Fighting Stereotypes The Cultural Representation of the Chicana in American Film
Courtesy of Mark Wilson, Getty Images News
Name: Elise Hoogendoorn Student Number: 11080434 [email protected] MA Thesis American Studies Department of History University of Amsterdam Thesis Supervisor: M. Parry, PhD Second Reader: D. Barthe, PhD Date: 20-06-2017 Word Count: 19.984 Table of Contents
Title Page ...... 1 Table of Contents ...... 2 Chapter 1 – Introduction ...... 3 Historiography ...... 5 Importance of Research ...... 7 Research Question, Hypothesis, and Method ...... 8 Sources ...... 8 Chapter 2 – Real Women Have Curves: Chicana Agency and Female Empowerment ...... 12 2.1 Body Image, Autonomy, and Sexuality ...... 14 2.2 Family Values: The Mother-Daughter Relationship and Clash of Cultures .. 20 2.3 Ana’s Desire for Upward Mobility ...... 24 Chapter 3 – Quinceañera: Active Involvement, Religion and Sexuality in Chicano Families, and the Impact of Gentrification ...... 27 3.1 Religion, Family, Sexuality, and Chicana Agency ...... 29 3.2 The Effects of Gentrification and the Bicultural Identity ...... 33 3.3 Strategy of Involvement ...... 37 Chapter 4 – One Story: Back to the Roots ...... 41 4.1 Cultural Identity ...... 43 4.2 Methods and Means: Music, Art, History, and Mythology ...... 46 4.3 The Filmmaker’s Objectives and the Uses of Independent Film ...... 56 Conclusion ...... 60 Bibliography ...... 65
2
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
Chapter 1 – Introduction
Familiar portrayals of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in popular culture include the clumsy bandit with a mustache, a sombrero and two pistols, the femme fatale that seduces men while speaking with a sultry Spanish accent, the gang leader that rules the streets of L.A., or even the cartoon character Speedy Gonzalez yelling “Arriba!” Yet, Mexican-American identity and culture comprises of many different elements beyond these stereotypes.
Unlike the waves of European immigrants, who were able to assimilate gradually as their white skin color allowed them to blend in the crucible of American cultures, the constant influx of Mexican immigrants into the United States brought the values and traditions from the home country and maintained them. Mexican-American identity is a mixture of old tradition and American cultural aspects. As Mexican-Americans are often seen as a group of people that are unable to adapt themselves, and who immigrate to the United States illegally, the existing views over this minority have been predominantly negative. Undertakings of activism by Mexican-Americans pre-1960 were aimed at trying to adapt to American culture, and trying to claim a ‘white’ identity in order to combat prejudices and discrimination.1 The Chicano Movement of the 1960s however was radically different in nature, as it was aimed at embracing Chicano (feminine: Chicana) culture and taking pride in having a Mexican background. Similar to what the Black Power Movement meant for African-Americans, the Chicano Movement came to rise in the struggle for civil rights and the emancipation of Mexican-Americans. Assimilation was no longer desired, but instead, differences of either a racial or a cultural nature were celebrated, and America was to accommodate Chicanos instead of the other way around.2 Through protests, lawsuits, and other acts of defiance the Chicano Movement tried to change negative perceptions, and improve the position of Mexican-Americans in the U.S.
The term Chicano – or Chicana – is not used simply to refer to a person of Mexican descent that is living in the United States. While ‘Mexican-American’ refers to an ethnic
1 Mario T. Garcia, "Introduction: Chicano Studies in the 1980s," in M. T. Garcia, et. al., History, Culture, and Society: Chicano Studies in the 1980s (Ypsilanti: Bilingual Press Editorial Biningue, 1983), 9, quoted in Richard Maxwell, “The Chicano Movement, The Broadcast Reform Movement, And The Sociology of "Minorities And Media”: A Study Of Cultural Hegemony In The United States,” Confluencia 3, no. 2 (Summer 1988), 93. 2 Garcia, "Introduction: Chicano Studies in the 1980s,” quoted in Richard Maxwell, “The Chicano Movement,” 93. 3 identity, ‘Chicano’ refers to a political identity.3 The Chicano identity can best be explained as an identity that has been shaped by cultural, political and social experience, along with heritage and historical roots. Originally used as a pejorative term by Americans, Chicanos adopted the term themselves somewhere during the Chicano Movement of the 60s, and used it as a way to express pride.4
As this thesis is mainly concerned with Mexican-Americans and the Chicano identity, these terms will be used predominantly. When it is indicated in a movie that something does not only concern Mexican-Americans, but also other immigrants from Central America, South-America, or whether it is unclear when something concerns just Mexicans or Latino immigrants in general, the term Latino/a will be used.5
Upon reading sources on Latino stereotypes and Chicano identity, I encountered the notion that the Movement used the medium of film to propagate their ideas, and to offer resistance to stereotypes.6 Several renowned Mexican-American and Latino filmmakers such as Jesus Salvador Treviño (Yo Soy Chicano, 1971; Raíces de Sangre, 1978) and Luis Valdez (I Am Joaquin, 1969; Zoot Suit, 1981; La Bamba, 1987) were involved in the Movement. Their main objective for making movies was “projecting ethnic pride while also addressing the socioeconomic issues and often oppressive conditions that Latinos in the US faced, in order to counter prevalent stereotypes.”7 These filmmakers gave shape as to what is now known as Chicano Cinema. While film is one of the mediums responsible for the cultural misrepresentation of Mexican-Americans, it also proves to be a powerful tool in fighting stereotypes, and breaking them down. This thesis is an analysis of the cinematic techniques, methods, and themes that have been used in films since 2000 in order to counter prevalent stereotypes of Mexican-Americans, and of the Chicana in particular.
3 Cherríe Moraga, “The Last Generation,” in Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings, ed. Alma M. García (New York: Routledge Inc., 1997), 290. 4 Alfredo Mirandé and Evangelina Enríquez, La Chicana, The Mexican-American Woman, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 10. 5 There are various other commonly used terms to refer to people with origins in South-America, the most popular being ‘Latino/a,’ and ‘Hispanic.’ Latino is a broader term which is used to denote people from South- America or people of South-American descent that speak a Latin language (Spanish, French, and Portuguese). The term Hispanic on the other hand refers to people descended from Spanish-speaking countries that were historically under the rule of the Spanish Empire. This includes Spain itself, and most South-American countries, with the exception of Brazil, were people speak Portuguese. 6 Jason.C. Johansen, “Notes on Chicano Cinema,” Jump Cut, no. 23 (Oct 1980): 9-10. https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC23folder/ChicanoCinema.html 7 Raúl Rosales Herrera, “Latino representations in Film: From the Latin Lover to the Latin Boom,” in Latinos and American Popular Culture, ed. Patricia M. Montilla (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2013), 117.
