Vicarious Identities: Fantasies of Resistance and Language in Juan Ibanez's Los caifanes (1966)

Abstract

Vicarious Identities:Fantasies of Resistance and Language in Juan Ibáñez’s Los caifanes (1966) Nohemy Solórzano-Thompson Los caifanes (1966), director Juan Ibáñez's first full-length motion picture, became instantly popular with the Mexican middle-class. Los caifanes presents a middle-class fantasy of empowerment and resistance against the upper-class, experienced vicariously through the actions and bodies of lower-class men and accomplished without challenging middle-class privilege. Set in Mexico City, the film portrays a nocturnal encounter between a group of lower-class men and an upper-class couple that produces an intellectual battle through language and social performance. The lower-class men represent positive forms of masculinity; the upper-class man, on the other hand, is portrayed as negative and effete. The upper-class woman, the film's true protagonist, is unsatisfied by her male counterpart and seeks new experiences. The encounter allows the upper-class woman to "vivir intensamente" ["live life to the fullest"] and to abandon her fiancé in favor of independence. Los caifanes continues to be an important film almost forty years after its release. Thanks to regular broadcasting of the film on Mexican and U.S. Spanish language television and the frequent references to it in music, newspapers, and magazines, the film has become a favorite of most Mexicans, regardless of class background. Today, Los caifanes is considered one of the best Mexican films of all times, and its plot and dialogue have become common referents. The word caifanes is a caló [Mexico City lower-class slang] reworking of the Mexican phrase "caer bien" meaning to get along with or to be perceived as pleasant. Because caló usually incorporates English, the word caifanes is created through the fusion of "caer" and "fine," the English equivalent of "bien." The "caifanes" are those who are pleasant or easygoing; in other words, the "cool guys." Thanks to the film, to be "like the caifanes" has become synonymous with ultra-coolness and masculinity. At the start of the film, Jaime de Landa (Enrique Álvarez Félix) and his fiancée Paloma (Julissa) leave a party in search of some other form of entertainment that challenges their bourgeois perspective. Their chance encounter with a band of auto mechanics, headed by Capitán Gato and his band of caifanes, gives them the opportunity to experience Mexico City nightlife from the perspective of the lower-classes. The caifanes' tour of the city forces Paloma and Jaime to temporarily interact with several members of the lower-classes in their "native" spaces. They visit a barrio nightclub, a mortuary, a fonda [lower-class eatery], and several important Mexico City street locations. At each location, the caifanes manage to cause chaos; their actions range from the stealing of a hearse, which is subsequently abandoned in downtown Mexico, to causing a riot at a nightclub. As the plot develops, Paloma feels drawn to vicariously experience the lives of the caifanes and participate in the mayhem; she is also sexually attracted to one of the men. Paloma feels trapped in her bourgeois lifestyle; she does not want to abandon it or its privileges but is unfulfilled by her relationship with Jaime. The film's climax is a fistfight instigated by Jaime's jealousy; he is easily put down by the caifanes. Paloma is impressed by their behavior and finally decides to act drastically. After her night with los caifanes, Paloma literarily leaves Jaime on the side of the road. Through its marketing and presentation, Los caifanes claims to contain genuine portrayals of the "real" lower-class male experience in Mexico City. Yet the film makes a very important omission—the middle-class is entirely absent. The characters only represent the upper- and lower-classes, leaving the middle-class entirely out of the action of the film. It is no accident that the middle-class would favor a film that does not feature them. Through the use of the dichotomy of order and disorder to portray imaginary acts of confrontation that situate resistance in the lower-class man, the film structures disorder as a weapon of the weak; a form of resistance targeted at the upper-classes and allowing the vicarious participation...