I didn’t originally plan to see Flamin’ Hot, directed by Eva Longoria and telling the story of Richard Montañez, a real-life janitor turned Frito-Lay executive.

For at least two decades, the Mexican-American told those within hearing distance that he had invented the wildly popular Cheetos strain of the same name. The self-proclaimed “godfather of Latinx marketing” has taught American corporations that they can make billions of dollars from their communities. And Latinos, finally feeling recognized, were happy to grab that cash.

He repeated this origin story until the media, myself included, quoted it without question. When my colleague Sam Dean published an article in 2021 proving that Montañez was a textile man at best and a hideous person at worst, Hot Cheetos aficionados dragged Montañez down. Accused the Los Angeles Times of trying to take him down – this is the only time I see a left defending a Fortune 500 mogul.

Two years later, Longoria was already planning ‘Flamin’ Hot’ when Dean’s article was published and still regrets the whole incident. In an interview with The Superstar earlier this spring, she laughed and denied Dean’s reports.[It] I wish the LA Times had better resources dedicated to more important things. ”

So yeah, why would you want to stream a Longoria movie?

Because better Latinos than me say it should.

The Hispanic Media Coalition, which has duly criticized anti-Latino bias in Hollywood and the domestic media for decades, issued a news release urging people to watch “Flamin’ Hot.” Longoria, Montañez, Dolores Huerta and others attended a sold-out outdoor screening earlier this month at downtown Los Angeles’ Cultural Arts Plaza. Still, my friends, who believed in Dean’s discovery, posted on social media that they enjoyed watching “Flamin’ Hot.”

The film, which premiered on Hulu and Disney+ on Friday, has received widespread support. There aren’t enough Hollywood projects with Latinos playing lead roles both in front of and behind the camera. So at least you should think about appearing for the few people who spring up. As I wrote in a column defending Dean’s findings, “[Latinos are] We invest in people who reach levels we can only hope to achieve. After all, despite being outnumbered and living here for centuries, we are still outsiders in the United States. ”

So I streamed “Flamin’ Hot” last weekend. It’s a snack, as the name suggests, but it doesn’t taste as good as fans attest, and it’s far more problematic than they admit.

Jesse Garcia plays Montañez as a nice guy who struggles as a janitor despite the obstacles of a violent father, flirting with the drug trade, a racist society and a skeptical boss. . Veteran actors Dennis Haysbert and Tony Shalhoub have cast their respective roles as the Rancho Cucamonga factory engineer who gave Montañez the rest he needed, and PepsiCo’s CEO who allegedly got his Flamin’ Hot dreams off the ground. She’s acting wonderfully.

In some ways, Longoria is doing a decent job as a first-time director. She cares about her characters, the plot unfolds effortlessly in 99 breezy minutes, and the cinematography is warm and welcoming. Nonetheless, she throws away all the good things about the film by blind-buying Montañez’s blurb. She should be celebrated not only as the inventor of Hot Cheetos, but as a Latino hero.

From the screams of a mariachi that interrupt the 20th century studio fanfare before “Flamin’ Hot” begins to the vintage truck driven by Garcia’s Montañez at the end, Longoria makes noise while listening to the music. Mexican. Spanish guitars, congas, and mariachi horns blare throughout the film. White characters are mostly clowns and have no value. Beloved Chicano songs like “Cutie Pie,” “No Tengo Dinero,” and “Mexican Power” are brought up as proof that Hollywood is finally getting Latinos. Lines like ‘Hispanic market won’t be ignored’ or ‘We’re going to win’ [Hot Cheetos] We will send it to our people to ensure applause and cheers from the audience.”

Of course, the actual history is an afterthought. In the film, Montañez says it was his 1992 when he came up with the idea for Hot His Cheetos, but Dean’s article notes that the snack has been successfully tested in Texas and the Midwest, and has been sold nationwide. It is indicated that it was that year that it made its debut.Key Points Montañez Makes in His Book two The memoir — how he attended a Tupperware party in Southern California to spread the Hot Cheetos gospel — is retold as a lowrider adventure like a hidden level in Grand Theft Auto.

Dean’s story did not downplay the trajectory of Montañez’s life. He’s actually a high school dropout from Ontario who’s climbed the ranks of Frito-Lay and now travels the country to talk about his unlikely career advancement. He didn’t invent his Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. It was invented by another Frito-Lay employee.

But historical details are not important to Longoria. Mexican pride is. “Flamin’ Hot” is the kind of comforting molasses that high school teachers screened to Mexican-American students when I was growing up in the 1990s to make them feel more confident. . No doubt today’s teachers do the same with their students. That’s what makes “Flamin Hot” not just pandering, but harmful.

Eva Longoria attends the 95th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California March 12, 2023

(Allen J. Charben/Los Angeles Times)

I don’t doubt Longoria’s honesty in delivering nuanced Latino tales to the big and small screens. She has made a documentary about the exploitation of farm workers and has appeared on a CNN travel show about Mexico. In her interviews, the Texas native frequently cite Occupied America, the foundational book on Chicano studies by Rudy Acuna, a legend at California State University, Northridge, where she holds a master’s degree in the field. It is said that he read it while obtaining the issue.

But Eva: Montañez and Hot Cheetos aren’t the landmarks you think they are. This is from Acuna’s other book, Everything But Mexico: The Chicano of Modern Los Angeles.

In the chapter on the commercialization of Olvera Street in the 1980s, Expert He attacked the beer companies that spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Cinco de Mayo advertising and Mexican-American civic and business groups to capture the Latino market. This is an example of American corporations acknowledging Latinos, a trade-off that has led to Cinco de Mayo’s “transformation into a multicultural beer industry” and the rising rate of alcoholism among Mexican Americans. facilitating it, Acuña claimed.

Acuña said the “imaginary legacies” of companies that recognize Latino pride are “often more glamorous and certainly more profitable than the truth.”

Faced with a choice between fantasy and truth, Longoria chose fantasy.

she doesn’t even fight somehow We should celebrate Montañez and Hot Cheetos, non-nutritious products beloved by communities ravaged by diabetes and obesity and struggling to find healthy eating options. The mere fact that Mexican Americans claim the snack as theirs and celebrate the man who claims to have helped bring the snack to the community is enough for her. It reminds me of Mexican singers who sing loudly about drug culture and ignore critics, saying they’re just giving audiences what they want.

“We weren’t trying to tell a history of cheating,” Longoria told my colleague Mark Olsen in a poignant interview with The Times. “We are telling the story of Richard Montañez, and we are telling his truth.”

That “truth”—supporting what someone stands for rather than what they actually did—is precisely the historical revisionism that Mexican-American activists are trying to dismantle. It is what it is. Should we celebrate it this time?

Past Doritos, past the blazing hot mess of Longoria.