The Oscar Is Mexican: Academy Award Statuette Modeled After Emilio “El Indio” Fernández
The story behind the Academy Award’s Oscar statuette is itself one fit for the movies.
It starts in the 1920’s during the Mexican Revolution. Emilio Fernández was studying in Mexico’s military college when he decided to take up arms and help support the revolutionary cause of Adolfo de la Huerta.
In 1924, a defeated De la Huerta was forced into exile and left Mexico to open a music school in Hollywood; Fernández was captured and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Fernández had been incarcerated for 8 months when he managed to escape. It is said he used dynamite to blow himself out of jail. He soon joined De la Huerta in Los Angeles where he began working as an extra in Hollywood films.
It was in 1928 that friend and fellow Mexican Dolores del Río approached Fernández with the proposition to be the nude model for the Academy Award.
Reluctant at first, Fernández took the job and is now forever tied to the Academy Award and its statuette, the “Oscar.”
Fernández eventually returned to Mexico where he went on to write, direct, and star in dozens of films, receiving acclaim for several, including “La Perla,” which he directed and co-wrote with John Steinbeck, and “María Candelaria,” which was the first Mexican film to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival of France.
In Mexico, Emilio Fernández was nicknamed “El Indio,” Spanish for “The Indian,” a tribute to his Indigenous heritage and subject matter of many of his films.
His place is Mexican cinema is well known and highly regarded; however, his place in American cinema history as both an actor and muse for the ultimate Hollywood award should never be forgotten.
As you watch the Academy Awards ceremony tonight, remember the story of how a young man in Mexico went from fighting in a revolution to being the model for the “Oscar,” and ultimately becoming and acclaimed star in his own right.
To El Indio Fernández!
