Looking at Purity in Mexico: By-Passing the Prostitute and the Border/First World in the Film Santitos.

The film Santitos exhibits a transnational perspective in the sense that it travels from the interiors to the periphery of the nation and subsequently to the other side of the border. The film also transgresses static categories of the female subject by focusing on the protagonist's evolution and self-discovery. Nevertheless, this article argues that this idea of showing the totality of the woman and the nation can be highly questionable considering that some parts of this 'total' are visible only in partial and limited ways, namely those of the prostitute and the geographical space of the border (Tijuana) and the First World (Los Angeles). Thus, as the result of the director's choice to present these spaces and individuals without observing them, this supposed visibility of feminine and national differences could be perceived as indifference towards anything that can ultimately endanger the presence of a pure woman and, by extension, a pure nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]