4
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
Historiography In Latino Images in Film: Stereotypes, Subversion and Resistance (2002), Charles Ramirez Berg explores how stereotyping functions in film, how this functions in the depiction of Latino’s in film, and how stereotypes are to be understood in social and historical contexts. In a similar fashion of Edward Saïd’s Orientalism, Berg speaks of ‘Latinism’ and the notion of the Latin-American as the ‘Other’. He argues that there are six different stereotypes that can be distinguished in U.S. cinema since the 1920s: the bandito, the Latin lover, the dark lady, the harlot, the male buffoon and the female clown. His conclusion is that Latino writers and actors actively try to alter the cultural representation of Latino’s, but his prospect for the future is bleak, because they still remain underrepresented.
Christine List writes in Chicano Images: Refiguring Ethnicity in Mainstream Film (1996) that filmmakers try to counter prevalent stereotypes “through developing ways in which they can refigure narrative conventions in order to construct new representations of Chicano Culture.”8 In her book she explores the different ways in which filmmakers can do so, and she explains how the self-representational strategies they use can shape the Chicano identity. She names several strategies that can turn negative stereotypes into positive ones, for example the creation of positive Chicano hero figures, and the deliberate use of extravagant stereotyping in comedy in order to undermine and mock existing images.9 She also names a preference for portrayals of day to day life and a working class perspective.10 Finally, she mentions a strategy considering the portrayal of women in the Chicano family, as List thinks that women in Chicano films often have to choose between the traditional gender roles in the household, and that they must challenge the traditional roles in the family to gain more independence.11
In Heroes, Lovers, and Others: The Story of Latinos in Hollywood (2004), Clara E. Rodriguez argues that different types of Latin imagery existed in different eras, and that these portrayals have had a negative effect on the perception of Latinos. She lists several techniques that should be employed by filmmakers to change the predominant image of the Mexican- American, such as “[more focus on] cultural difference and political demands for equality and justice rather than on political accommodation and assimilation,” which is in line with the
8 Christine List, Chicano Images: Refiguring Ethnicity in Mainstream Film (New York: Garland, 1996), 3-4. 9 List, Chicano Images, 37. 10 List, Chicano Images, 69. 11 List, Chicano Images, 126. 5 general philosophy and ideals of the Chicano Movement.12 Furthermore, she lists foregrounding “the views of those who had formerly been excluded or marginalized,” and the need to contextualize Latino history and imagery.13 Two final methods that should be employed are the inclusion of “more Latinos [as a part] of casts and crews,” and more focus on areas that are “generally neglected,” such as “dance, music, and other cultural dimensions and nonurban settings.”14 Additionally, in her earlier book Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. Media (1997), she states that the only true depiction of the Chicano experience can be made through “a documentary-style presentation of social and historical context, rather than through the individual triumphs of a particular character.”15
There is no consensus over what can be called a Chicano film, as everybody uses different criteria that they ascribe to such a film. Two views on this are described by Gary D. Keller and Rosa Linda Fregoso. Latino/a Film and Literature scholar Gary D. Keller lists two criteria a film needs to meet in order to be called a Chicano film in his book Hispanics and United States Film: An Overview and Handbook (1994). The first one is that the filmmakers must have had control over the material, whether or not that material is produced within Hollywood.16 For example, Born in East L.A., Zoot Suit, La Bamba, and American Me can be viewed as Chicano films in this aspect, as they were mostly created and controlled by Chicanos. Keller argues that the second criterion is “the authenticity or relevancy of the material itself, including the ability of the film to transcend formulas and box-office exploitiveness.”17 This means that he thinks that filmmakers should pursue an authentic image, that a movie should be innovative, and that the main goal in making make the movie must not be to make a profit, as this will compromise said authenticity and innovativeness. Latin-American Studies scholar Rosa Linda Fregoso, author of The Bronze Screen: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture (1990), writes that there is a film culture of movies “by, for and about Chicanas and Chicanos,” but that the parameters of what Chicano film essentially entails are difficult to define.18
12 Clara E. Rodriguez, Heroes, Lovers, and Others: The Story of Latinos in Hollywood (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2004), 193. 13 Rodriguez, Heroes, Lovers, and Others, 193. 14 Rodriguez, Heroes, Lovers, and Others, 193. 15 Clara E. Rodriguez, Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. Media (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997), 219. 16 Gary D. Keller, Hispanics and United States Film: An Overview and Handbook, (Tempe, Arizona: Bilingual Review/Press, 1994), 208. 17 Keller, Hispanics and United States Film, 208. 18 Rosa Linda Fregoso, The Bronze Screen: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), xv. 6
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
Importance of Research
As the scholars in the historiography have focused on early Chicano movies and movies up until 2000, I hope to provide new insights on the cultural representation in film by focusing my research on movies that have been made after 2000. Cultural and political developments of the last twenty years are not discussed in depth in the existing scholarship, or have not yet been discussed, as most research is aimed at existing stereotypes and Chicano Cinema in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
To research existing views of minorities, and how these views can be influenced by the way minorities are portrayed in film is of great importance. As Rodriguez states, stereotypes have been, and can be still be damaging to a people. One solution is to promote analytical and critical viewing of films in order to create awareness.19 I want to raise awareness concerning the negative and unrealistic portrayals of people, and explore which methods can be used in order to break these images down, or to turn them into positive ones. Currently, there is a lot of negativity surrounding Mexicans, not in the least because of president Donald Trump’s plans to build a wall at the border between Mexico and the United States in order to restrict immigration from the South. Last year, Trump made remarks about seeing Mexicans as an undesirable group of “drug dealers,” “criminals,” and “rapists.”20 Views like this indicate that it is more important than ever to raise awareness concerning discriminatory statements like these.
As the scholarship surrounding the topic of Latino representation in film is mainly focused on the stereotypes that have been displayed by Hollywood through time, and the resistance by Chicano filmmakers between the 1960s and 2000, it will prove to be valuable to focus my research on films that have been made after 2000. An analysis of the techniques and methods that are used in film in order to fight historical stereotypes will show whether these are the same as used in the films before 2000, and if the arguments that scholars have made can be applied to 21st century films as well; do they still employ the same techniques and ideas or have they changed, as time has changed with them?
