Well into the last act ofBlue Beetle, when Jaime (Xolo Maridueña) is having a final showdown with his equally powerful nemesisCarapax(Raoul Max Trujillo), we suddenly get a flashback. It details all hardships that the villain has been through, and basically makes it clear to Jaime that his nemesis is as much a victim of Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon) as he is. In an interview with Collider’s Editor-in-ChiefSteve Weintraub, directorÁngel Manuel Sototalked about the importance of having that moment in the movie.
During the interview, Soto revealed that he wasn’t afraid to call outthe harm that the United States has doneto Latin America. At the same time, he had to make sure that the criticism wasn’t done generically, and have the audiences connect the dots to realize how some inhabitants of Latin America have contact with violence at an early age specifically because of the U.S. That crash-course in American imperialism was essential to have Jaime empathize with Carapax andnot deliver a deadly final blowto the villain:
“We wanted to create this moment of peeling off the layers and getting to the root of the trauma to understand that this person, his trauma has been weaponized. And in order to create that, the flashback tells the story of this child soldier and how this region, which includes also the Caribbean region, has been consistently interfered with by imperial powers. That’s where the modern blood history is born, is by the consistent interference from American imperialization and trying to take over resources and staging coups and putting in public dictators to protect the interests of American companies — so Villa, in this case, the School of the Americas, which is a historical fact.”
Carapax’s Background Needed to Hit Home
Soto adds that it was important to put Carapax’s story within agrounded realityso it wouldn’t fall “into a construct of fantasy” or reproduced “fallacies” we’re used to hearing. He underscored that American imperialism is “a reality that exists,” but “is often overlooked or ignored in History books because it’s a dark part of what the U.S. has done inLatin America.”
Aside from this particular moment,Blue Beetlealso makesconstant referencesto how corporations tend to use countries in development as their playground and consequently weakening the local economy and creating low-cost jobs that force people out of their homeland if they want to have access to better education and jobs.
Blue Beetleis playing in theaters now. Don’t miss our full conversation with Ángel Manuel Soto and stay tuned at Collider for further updates on the DCU.
