” or the
“traditional señorita” (p 311)
this limits Latina women and
how they are perceived by
film viewers.

5. THE MARKETING AND PREJUDICE LEGISLATION
ASPECTS
Marketers are romanticizing minorities, specifically
Latinos, in order to market products that appear authentic
and marketable, when in fact, anti-immigration and anti-
bilingual legislation has passed in several states.
Quote1: “ As anti-immigration and anti-
bilingual legislation mounts, hunger pangs
for Latino talent grow in the entertainment
industry” (Lindenfeld, 2007, p. 306

6. MARKETING TRENDS

7. ANTI-IMMIGRATION/BILINGUALISM
LEGISLATION
Proposition 227, which severely limits bilingual education programs
and mandates a “one size fits all” approach to teaching English to K–12
students, is placed on the June 1998 ballot and eventually passes.
APALC joins other advocates to fight Prop 227 and also plays a
supportive role in Angel V. v. Davis, a constitutional challenge to Prop
227, on behalf of limited and non-English proficient students in
California’s public schools. The challenge fails to overturn Prop 227,
although the state is required to provide mechanisms for schools to
petition school districts for exemptions based on student needs.
California

8. ANTI-IMMIGRATION/BILINGUALISM
LEGISLATION IN ARIZONA

9. QUOTES AND QUESTIONS AS FOOD FOR
THOUGHT
Quote1: “ As anti-immigration and anti-bilingual legislation mounts, hunger
pangs for Latino talent grow in the entertainment industry” (Lindenfeld,
2007, p. 306
Quote 2: “The affinity for Southwestern Cuisine in the US, can be convincingly
interpreted as an act of cultural , an appropriation of the borderland foods in
the hopes of neutralizing the power and voice of people, particularly Latinos
in the region” (Lindenfeld, 2007, p 308
Question 1: Do you think it is possible that the
researcher has overthought the issue of culture as
it pertains to this particular film? Is Tortilla Soup
really just a feel good film about Mexican cuisine
that is being attacked by Lindenfeld?
Question 2: What is your opinion about the fact that
the food which is depicted in Tortilla Soup was
actually designed by Milliken and Feniger, neither
of whom is of Mexican descent?