19 Rodriguez, Latin Looks, 240. 20 “'Drug Dealers, Criminals, Rapists': What Trump Thinks of Mexicans,” BBC.com, last accessed May 13, 2017, http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-37230916/what-trump-has-said-about-mexicans. 7
Research Question, Hypothesis, and Method
As I have encountered multiple analyses in literature on how the portrayal of Chicanas in films is one of the most unrealistic and stereotypical, I will focus my research on Mexican- American women, the role of the woman in the family, and the overarching theme of the duality of being an immigrant – or the child of immigrants – and living in Western American society. The research question and main goal of this thesis will be to analyze in what ways filmmakers are challenging conventional images of Chicanas. The themes, scenes, mise-en- scène, narrative, dialogues and cinematographic techniques that best illustrate how the filmmaker has tried to achieve a realistic cultural representation will be linked to scholarly knowledge of the subject in order to further develop the argument. I will analyze three films with different budgets that each represent different levels of interference by Hollywood studios. My hypothesis is that the films I have chosen will use techniques to portray women in a more independent and realistic way, and that the filmmakers that have had a high degree of autonomy will be able to show the most realistic images.
Sources
The secondary resources I will use, beside the ones that are already mentioned, are books and essays that focus on cultural representation, Mexican-American culture, traditional roles within the family, Chicano identity, and Chicano resistance. These books will be used for background information, for their argument, and as a framework, and they will provide sufficient theoretical knowledge to guide my research. As my thesis will be focused on film, the primary sources will consist mainly of the three movies I have chosen, interviews with the filmmakers, articles from newspapers and entertainment magazines, online movie reviews, and YouTube videos.
In order to go in-depth and analyze multiple elements in each movie, my selection was narrowed down to three movies that have been produced after 2000, as my research will aim itself at films that were made in the 21st century. As the notion of Chicano Cinema is not a fixed label that is attached to movies or moviemakers that operate from a single company, political affiliation or production house, another type of common feature must be chosen in order to validate the use of the films.
8
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
Many different criteria can be handled, for example a selection by the nationality, ethnicity, political affiliation of the director, writers, actors or production company allows us to make very different selections. A further selection can be made by theme, language, and genre. Due to the different ethnic backgrounds of immigrants from South-America in the United States, it is impossible to select films that are exclusively made by people who consider themselves to be Chicanos.
Therefore I have incorporated Keller’s notions of how to define a Chicano movie in order to choose three films. Firstly, (Chicano) filmmakers must have had control over the material, whether or not that material is produced within Hollywood.21 Secondly, “the authenticity or relevancy of the material itself” is an important aspect.22 Also, the attempts by the makers to deconstruction and subvert Hollywood genres and formulas, the use of Spanish or indigenous languages in films, the use of Chicano music, and a particular use of mise en scène and montage (by which is meant that a movie should not just be filled with Chicano imagery, but the Chicano experience should be put in the visual context of culture23) are characteristic of what defines a Chicano film.24 On the basis of these criteria, I have made the following selection of movies:
1) Real Women Have Curves, directed by Patricia Cardoso (2002. U.S.: Newmarket Films,
2002), DVD.
The first film I have selected is Real Women Have Curves, directed by Patricia Cardoso. Cardoso is a filmmaker of Colombian descent and one of the few Latina filmmakers in the field. The writer of the screenplay, Josefina López, is a Chicana playwright. According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), the cast and crew of the film are mainly of a Mexican-American or Latin background. The background of those involved with the film, along with Cardoso’s status as one of very few Latina directors, and the central theme of a Mexican girl and her role in the family made me choose this film. Real Women Have Curves revolves around a girl in a Mexican family who is forced to give up her college dreams in order to work in a her sister’s sewing company. The movie deals with living in between an American and a Mexican culture, and the balance the main character needs to find in between
21 Keller, Hispanics and United States Film, 208. 22 Keller, Hispanics and United States Film, 208. 23 Keller, Hispanics and United States Film, 209. 24 Keller, Hispanics and United States Film, 208. 9 these worlds. This film fits both the criteria for control of the material by Chicanos, and the authenticity and relevancy of the film. It has won the Special Jury Prize and the Audience award for best dramatic film at Sundance Film Festival and Special Recognition for excellence in filmmaking by the USA National Board of Review.
2) Quinceañera, directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (2006. U.S.: Sony Pictures Classics, 2006), DVD.
The second film I have chosen is Quinceañera, written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. While the directors do not have an immigrant background, the cast of this film is predominately of Latin-American descent. The central theme of the film, teen pregnancy and the traditional Mexican-American family, explores how religious beliefs can affect young girls. In Quinceañera, a girl on the brink of her fifteenth birthday finds out she is pregnant, after which her life is turned upside down. Displeased with her choices, her parents throw her out of the house, after which she moves in with her more understanding uncle and cousin. While the directors fit Keller’s first criteria in a lesser degree, there was involvement by Latin-American minorities, as the cast and crew of the movie participated in the creation of the movie. The movie has won several awards, including both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience award for best dramatic film at Sundance Film Festival.
3) One Story, directed by Clint Nitkiewicz Hernandez, (2013. U.S.: New Element
Productions, 2013), Online Stream.
Finally, I have chosen a very recent and independent production, in order to have a varied selection of films. Nitkiewicz Hernandez is a Chicano filmmaker who has had a large degree of autonomy over his film, which gives it a unique character. One Story tells the story of two teenagers, Angie and Josh, who have to move in with their Mexican grandparents after the death of their parents. There, Angie comes into touch with her Mexican heritage, of which she knows very little, and in the end she chooses to embrace the Mexican culture. The film was privately funded, written, directed, and edited by the director himself, which fully fits Keller’s first criteria. The movie won the Silver Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival in 2011, when the movie was still in production.
There is often a thin line between Hollywood movies and independent film, because they are sometimes intertwined, and often fully belong to neither. Film and Media Arts scholars Benshoff and Griffin claim that one way to make a distinction between them, is to
10
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 see in how many theatres a film is playing: “[i]f it is playing on 3000 screens in America at once, at every multiplex across the nation, it is probably a Hollywood film. If it is playing at one theater in selected large cities, it is probably an independent film.”25 According to the database on BoxOfficeMojo.com, Real Women Have Curves screened in a total of 163 theatres. Quinceañera had a limited release, from eight theatres in its opening weekend up to ninety-six theatres in total. There are no registered numbers available for One Story, which means that it is very likely it showed in just a few theatres.
One Story is a small-scale independent that was made on a budget of just $10.000. The choice for an independent film was a deliberate one, as an analysis of this kind of movie in comparison to a big-budget studio-film (Real Women Have Curves, $3.000.000 budget), and a semi-independent studio-film (Quinceañera, $300.000 budget) can give an indication as to how much film studios can influence the process of realistic film-making. While three case studies cannot give a conclusive answer as to whether more independent productions are able to give an increasingly realistic image, it will give an indication as to whether filmmakers that have more autonomy are able to create a more representative portrayal of Mexican- Americans.
