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In other words, she got the joke, as do contemporary audiences long deprived of a steady diet of charming Latino films with pop. Until now, those movies often came courtesy of art-house darlings from Europe like Pedro Almodovar (All About My Mother and the expected fall release Talk to Her), whose native Spain is a cultural and ideological canyon away from the countries south of our border. "For the last 10 or 20 years, Latin-American cinema had the public perception of being dull, dour, political, and lacking in production values and hipness," says Rosa Bosch, associate producer of 1999's hit music documentary Buena Vista Social Club. "These [new] films, though, are watchable, interesting, good, and breaking the mold." Carlos Gutierrez, who coordinates New York's Cinema Tropical, a weekly Latino film screening series, says there's a simple reason this latest batch of spicy celluloid is shattering convention: "Mexican cinema is finding new formulas, experimenting with themes and subjects. Amores Perros and Y Tu Mama Tambien are trying to build bridges between art films and the commercial circuit."

Some Latino filmmakers say they've been burned by Hollywood's cyclical interest before, and wonder if recent attention isn't a cover for money-hungry movie execs nervously awaiting the next gravity-defying chopsocky flick or Tarantino-esque crime caper. "When you look at the history of Latino films, the vast majority have been successes," explains director Gregory Nava, whose 1997 Jennifer Lopez-starring biopic Selena grossed $35 million. "But one thing fails and they think the audience isn't there. You're always fighting that. [The studios] are interested, but they're very frightened. Nobody is willing to make a long-term commitment."

Actually, one company just did. Last November, Universal Pictures signed a five-year deal with the Arenas Group, an L.A.-based marketing firm, to create the industry's first major Latino film label, distributing annually four or five movies--some in English and some in Spanish. Arenas CEO Santiago Pozo says his demands for a prolonged pledge--coupled with his mid-'80s stint as a Universal exec--helped propel the historic agreement. "Arenas is not going to be a flavor of the month," he declares. "We're not talking about one movie. We're talking about building an industry. The only way Hollywood will open itself up to Latinos is by having a constant flow of product." To that end, Arenas hopes to release its first film--the English-language John Leguizamo drug drama Empire--by this fall.

Constant success at the picture show is an impossibly tall order, though, and directors and stars like Nava, Hayek, Hector Elizondo, and Edward James Olmos now embrace the small screen, where Nickelodeon (the kids' cartoon Dora the Explorer), PBS (Nava's American Family, a pilot originally made for--and rejected by--CBS), and Showtime are quietly airing some of the most successful Latino TV series since, well, Chico and the Man. "How many cop shows, lawyer shows, and doctor shows can you watch?" asks Jerry Offsay, president of programming at Showtime, where Resurrection Blvd., a drama about a family embroiled in the L.A. boxing circuit, is currently readying its third season. "The notion that other people didn't think [a Latino drama]would be broadly commercial was the attraction for us to do it." (Next on Showtime's slate: playwright Jose Rivera's A Bolero for the Disenchanted and a Cesar Chavez biopic.)

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