Do you know the way to San Miguel?
Do you know the way to San Miguel?
I fell in love with charming town in Mexico, San Miguel de Allende, when I read 1956 novel SENORITA OKAY. Wish I could have gone at that time, before well-off ex-patriots made it more expensive to live there. Those who can't travel to picturesque pueblo (roadblocks nowadays are not limited to one's wallet), can make virtual visit, thanks to PARIENTES A LA FUERZA (Family by Force), a very entertaining new TV series set mostly in Los Angeles on Telemundo & On Demand NBC app, with English subtitles on you tube https://youtu.be/Pvk-j4KLhEQ?list=PLuS3qy90fem94yxmweO9vGgmejJEuiHlU (tho dialogue is often bilingual--lead actor of PALF is actually fluently tri-lingual, having grown up all over the Americas). #LatinosAreOnTvToo
Author of SENORITA OKAY Ann Kilborn Cole (pen name Nancy Hartwell) has cameo as "middle aged woman writer...who bangs a typewriter all day" (Cole was around 65 then) in building where novel's teen art student main character lives which I may have located using clues in story. Book's author was older than lead character in PALF (and actor who plays him) who turns 50 in first episode.
GEORGE CRUZ is Hollywood screenwriter--Latino who looks "gringo"--trying to get back to his cultural roots and values. Resemblance could be just coincidental between this passage from SENORITA OKAY and theme running throughout PARIENTES A LA FUERZA:
"Maybe that's our trouble. We ask for too much. I think someday I'll do a mural on just that--" she squinted her eyes as if seeing it on the horizon. "The comparison, I can see it now, that happy Mexican in bold, bold colors, surrounded by his big family, his burro, and a goat or two, sitting in a blazing hot and empty desert place beside a maguey plant and the too-busy American practically suffocated with things, looking all mixed-up and worried--all done in halftone."
There's lots of color symbolism in PARIENTES A LA FUERZA--both visual and in dialogue--something young artist and aspiring children's book illustrator Patricia O'Kane (otherwise known as "Senorita Okay") could appreciate and enjoy. At beginning of her journey to Mexico (and to self-discovery), Triss is befriended by older twin siblings nicknamed Jack & Jill (unusual love triangle, as sister resents anyone coming between her and her brother, who has been her best--perhaps only--friend & companion since birth, due to roaming world with their parents who have US government related careers).
Small-town girl Triss also meets assortment of other art students from various countries, races and cultural backgrounds--unusual for "malt shop" novels for teens of the time, an element even stronger in another teen novel by Hartwell, A Blue for Illi, about a "Displaced Person" or World War II refugee from Germany who feels much older and more experienced than her more sheltered teen counterparts in the United States. (Illi is available to borrow on Internet Archive, which I mention as LAPL's only copy is Reference only,)
Could also just be coincidence that beautiful Mexican singer Carmen Jurado that George Cruz falls in love with when he travels to his mother's hometown of San Miguel de Allende, has middle name of "Patricia". Hmm...what do you think?
Actor who portrays George is younger than I am. There are so few characters on TV or films I can identify with, who've experienced more of life and have different goals and challenges than teen, twenty or thirty-somethings that dominate mass entertainment. Note to demographic targeters: Mature viewers excluded from many surveys have far more economic power than jovencitos en sus casas/kids living in their parents' homes. I quit watching recent TV & films for years, tired of Romeo & Juliet revenge, vulgarity and violence, emphasis on depressing downbeat. PALF is very refreshing change in so many ways, as this blog will attempt to demonstrate.
In contrast to current Hollywood obsession with youth in leading roles and themes due to trying to capture young audience, experienced British actors are valued. I recall Judy Dench in "As Time Goes By", also Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith (and practically all non-juvenile parts in Harry Potter films). PALF may explore some subjects of book The Silvering Screen by Sally Chivers.
PALF also touches on topic of which there are many examples in real life: marriages with large age difference, such as Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta Jones, or Mexican star Thalia & her influential music mogul husband Tommy Mottola (like Rick in PALF?) https://justrichest.com/20-famous-couples-with-over-20-years-age-differences/
Did you know that great Mexican actor ANTHONY QUINN was around 80 (eighty) years old when he had two children with his 4th wife?
San Miguel de Allende vacation rental website says of the actor: "On his frequent visits to San Miguel to rest between films and other adventures, Quinn stayed a few streets from here at the Casa de Sierra Nevada. He loved the slow pace of this town, its traditions, its refined culture, and its special ways of embracing visitors."
Some quotes from Wikipedia article on him: "In 1984, artist Eloy Torrez produced a 70-foot high portrait mural of Quinn titled both Anthony Quinn and The Pope of Broadway in Los Angeles. It depicts Quinn in his famous Zorba the Greek role, and it remains one of the largest portrait murals in California, United States. Quinn said he was not regarded as Mexican because of his surname. He holds the distinction of being the first Mexican-American to win an Academy Award. Art critic Donald Kuspit explains, "Examining Quinn's many expressions of creativity together—his art, collecting, and acting—we can see that he was a creative genius".
It's personality, not age, that matters.
P.S. Title of this post refers to Dionne Warwick's hit 1968 song "Do you know the way to San Jose?" I recalled while thinking of other movies about Los Angeles such as LA LA LAND .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pvk-j4KLhEQ&list=PLuS3qy90fem94yxmweO9vGgmejJEuiHlU&index=34