25 Harry M. Benshoff, and Sean Griffin, America on Film, Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies, (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), 25. 11
Chapter 2 – Real Women Have Curves : Chicana Agency and Female Empowerment
Figure 2.1 - DvD Cover for Real Women Have Curves, Portraying actress America Ferrara. Image Courtesy of IMDB.Com
12
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
In 2002, Patricia Cardoso made her directorial debut with the HBO film Real Women Have Curves. Cardoso was born in Bogota, Colombia and emigrated to the United States with her family in 1987. As one of very few Latina directors in feature film, she has made it her mission to advocate on behalf of other Latina filmmakers, and to promote the participation of women in the industry. In a 2015 interview with LA Weekly she admitted to “always hire women” when she has the chance, as “most of the film crews are male”.26 Originally, Real Women Have Curves is a 1993 stage play written by Josefina López, a Chicana playwright born in Mexico who emigrated to Los Angeles with her family at the age of five. The play is still being performed today and last year its twenty-fifth anniversary was celebrated.27 López based Real Women Have Curves on her own personal experiences as a young Latina woman working in her sisters’ garment-factory, and growing up in Los Angeles.28 López also wrote the screenplay for the movie, along with co-writer and producer George LaVoo. The movie features well-known actors such as Lupe Ontiveros, George Lopez, and America Ferrara, who made her acting debut in her role as Ana, which became her breakthrough-role in Hollywood. The film has gained critical acclaim, being the first HBO film to receive a theatrical release after debuting at Sundance Film Festival. At Sundance, Cardoso won the Special Audience Award and Lopez and LaVoo won the Sundance Humanitas Prize for Screenwriting.29
Real Women Have Curves is the coming of age story of protagonist Ana Garcia (America Ferrara), a bright young woman from an L.A. lower middle-class family of Mexican immigrants who just graduated from high school. While her teacher Mr. Guzman (George Lopez) attempts to stimulate her to pursue a scholarship to Columbia University, Ana’s parents Carmen and Raúl (Lupe Ontiveros, Jorge Cervera Jr.) want her to seek employment in the garment factory of her sister Estela (Ingrid Oliu). Ana is caught between staying loyal and true to traditional family values, and her own personal ambitions and freedom. She tries to break free from the smothering hold her mother has on her, while mother Carmen goes to great lengths to make her daughter see that she only wants what is best for her. Carmen
26 Ana Luisa González, “Latina Filmmaker Patricia Cardoso Was Almost Hired to Direct a Feature 7 Times,” LA Weekly, last accessed February 11, 2016, http://www.laweekly.com/arts/latina-filmmaker-patricia-cardoso-was- almost-hired-to-direct-a-feature-7-times-6187905. 27 Craig Byrd, “Curtain Call: Playwright Josefina López Revisits Real Women Have Curves on Its 25th Anniversary,” Los Angeles Magazine, last accessed February 11, 2016, http://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/curtain-call-playwright-josefina-lopez-revisits-real-women-have-curves-on- its-25-anniversary/ . 28 Stephanie Shaw, “Real Women Have Curves,” Chicago Reader, last accessed February 11, 2016, http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/real-women-have-curves/Content?oid=883127. 29 Elia Esparza, “Real Women Have Curves 10th Anniversary Event Tribute to Lupe Ontiveros,” Latin Heat Entertainment, last accessed February 12, 2016, http://www.latinheat.com/everything-related-to-film/film/real- women-have-curves-10th-anniversary-event-tribute-to-lupe-ontiveros/. 13 continually tries to interfere in Ana’s life, telling her to lose weight in order to find a husband, and warning her for the dangers of sex. Meanwhile, Ana explores her own sexuality when she starts dating Jimmy (Brian Sites), a boy in her class. While at first Ana is reluctant to work for her sister, she learns to appreciate and admire the hard work the women perform. She becomes more understanding of them, and learns more about herself too. In the end, Ana breaks with tradition and travels to New York to pursue her dream of going to college.
Real Women deals with cultural and economic issues young women in the Latino community face. It presents a Chicana teenager that is trying to find balance in between the world of Mexican traditions, and the modern American world. In order to analyze Real Women, I have chosen a thematic approach. This chapter is divided into three different sections, that each explore a different theme. Through these themes, I explore how the movie pursues a non-stereotypical and positive view of the Chicano woman.
The first theme in the movie concerns the emancipation of Chicana women. The topics that are discussed are female body image, sexuality, female empowerment and self- determination. Secondly, I will consider the clash between cultures that takes place in the movie. Ana and her mother pursue different standards, which results in a strained relationship. Finally, the third paragraph will explore how Ana’s view of the women in the factory has changed, and how Ana is able to escape her mother’s expectations by following her dream of going to college. This chapter explores how these themes challenge the stereotypical images of Latina women.
2.1 Body Image, Autonomy, and Sexuality
The title of the movie bears the message that “real women have curves,” which reveals that the movie deals with a body-positive image and the celebration of women in all shapes and sizes. The characters in Real Women Have Curves do not fit the social standard of being thin or skinny, and move away from normative stereotype images of the Latina, such as the spitfire, the femme fatale and the exotica. Rodriguez states that the exotica in particular was presented as a sex symbol and “a siren of exceptional beauty, with skimpy clothes and a sultry, languid air.”30 She describes these prevailing characterization of the Latina as “erotic
30 Rodriguez, Heroes, Lovers, and Others, 95. 14
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 and exotic, and little else.”31 The current social standard prescribes that being thin equals being beautiful, but while protagonist Ana is overweight, she maintains a positive self-image, and is not ashamed of her body. Ana’s antagonist is her mother Carmen, who holds the view that a woman should be skinny in order to look attractive to men, and to find a husband. Carmen continually addresses Ana’s size and tries to motivates her to lose weight in a negative way, mainly by trying to make her feel ashamed of her size.
The movie displays a series of events in which Carmen tries to shame Ana publicly. She calls Ana by the denigrating nickname “gordita” (little fatty), and mocks her in front of the other women in the factory by telling her she will never be able to fit into a size seven. At Ana’s graduation party, she even exclaims that Ana should reconsider eating a piece of cake, as Ana is bigger than the cake itself. According to Ethnic Studies scholars Jeff Berglund and Monica Brown, Ana is being shamed by her mother for being “sin virgüenza, without shame.”32 However, Ana never acts embarrassed when her mother makes these comments, but shows indignation instead. She is visibly insulted and annoyed by her mother’s hateful remarks. Carmen is overweight herself, just like her other daughter Estela and the women in the factory. Because Estela is unmarried and still lives at home, Carmen focusses her efforts on the daughter that still has the prospect of marriage. When Carmen tells Ana that her comments are “for her own good,” we learn that her shaming practices are attempts to make Ana more eligible for marriage. In her world, being thin equals having success in finding a marriage candidate. Berglund and Brown confirm that the practice of shaming has the purpose of making someone conform to a social norm: “acts of shaming attempt to discipline women’s bodies into conforming to certain culturally sanctioned scripts of Latina femininity.”33 However, her efforts only have the opposite effect, as they do not make Ana obey or feel ashamed, but they make her angry.
