De ceja a ceja: Retos nacionales y espejismos sexuales en "Enamorada" de Emilio Fernández

Abstract

This article analyzes Emilio Fernández’ film Enamorada (1946) by taking into account how the sexualities of the two main characters, portrayed by Pedro Armendáriz and María Félix, come into play in the director’s construction of a national Mexican imaginary. Why do the gender representations of these two characters edge towards the androgenous? How can this ambivalence be explained in the context of Mexico’s national culture after the revolution? This paper argues that despite its rather formulaic masculinism, this film surprisingly proposes a more fluid national and sexual identity than has commonly been attributed to Emilio Fernández’s work. The sexualities of this film’s protagonists, portrayed by María Félix and Pedro Armendáriz, embody an ambiguity that reconfigures cultural archetypes and indicates an aperture towards international cultural models.