Marquee Survivals: A Multimodal Historiography of Cinema's Recycled Spaces

Pachuco strut

Rudolph Molina walks toward the camera, stops, strikes a pose, then looks off into the distance. This unexplained scene in DEL OTRO LADO DEL PUENTE properly haunts not only the surface of the film (its aesthetic is in congruent with the rest of the film), but its narrative as well. The character of the father does not have any lines and receives minimal screen time. In fact, the actor who portrays the character is seemingly uncredited. (There are charming qualities to this haunting performance, the actor seems to receive a cue off-camera right before he stops walking and strikes his pose.) Like the pachuca and pachuco in Chicano history, this depiction is opaque and yet stylishly disruptive.

Contents of this annotation:

  1. Pachuco scene in Del otro lado