31 Rodriguez, Heroes, Lovers, and Others, 111. 32 Jeff Berglund and Monica Brown, “Sin Vergüenza: Resisting Body Shame in Real Women Have Curves and Caramelo,” in Mediating Chicana/O Culture: Multicultural American Vernacular, ed. Scott L. Baugh (Newcastle, U.K.: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006), 63. 33 Berglund and Brown, “Sin Vergüenza,” 68. 15
Figure 2.2 - Ana defiantly eats the flan
Carmen’s constant meddling backfires in two pivotal scenes in which Ana shows defiance instead of the expected obedience. In the first scene, Carmen tells Ana when they are sitting in a café: “You know Ana? You’re not bad looking! If you’d just lose weight, you could be beautiful!” After this, she warns Ana not to eat the flan, a traditional Mexican dessert, that she just ordered. Demonstratively, Ana puts a piece of flan in her mouth and looks at her mother with a challenging look (Figure 2.2). Berglund and Brown describe the significance of this act: “With absolute defiance, she takes a bite and relishes the sweetness of her rebellion. The emotional resonances of this brief interchange condense a mother’s effort to shame and dictate her daughter’s behavior and a daughter’s desire to direct her own destiny.”34 The flan-scene shows Ana’s first act of defiance, as she directly challenges her mother by ignoring her command.
Figure 2.3 - The women in the factory compare their bodies
34 Berglund and Brown, “Sin Vergüenza,” 62. 16
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
A second scene marks the point where Ana expresses her dismay about the way she is being judged. To battle the heat in the factory, Ana takes off her t-shirt. To Carmen’s dismay, the other women follow her lead. In the following conversation, Ana boldly confronts her mother with her view on the female body:
CARMEN: “Aren’t you embarrassed? look at you, you look awful! ANA: “Mama I happen to like myself” ESTELA: “Right on, sister!” CARMEN: “Y tu! (And you!) The two of you should lose weight! You would look beautiful without all that fat! PANCHA: “Doña Carmen, Ana and Estela are beautiful! They look good the way they are!” ANA: “Thank you Pancha!” CARMEN: “Aren’t you ashamed?” ANA: “Mama, you look just like us!” CARMEN: “Yes, but I’m married” ANA: “So that’s it. Make myself attractive so that I can catch a man.” ESTELA (mockingly): “Ana listen to her. Learn now or you’ll end up like Estela.” ANA: “Mama, I do want to lose weight. And a part of me doesn’t, because my weight says to everybody, fuck you!” CARMEN: Ave María! Pero qué buscas! (Hail Mary! What are you trying to do!) ANA: “How dare anybody tell me what I should look like , or what I should be? When there’s so much more to me than just my weight!” ESTELA: “I want to be taken seriously, respected for what I think not for how I look.”35
The women then compare their bodies, and turn the moment into a humorous competition over who has the most cellulite and stretchmarks (Figure 2.3). While the women celebrate their diversity, Carmen leaves the factory in anger. In this scene, Ana claims entitlement over her own body, and decides that her self-worth is not related to her size. She shows confidence and happiness over the way she looks, and the way the other women support her creates a moment of ‘sisterhood,’ and female empowerment. They do not want conform to the social and cultural norms of being thin and beauty, and rebel against it instead.
In their research on the Latina body image, Viladrich, Yen, Bruning and Weiss discuss “the prevalence of a mainstream stereotype represented by the fit/thin White woman as the ultimate body ideal, along with the Latina curvy shape as its counter-image” and the importance of the media in “supporting co-existing body ideals.”36 They conclude that Latina
35 Real Women Have Curves, directed by Patricia Cardoso (2002. U.S.: Newmarket Films, 2002), DVD. 36 Anahí Viladrich et al., “‘‘Do Real Women Have Curves?’’ Paradoxical Body Images among Latinas in New York City,” Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health 11, no.1 (2008): 20, accessed June 12, 2016, doi: 10.1007/s10903-008-9176-9. 17 women feel increasingly pressured by society to conform to ‘white’ standards, and as a result they increasingly suffer from eating disorders and a distorted self-image. Real Women Have Curves addresses women that are “conflicted by cultural norms,” such as “getting married as an ultimate heterosexual female ideal,” and the “unattainable models of femininity as promoted by conventional media.”37 Showing a body-positive image and female self- empowerment is a valuable strategy in both countering prevalent images, and providing a positive influence on young Latina women. Christine List, author of Chicano Images, calls “creating positive Chicano hero figures” a “defensive proactive strategy to deflect and reshape negative stereotypes.”38 While she gives the example of a male hero, the same goes for positive heroine figures. The appearance of Ana as a strong Chicana protagonist can thus also be seen as a tactic to break down stereotypes.
Body image is closely knit with sexuality and self-autonomy. Real Women Have Curves steers clear of the female as an object of male desire, and the stereotype of the Latina as a morally loose woman with “aggressive sexual appetites.”39 In the relationship with her Caucasian boyfriend Jimmy, Ana presents herself as an independent woman who is ready to explore her sexuality. Early on, it becomes evident that Ana is in charge of the relationship. traditional gender roles are reversed when Jimmy gives Ana his number instead of the other way around, and Ana buys condoms instead of expecting Jimmy to provide for them. Buying the condoms is an act of showing autonomy over her own body, making sure she will be able to practice safe sex.
Figure 2.4 - Ana looks at her body in the mirror
37 Viladrich et al. ““Do Real Women Have Curves?””, 21. 38 List, Chicano Images, 37. List, Chicano Images, 28. 39 Rodriguez, Latin Looks, 2. 18
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
Ana is shown to be in control of her body. In the scene where she and Jimmy decide to have sex for the first time, she hands him a condom and asks him to turn the lights on. She tells him: “I want you to see me. See, this is what I look like.” When Jimmy sees her, he calls her “Que bonita!” (What a beauty). She then walks up to the mirror and admires herself (Figure 2.4). Ana is not afraid to show her body to Jimmy, which illustrates that she does not bend to the shame Carmen tries to inflict upon her.
