The Braids and Bravery of Blue Beetle's Nana

When Nana Reyes (Adriana Barraza) in the film Blue Beetle unpins her hair to drop two long braids, she symbolically salutes Latina guerreras.

The DC movie follows the transformation of a young Latino man —Jaime Reyes, played by Xolo Maridueña— into a hero with superhuman powers. But in contrast to other movies that offer a glimpse of a comic character’s parents and siblings, Nana and the rest of Blue Beetle’s family are central. So are the forces that trigger migration.

From the origin story of villain Carapax informed by U.S. intervention in Guatemala, to the underscoring of right-wing institutions like The School of the Americas - La Escuela de las Américas, the Blue Beetle movie shines a floodlight on political agendas and wars that have ravaged Latin America and displaced people. It also hails the resistance.

As the family prepares to battle Carapax to save Blue Beetle, Nana unapologetically reveals her past as a guerrillera. Both her granddaughter and daughter-in-law are surprised by her ability to easily hold a teched-up machine gun. “I once raided fortresses like this in my time,” she proclaims, to later yell “Down with the imperialists!” Her experience comes from having to fight against larger occupying forces.

In that scene, Nana drops her braids, a reference to Las Adelitas and indigenous women, and a call to action for Mexicanas and Latinas, says California State University Professor Armando Vázquez Ramos. “It's time to rumble, and that's what she does,” added Ramos, who teaches Chicano studies.

Nana is a nod to Las Adelitas, or soldaderas of the Mexican Revolution. The movie embraces and empowers the Blue Beetle with the legacy of these and other female combatants through her character.

Soldaderas were military fighters or supporters on the field during the Revolution between 1911 and 1920. Black and white photos capture some of them wearing braids and with cartridge belts crossing their chests.

When women joined either the federal or revolutionary army in Mexico, many were able to break with the restrictions of the patriarchy, as scholar Delia Fernandez describes in From Soldadera to Adelita: the Depiction of Women in the Mexican Revolution. Their reasons for joining ranged from embracing revolutionary ideas like agrarian reform, or supporting their husbands and brothers who had gone into battle. In popular culture, they’ve become a symbol for female empowerment, leadership and liberation.

In one tragic moment of the film, when Jaime’s father Alberto suffers a fatal cardiac arrest as the family is under siege —a scene that plays out like a terrifying ICE raid—, Nana rallies the clan, saying there is no time to cry. They need to rescue the son who has been kidnapped. Her loyal devotion to keeping her family composed and together amid a devastating crisis reflects the spirit of soldaderas, who were known to carry themselves with assertiveness and bravery.

After the “rumble” between Carapax and Blue Beetle is done and the dust settles, there is no victory lap. War is not glorious. Nana calls in the family so that they can release their llanto.

As the movie ends with the funeral of Alberto, Nana can be seen in the background planting a cactus. Her planting of the seeds represents a rebirth —a demonstration of how Nana understands that family and the resistance have to live to fight another day.