A pioneer Latina actress in Hollywood, the Mexican-born Lupe Vélez gained fame through slapstick comedy roles during the 1930s and 1940s, most notably as “The Mexican Spitfire” in a series of similarly titled exploitation films. La Zandunga is her first starring role in her native country, its filming triggered in part by her fevered reception there during a 1937 visit. De Fuentes stays sensibly out of the way of Vélez's considerable star wattage as he flings her and the plot merrily about the scenic Isthmus of Tehuantepec, celebrating its natural beauty amid songs, comedic interludes, romances, and folklore. “She seems rather calmer than in her English stage and film work,” blithely noted the New York Times of Vélez; allowed to escape from Hollywood's more frenzied vision of her persona, she blossoms here as a true romantic heroine, in a setting as exoticized as anything Hollywood created.