When Carmen starts to suspect Ana is ready for sexual activity, she tries to scare her with stories of women who did not listen to their mothers and who fell pregnant out of wedlock. She tries to ensure that her daughter stays a virgin until marriage by positioning sex as an impending danger. Berglund and Brown explain that Carmen “fear(s) the encroachment of cultural values from the outside in particular as it relates to sexuality and independence.”40 Therefore, Carmen’s need to exert an iron grip on Ana comes forth out of the fear that her values are being threatened by modern ideas.
When Carmen tells Ana she knows she lost her virginity she exclaims: “A man wants a virgin!,” to which Ana replies “Why is a woman’s virginity the only thing that matters? A woman has thoughts, ideas, a mind of her own.”41 This scene signifies the clash between Carmen’s traditional, Catholic view of a female sexuality and Ana’s more modern view, influenced by her upbringing in the United States. The way Ana is portrayed in the movie is different from the stereotypical manner in which Latina women were portrayed before. Clara Rodriguez states on the imagery of Latina women in film that:
All these images are simple and one dimensional and show the Latina as passive, dependent, and with an unreserved sexual appetite. Whether portrayed as a spitfire, a prostitute, or, more rarely, a secretary, she is always dependent on men. She is easy, promiscuous and weak.42 Ana is not a passive Latina woman. She is a multi-dimensional character who shows a high degree of agency by being strong-minded and by making her own choices. Her character traits and reinforce a positive view of the Chicana woman.
40 Berglund and Brown, “Sin Vergüenza,” 67. 41 Real Women Have Curves, Cardoso, (2002). 42 Rodriguez, Latin Looks, 2. 19
2.2 Family Values: The Mother-Daughter Relationship and Clash of Cultures
The constant battle between Ana and her mother characterizes their difficult relationship. Their conflict is a result of the fact that they grew up in different worlds, and the generation gap. Carmen is a Mexican immigrant and Ana a second-generation immigrant who grew up in a Mexican household in Los Angeles. They are both “members of a community that receives its cultural values from two worlds often in conflict, US mainstream culture and Mexican culture,” which means they are influenced by different cultural norms and values.43 A major theme in the movie is being loyal to family, and staying true to your culture. Carmen has a firm belief in what Fregoso calls “familismo”: the belief in ‘la familia’ as a sacred institution,” which is caused by her religious upbringing in Mexico.44 Her conservative views clash with Ana’s modern view in which social constructions on a woman’s role in society are not fixed. List states in her research on the role of the Chicana within her family in film that the family is often “a constraining social formation for women.”45 While Ana is indeed loyal to her family, at the same time she does not want the family to constrain her. She actively tries to break free of conformities by pursuing a university degree. List continues by saying that feminine values, such as modesty and reserved behavior “keep women from learning skills that could lead them to economic independence,” which could explain Carmen’s dominant behavior towards her daughter.46 Ethnic Studies scholars Mirande and Enríquez confirm that Mexican-American parents are often fearful when a daughter goes to college, since she will live “in a strange and distant place that limits their own influence or authority.”47 Carmen’s wish for Ana to work for her sister in her factory forms a direct impediment for Ana’s prospect of independence and autonomy, and keeps her in her household.
Even though Carmen comes across as the evil antagonist in the movie, this is not Carmen’s intention. At some point she tells Ana: “It is because I love you that I make your life so miserable.” Carmen started working at the age of 13, and has provided for her family
43 María Gonzalez, “Love and Conflict: Mexican American Women Writers as Daughters,” in Elizabeth Brown- Guillory, Women of Color : Mother-Daughter Relationships in Twentieth-Century Literature (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996), 153, quoted in Cristina Herrera, Contemporary Chicana Literature: (Re)Writing the Maternal Script, 120, https://books.google.com/books?id=N7R5CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT120 . 44 Rosa Linda Fregoso, MeXicana Encounters: The Making of Social Identities on the Borderlands, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 33. 45 List, Chicano Images, 127. 46 List, Chicano Images, 127. 47 Mirandé and Enríquez, La Chicana, 134. 20
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 ever since. She wants to make Ana aware of the responsibility she has towards her family, as everybody has to contribute. She often feigns feeling sick in order to gain sympathy and to make Ana feel guilty. In the opening-scene, she calls upon Ana to make her family breakfast. Ana then informs her that she does not intend to miss her last day of school, an act Carmen deems “desagradecida,” (ungrateful). Carmen is annoyed by her daughters refusal to pull her weight in the household, expecting her to put her family over her personal needs, as her other daughter Estela does. To Ana, the prospect of becoming like her mother or sister is something she dreads. List discusses Brown-Guillory’s view on the relationship between mother and daughter:
“Studies suggest that when a mother looks at her daughter, she sees herself. She is constantly reminded of her mistakes, yearnings, dreams, successes and failures. When a daughter looks at her mother she often sees herself and rejects the image in the mirror.”48 In my view this idea does applies to both Carmen, who wants Ana to lead a life similar to her own, and Ana, who objects to traditional social expectations and who does not just want to be in service of her family, like her mother. Ana expresses no desire for a husband, and it is also implied that Ana does not like children. In one scene she is visibly annoyed when a little girl starts crying on the bus, after which she quickly puts on her headphones.
Figure 2.5 - Mural of La Virgen de Guadelupe, a symbol of moderation and self-restraint The difference between mother and daughter is further stressed by the spiritual rituals and religious acts performed by Carmen, a practicing Catholic. It appears that her traditional
48 Fregoso, MeXicana Encounters, 64-65. 21
Mexican values are closely knit together with her faith. Throughout the film numerous religious references can be found in the Garcia household: crosses, a painting of Jesus, and two statues of San Antonio, a saint that is supposed to bring good luck in finding girls a husband. Traditional Mexican customs are displayed throughout the movie, for example when co-worker Pancha lights a candle next to a picture of her deceased father on Dia de Los Muertos, the Mexican day of the dead. While religion, folklore and superstition are part of Carmen’s world, Ana shows no interest in religious matters. There is a clear break between the Catholic, Mexican, tradition represented by Carmen, and the American, modern values of the West as represented by Ana. This is further emphasized by the mise-en-scène and filmic techniques that are implemented by Cardoso. For example when Ana looks a large mural of the Virgen de Guadelupe across the street when she waits for the bus (Figure 2.5).
