Tropic of Orange

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) plays a prominent role in Tropic of Orange. NAFTA was ratified by the United States, Mexico, and Canada in 1993, and it took effect starting in 1994, three years before the publication of Tropic of Orange. NAFTA’s goal was to remove trade barriers for the mutual benefit of the three signing countries, but by removing trade barriers without removing barriers to mobility for workers, it further impoverished the most vulnerable people in Mexico. While the agreement did lead to a net growth in prosperity in Mexico, not all Mexican citizens benefited. The poor and working classes were negatively impacted,  and though many jobs were created, many of these were in maquiladoras, glorified sweatshops working legally in the free trade zone south of the border. El Gran Mojado’s battle with SUPERNAFTA represents the struggle against a globalism that exploits the poor and the vulnerable. Because the struggle results in the death of both contestants, it suggests that NAFTA contains the potential for the mutual destruction of the United States and Mexico.

As Arcangel travels North, he hands out fliers for the Ultimate Wrestling Championship, El Contrato Con América (“The Contract with America”) between the Mexican hero, El Gran Mojado, and the American villain, SUPERNAFTA. SUPERNAFTA is “a masked man in a titanium suit with a head of raging fire” (220). The narrator compares him to “the Terminator or Johnny Mnemonic or the Five Million Dollar Man,” noting that “National heroes like SUPERNAFTA were usually replicants of some sort” (220). The three US film and television figures named here (though the last reference is actually to The Six Million Dollar Man, a 1970s television series starring Lee Majors) are “replicants” in the sense that they straddle the line between human and machine. The comparison suggests that global capitalism amplifies the power of certain individuals while compromising their humanity. From within his titanium armor, with his face obscured by a flaming mask, SUPERNAFTA momentarily enchants the crowd at the Pacific Rim Auditorium with his promises of future prosperity. For that prosperity to arrive, he says, capital must be free to circulate. Even if the people in the audience only get twelve percent of “the action,” he says,  twelve percent of a billion dollars is a lot of money. Arcangel breaks this spell by pointing out how little that money is when spread across all the people of Mexico: “This is not about getting a piece of the action, about dividing into tiny pieces what is always less and less” (222). El Gran Mojado fights for a future that values humanity over capital. The villain’s titanium armor suggests invulnerability, but it proves to be his downfall: He is burned to death when his fiery head sets his body ablaze. SUPERNAFTA represents the disillusionment many Mexican citizens felt with NAFTA: Though it seemed like a good deal on the surface (like SUPERNAFTA’s armor), it failed to live up to its promises.  

Arcangel’s alter-ego, El Gran Mojado, in contrast, is a conglomeration of Mexican, Central American, and South American pop iconography. He is described as a “personage in a ski mask of camouflage nylon, blue cape with the magic image of Guadalupe in an aura of gold feathers and blood roses, leopard bicycle tights, and blue boots” (221). His outlandish appearance contrasts with SUPERNAFTA’s streamlined, technological look. While US national heroes are replicants, “International heroes like El Gran Mojado were usually freaks of nature” (221). His voice is described as sounding like a chihuahua, or Ricardo Montalbán, or Marcello Mastroianni (someone in the crowd points out that Mastroianni was Italian, and someone else responds “What’s the diff?”), or the sound of English with an Argentinian accent. The diversity of these references captures the globe-spanning diversity of Latinx identity and history. His name can be interpreted as “The Great Wetback,” an offensive term for recently arrived Mexican immigrants. El Gran Mojado turns this pejorative into the name of a superhero. The term “wetback” derives from the idea that recently arrived migrants are still wet from crossing the Rio Grande. For El Gran Mojado, this myth is a badge of honor—a symbol of the human mobility he fights for, in opposition to the world SUPERNAFTA represents, in which human beings are stuck in place while capital moves freely.