Y Tu Mama Tambien: The Many Functions of Luisa
... dental hygienist, the person who “sucks the drool out of your mouths at the dentist office” (Cuarón). She admits to Tenoch and Julio that this particular job was not her dream occupation. The voice-over notes that when attending business dinners with her husband, Jano, she is embarrassed that she does not know about the intellectual things of which they discuss, but she can name the human upper and bottom teeth in order (Cuarón). This leaves Luisa to feel vulnerable about both her family life and her professional life. Her helpless feelings unfortunately do not end there. Before her adventure with Tenoch and Julio, Luisa learns that her husband, her essential support system, has betrayed her and has had an affair with another woman. In addition to this, the audience learns the “medical test results” that she had received were about a deadly cancer that would take her life within months. It seems as though Luisa has no control over her life. Luisa sees the road-trip with Tenoch and Julio, whom obviously lust after her, as a way in which she can contrast the helplessness she feels in all other aspects of her life. In the situation with both the adolescents she is automatically the dominant one because of her older age (28 years old compared to their 17 years). As the movie develops, the audience learns that Luisa is also dominant because of her strong sexual presence and her ability to seduce the young boys. She is quite confident of her sexual dominance when she seduces Tenoch in her hotel room, then Julio the next day in the backseat of the car. In both scenes, Luisa was the aggressive partner and the boy was the passive partner. It was her who initiated both situations and made the commands during the sexual acts. This behavior is a direct contradiction of the gender roles in Latin American society. The man is typically known as the aggressor in the sexual situation. This is due largely to the Hispanic male stereotype of machismo, which a man is thought to exhibit strong, dominant and sexually aggressive behavior. Sexuality researcher Jonathan Knight says in his article entitled “Sexual Stereotypes” that women, on the other hand, are “less eager than the male…she is coy, and often may be seen endeavouring (sic) for a long time to escape” (Knight). Luisa directly contradicts this common notion. It is her who is sexually aggressive and exerts the characteristics of male machismo. After her sexual trysts with both of the boys, the audience is able to observe the change in the male characters’ gender roles. These young boys (whose ultimate goal was to get stoned and get laid) now find themselves with heightened emotions and feelings of jealously towards one another. After the first sexual encounter, Tenoch immediately becomes possessive of Luisa, causing tension between the two boys similar to the stereotypical way in which two girls would handle the situation (Savitt). The gender roles are now switched as Tenoch and Julio vie for her attention and Luisa has them eating out of her hand. These sexual experiences, though causing strain their own relationship, make the two boys more obeying and attentive of Luisa. When she is at last fed up with their endless fighting, she yells and makes a scene, then attempts to abandon them by walking down the road. The boys temporarily mend their ties with one another in order to have Luisa rejoin them. When she agrees to return with them, she makes it very clear that she will be making the rules, and if they break them in any way she will consequently attempt to leave again. Tenoch and Julio accept this demand without hesitance. Their willingness to “suck in their pride” and pull their act together to win back Luisa demonstrates the passivity of these boys in contrast to her strong physical and sexual dominance (Keehn). It is important to point out that her dominance in the movie is not only from her physical and sexual presence but also by the symbolism of her surname. Ernesto Preigo’s article on Y tu Mamá También entitled “Long on Allegory, Short of Critique” points out that the last name of Luisa’s character, Cortés, is an “almost too obvious reference to [a] famous protagonist of Mexican History” – the famous Hernan Cortés, the Spanish explorer who conquest modern day Mexico and massacred thousands (Priego). Luisa’s last name is a reference to the way in which she, like Hernán Cortés, “conquered” and sexually overpowered these young boys. Though physical and sexual domination were important parts she played in the film, they were not the only poignant roles she had in Y tu Mamá También. Luisa also serves as a teacher- one who enlightens their adolescent world. From the very beginning of the film it is painfully obvious that the two boys are quite immature and naïve. When at a restaurant, both Tenoch and Julio boast about how their girlfriends are faithful and emotionally attached to them, even though they are gone for the summer. Luisa hints that there is a reason most girls vacation in Italy- the men are quite charming there. Perhaps, she suggests, the girls are in Europe having romantic affairs with Italian men (Cuarón). In this way Luisa challenges them to look beyond their ignorant mentalities- if they were in their position, would they be faithful to their girlfriends in Europe? The answer, quite obviously, is no. Luisa also serves as a sexual teacher to the two boys. Tenoch and Julio’s sexual scenes in the movie give a quick frank view of adolescent sex- “as frequent as possible, clumsy, and unsatisfyingly brief” (Keehn). Towards the end of the film, (at the outdoor beach bar) Luisa gives the boys humorous and memorable tips on how to better their sexual performances: “You ate me out like a lollip...