Daniel Perez writes that the Virgen de Guadalupe “has served as the female template for social behavioral representation.”49 In addition, La Virgen is the embodiment of “piety, virginity, forgiveness, succor, and saintly submissiveness.”50 She represents the ideal woman, and women are expected to pursue her virtue. The virgin/whore dichotomy is the contrast between the ‘good’ girl that remains a virgin, and the ‘bad’ girl that has sex and enjoys it, which brands her a whore. Carmen expresses this view repeatedly; she warns Ana that men want to marry a virgin, and she sees Ana as a ‘fallen’ woman when she finds out she has lost her virginity. Throughout the movie, The Virgin ‘follows’ Ana, as she sees images of her in multiple scenes. For example in the scene where Ana is on a date with Jimmy in a restaurant, and there is a large statue of the virgin in a corner. Her presence seems to be a symbolic way to call upon Ana’s conscience, since she is considered to be ‘wrong’ for dating a boy. Ana however does not let the image of the Virgin intimidate her, because she does not believe in the dichotomy.
49 Daniel Perez, “Chicana Aesthetics: A View of Unconcealed Alterities and Affirmations of Chicana Identity through Laura Aguilar’s Photographic Images,” LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University 2, no.1. (2013): 4, doi: 10.5642/lux.201301.22. 50 Mirandé and Enríquez, La Chicana, 28. 22
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
Figure 2.6 - Traditional Mariachi's carrying guitars
Figure 2.7 – When Ana walks in the ‘modern’ world, we see a modern element: a Lion King sign Besides this contrast, Cardoso has attempted to display other cultural contradictions. She incorporated music and Mexican imagery to stress the visible differences between the Mexican and American worlds. These differences become evident when we witness Ana’s journey by feet and bus from her barrio (neighborhood) in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles to her high school in Beverly Hills. The camera follows Ana’s journey through the city, showing us colorful murals, traditional Mexican food signs, and two mariachi’s carrying guitars (Figure 2.6). As soon as Ana steps out of the bus in Beverly Hills, she enters a more modern setting. She walks on a busy street and we can see a sign for the musical the Lion King behind her (Figure 2.7). Ana has literally crossed the boundary between both worlds and leaves her barrio, the Virgin, and her family behind her.
She literally leaves the ‘Mexican’ world and enters the world she desires to live in. List calls the “barrio aesthetic” another strategy that is used to break down stereotypes. The barrio aesthetic entails “a preference for images that validate and elaborate on the experience
23 of day to day life in the barrio,” and a view from a “working class perspective.”51 Real Women meets both aspects, as the Garcia’s live in a barrio and the movie portrays the working life of Latina women.
Other references to Mexican culture can be found in the Garcia household, especially at Ana’s graduation party. We see a banner with the words ‘FELICIDADES ANA’ (congratulations Ana), her cousins sing her a Mexican birthday song in Spanish, and we see a piñata. The Spanish language plays a significant role in the portrayal of the Mexican side in Ana’s bicultural upbringing. Ana barely speaks Spanish; only to her grandfather (abuelo in Spanish), who does not speak English. Abuelo, the foremost representative of the old culture and Mexican values, supports his granddaughter in any way possible. He encourages her to go to university, and helps Ana to meet Jimmy in secret. Surprisingly, Ana’s grandfather is a much more progressive member of the family than Raúl and Carmen. He forms the bridge between the two cultures, and he shows that a traditional outlook on life and modern perceptions can go hand in hand. He provides unconditional love and support for his granddaughter. According to Keller, the “the use of Chicano music,” “the use of Spanish and English” and “the use of mise-en-scène and montage” all support the “deconstruction and subversion” of stereotypes.52 Thus, not only the themes in Real Women Have Curves, but the cinematography and mise-en-scène by Cardoso contribute to fighting stereotypes as well.
2.3 Ana’s Desire for Upward Mobility
A central aspect in Real Women Have Curves is Ana’s desire to go to Columbia University in New York. While her parents have a different future for her in mind, her teacher Mr. Guzman attempts to gain their support and understanding by making an appeal to Raúl’s own personal experience of pursuing a better life. He tells him: “Sir, you left your country for a better opportunity… Now it’s Ana’s turn.” However, Carmen insists that she must work for Estela in her small dress-sewing factory. Ana shows great reluctance to work in the factory because she thinks the work is beneath her. She calls it “dirty work,” and compares the workplace to a sweatshop. She confronts Estela with the inequality and unfairness of the
51 List, Chicano Images, 96. 52 Keller, Hispanics and United States Film, 208. 24
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 clothing industry, as they receive a mere eighteen Dollars per dress while they are being sold at Bloomingdales for six hundred Dollars.
Ana wants to flee the socio-economic position that the Latina women in the factory are situated in by going to college. Christine Launius writes in her analysis of the movie that Ana’s wish to go to university is her pursuit of the American Dream, which “manifests in her drive to achieve upward mobility through education.”53 Her negative attitude towards the factory results in a poor relationship with her co-workers, as Ana continuously makes it clear that she will only work there temporarily. As the women in the factory will most likely be working there for the rest of their lives, “Ana’s aspiration to achieve class mobility,”54 as Launius puts it, causes a conflict between Ana and her co-workers.
The women in the factory work hard and make long hours to meet the deadlines. The longer Ana works with them, the more she begins to realize that they have their own capabilities, and that they work very hard to make a living. She confesses to Estela: “I never realized how much work, ‘puro lomo’ as mom says.. is put into it.” Her appreciation and admiration for the women’s craftsmanship grow when she helps them to meet an upcoming deadline. Ana undergoes a personal transformation through her experiences in the factory when she learns that the women are proud of what they do, and their shared working experience creates a sense of “community and solidarity among the women workers […].”55 Ana was a condescending outsider at first, but her hard work pays off and in the end she has gained the mutual respect of her co-workers. They have taught Ana the power of what a group of women can achieve together, and that there is no shame in hard labor. They are strong and independent, they work hard, and provide for themselves. Their portrayal puts Latina women from all social classes in a positive light.
Ana, who is of a more bold nature than her sister, encourages Estela to ask her client Mrs. Glass for an advance payment when she struggles to pay the rent for the factory. When Mrs. Glass declines, Ana says to Estela: “Es peor que lo que dijiste” (She is worse than you said), assuming that Mrs. Glass will not be able to understand her. In a surprising moment, Mrs. Glass asks her in fluent Spanish if she said anything. In that moment Ana realizes that Mrs. Glass, a successful and ruthless business woman, is a Latina too. This plot twist hints at
53 Christine Launius, “Real Women Have Curves: A Feminist Narrative of Upward Mobility,” American Drama, (Summer 2007), 17-18. 54 Launius, “A Feminist Narrative,” 21. 55 Launius, “A Feminist Narrative,” 24. 25 the possibility for Latina women to pursue a career, and draws a parallel with Ana’s future prospects. Real Women Have Curves shows the value of hard work, and the possibility to successfully climb the socio-economic ladder: two positive messages that support the empowerment of Latina women.
