“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and the Latinos who joined the Marvel universe

The Spanish have entered the universe of Marvel superheroes with force, with more and more actors, characters and stories from the Hispanic culture such as the Mexican-American Xóchitl Gómez and the Guatemalan Óscar Isaac, promoted by the Argentine filmmaker Victoria Alonso.

Films like “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “Moon Knight” are “the dream of my life,” Alonso told Efe.

The president of physical production, post-production, animation and special effects at Marvel Studios, who sent the Hollywood press to study Spanish at the premiere of “Eternals,” is considered the most powerful Latina in American cinema.

For Argentina, it is very important “to have someone who tells you ‘I am the same as you and I am powerful. I am like this and I am a respected part of the world and essential for any age.

The filmmaker refers to characters like Gómez de América Chávez in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” which premiered last week, with a Mexican superheroine who follows Doctor Stephen Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Also speaking is Isaac, the Guatemalan actor raised in Miami, who stars in “Moon Knight”, which recently ended on Disney+ and is one of the most popular series from the studios, which transformed comic book stories into a worldwide phenomenon.

MARVEL SPEAKS SPANISH

Isaac, neither the character of America, nor Gómez herself are the first characters or actors in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU as fans call this world of superheroes.

However, they are the first to have such a prominent role and are making history by speaking in Spanish in their productions.

América and Doctor Strange begin the film conversing in Spanish, a language that continues to be heard throughout the film, even with Mexican slang such as “neta” and “güey”.

The penultimate episode of “Moon Knight” ends with Isaac in a field of flowers listening to “Beyond the sun”, sung by Manuel Bonilla, and in the end, the Guatemalan, who is also a producer of the series, went further.

In the comic, the protagonist’s third personality is a New York taxi driver. In the Disney+ version he appears as a limousine driver who only speaks Spanish.

“At the core of this series is identity, and as a Latino from the United States I consider it the core of our life experience. The way we mutate according to the dominant culture is a kind of multiple personality.e”, he told Efe.

When Isaac, 43, appeared on the iconic Saturday Night Live show to promote his series, the first thing he did was say his full name: Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada.

“It was very intentional because I want my community to understand that I am just like them. I was even inspired by the mental health crises of one of my uncles for the character of Moon Knight, or Caballero Luna as they call him in Spanish.l”, highlighted the artist, who revealed that in addition to the most obvious, which is Spanish, he left other references to his culture hidden in the series.

“THE DEAD” FROM BAD BUNNY

Gómez did not have to make much of an effort to highlight what was Latin about América Chávez. She is Mexican American, she stressed. But the 16-year-old actress is “very aware of the responsibility of representing a Latina teenager, who has two moms and who will eventually present herself as part of the LGBTQIA community”.

It is a position similar to that of Salma Hayek, the pioneer in this incursion of Latinos into the MCU with her character Ajak in “Eternals”, released in 2021, noting that “It is very important that Marvel has put a Latin actress in such a strong and essential character in the story.”.

The next Latin installment in the MCU is the film “El Muerto”, starring Puerto Rican artist Benito Martínez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny. The decision to take him to the movies has caught the attention of comic book experts, since the character only has two comics.

Alonso had already announced that he was coming. “As an Argentine and a member of the LGBTQIA community, I have been looking for these stories for years, not only to put Latino actors, but also Latino characters”he indicated.

That is why the moment that the MCU is experiencing fills her with pride and the fact that the issues of identity, mental health and identity and sexual preference are explored that reflect the Latino community, Latin American, and in the “most authentic way possible”, including the idiom.

“My hope is that this will be received as a small gift from a small group of filmmakers who want to tell great stories in which we celebrate them all.“, he claimed.

“Largely because this can save lives,” he added, recalling that 42% of LGBTQIA people in the United States have considered suicide, as well as one in seven young Latinas.