ABSTRACT
Like most Latin Americans and US Latinos who have made a name for themselves and their countries/communities in the ruthless sport of boxing, Gonzáles grew up in a tough barrio amid poverty. A comparative analysis of Hands of Stone and La Yuma allows us to explore the ways in which contemporary Latin American cinema has engaged with issues of gender, class, and the nation through the figure of the boxer. The film is successful in dramatizing this confrontation through the use of boxing cinema conventions, particularly the myth of the hungry fighter. However, the movie's brave criticism of US interventionist policies in Latin America is unfortunately undermined by the emphasis given to the relationship between Durán and American manager Arcel, who is portrayed as a surrogate father figure to the boxer. Through the appropriation of certain values and characteristics Latin American societies consider "masculine," Yuma disrupts the relationship between genders and, because of that, the power balance.
