What really goes on inside that windowless white building on desolate Second Street near the old Belmont Tunnel? You can't help but wonder ever time you pass the Bob Baker Marionette Theater. Jazmin Ortega, a reporter at La Opinion who blogs at bilingual Eye on L.A., recently checked out a performance. She was impressed by the marionettes but dismayed with the show. She writes:
Fiesta!, the current show, harkens back to those old Disney cartoons of Indians with big hats and huaraches, spicy señoritas with castanets, and rooster and hens speaking with bad accents.
Reinforcing these stereotypes in front of 4- and 5- year olds is frustrating, to say the least. The show’s creators had a chance to break away from those tired clichés, but instead chose to reinforce them. Call me too sensitive, but those "ole’s!", the marionette with the too-big hat, and the skating huaraches were a bit much.
Which raises a troubling question that has bothered people for ages: Marionettes -- innocent fun, or essentially sinister? Here's the link. * Photo above by Jazmin Ortega.