Perez writes that in the Chicana feminist tradition that “Chicanas left traditional women sense of duties; such as house hold duties, secretarial like positions, and pursued academia, professional careers, visual, and literary careers.”56 That Ana goes to Columbia University in the end of the movie is in line with this shift, as Ana’s persistence eventually gets her admitted to an Ivy League university. It is implied that Ana has written her application essay about her newfound appreciation for the women in the factory, which shows that Ana now has a better understanding of her social background and upbringing. She recognizes that it is precisely her background and family that have shaped her the way she is, and that have helped her to pave the way to university. Her university education will help her to rise above the socio-economic class she was raised in. Ana’s heightened awareness shows that she does not look down upon the work her mother and her sister perform, but that she simply chooses a different path. In the final scene of the movie, Carmen shows her dismay over her daughter’s chosen path once more when she refuses to say goodbye to Ana when she leaves for the airport. Ana lets go of her mother’s judgments and shaming-practices, and leaves her family home. In the final scene, we see her walking confidently through Times Square, a fitting symbol for the modern world. The scene is accompanied by a traditional Mexican song, which lets the viewer experience a last glimpse of Ana’s bi-cultural identity.
56 Perez, “Chicana Aesthetics,” 2. 26
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
Chapter 3 – Quinceañera: Active Involvement, Religion and Sexuality in Chicano Families, and the Impact of Gentrification
Figure 3.1 - Movie poster for Quinceañera featuring actress Emily Rios portraying Magdalena. Image Courtesy of IMDB.com
27
In 2006, Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer wrote and co-directed Quinceañera, a portrait of a Mexican-American family in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park, an area with a predominantly Latino population. Westmoreland and Glatzer, who are also partners, got the idea for creating the movie from their own experiences of living in the area. Westmoreland was asked by their next-door neighbor to photograph the upcoming quinceañera of her daughter. They were impressed by the communal aspect of the celebration and the “really old traditions” that are part of it.57 Six months later, when they discussed how much the neighborhood was changing, they thought of how teenagers go through similar transitions in life, and they decided to combine the themes and make a movie out of it.58
Quinceañera tells us the stories of protagonists Magdalena (Emily Rios) and Carlos (Jesse Garcia). Magdalena is a teenage girl who is preparing for her upcoming quinceañera, a Mexican tradition similar to a ‘sweet sixteen’ which celebrates a girl’s passage into womanhood on her fifteenth birthday.59 Magdalena accidentally becomes pregnant by her boyfriend Herman (J.R. Cruz), even though she did not have penetrative sex with him. With a minister for a father and the traditional Catholic values that form the backbone of her family, Magdalena’s family does not believe her and she is rejected. Her cousin Carlos is rejected by his parents too, for being gay. They then move into the house of their more open-minded great-uncle Tomas (Chalo Gonzalez). There, Carlos has an affair with Gary, who lives with his husband James in the upstairs apartment. Gary and James own the apartment that Tomas lives in, and when James finds out about the affair between Carlos and Gary, he threatens to evict Tomas. While Magdalena and Carlos try to find a new place to live, Tomas dies quietly in his sleep. Herman tells Magdalena he wants nothing to do with the baby, and Carlos offers to take care of her. In the end, when a doctor confirms that Magdalena was speaking the truth about still being a virgin, she is accepted back into the family home. Finally, Magdalena gets to celebrate her quinceañera, with Carlos as her companion.
Similar to Real Women Have Curves, Quinceañera deals with the issues that arise in the life of a young Latina when she does not live up to the traditional expectations of her family. Both movies build on the strained relationship between parents and their children, but while Real Women Have Curves deals with the mother-daughter relationship, Quinceañera
57 "Ghostboy Interviews QUINCEANERA Directors Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer,” interview by David Patrick Lowery. Ain’t It Cool News. Last accessed May 10, 2017, http://www.aintitcool.com/node/24240. 58 "Ghostboy Interviews QUINCEANERA Directors Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer,” Lowery. 59 “The Quinceañera Celebration,” Learn NC, last accessed October 7, 2016, http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/chngmexico/218. 28
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 focusses on the relationship between father and daughter. An overarching theme in the movie is how the characters often have to find their way in between to different worlds, and that they have to take both worlds into consideration. They need to find a balance into multiple worlds, such as the Mexican and the American cultures, the religious and secular environment, the old and the modern worlds, and the patriarchal and feminist views. This chapter will explore how the characters in the movie deal with this.
This chapter is divided into three sections where I will analyze the film and evaluate the filmmakers’ portrayal of Chicana culture by drawing on secondary literature. Firstly, the religious beliefs of Magdalena’s father are a major contributing factor to their disturbed relationship. I will explore the importance of religion in Mexican-American families, and the relation between religion and sexuality. The second paragraph will address the influence of the gentrification in Echo Park, and the bicultural identity amongst Mexican-Americans. Finally, I will consider how an active strategy of involvement is employed, and whether this strategy contributes to a more realistic portrayal of Chicanos.
3.1 Religion, Family, Sexuality, and Chicana Agency
Just like Real Women Have Curves, Quinceañera deals with a traditional Mexican- American family in which a young woman is exploring her sexuality. It is repeatedly shown that moral values are important in Magdalena’s family, especially with her father Ernesto being an Evangelical Minister. The notion that girls should not engage in premarital sex comes out of religious traditional conventions that are deeply rooted in this Mexican- American family. According to Chicana activist Elizabeth Olivárez, the Catholic Church has a big impact on the lives of Mexican-American women. She calls the Catholic Church “a strong force, both in terms of maintaining the family structure and the maintaining of sexual roles.”60 In Quinceañera, we see to what extent (and how extremely) the religious views in a family can influence the life of a young Chicana woman and a gay man, as they are rejected for transgressing traditional behavior. Their religion dictates that premarital female sexual activity and homosexuality are frowned upon.
60 Elizabeth Olivárez, “Women’s Rights and the Mexican-American Woman,” in Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings, ed. by Alma M. Garcia (Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2014), 134. 29
When Magdalena reveals to her father that she is pregnant, he tells her that she has brought shame upon the family and the church, and he no longer wishes to see her.61 Likewise, Carlos is shunned by his own father at his sister Eileen’s quinceañera, who even punches him for daring to show up. The movie handles the issue of religion by showing the religious dichotomy regarding the different ways one can practice religion. While Ernesto follows the absolute principles and ideas of the bible, uncle Tomás on the other hand lives by the Christian principles of compassion, love and charity. He wears a necklace with the image of the Virgin, and he keeps a religious shrine with photographs of his loved ones in his garden. Both men are deeply religious, but their actions and the way they live their lives are different. Great-uncle Tomás gives Magdalena and Carlos a home and loves them instead of rejecting them. Her father and uncle thus embody different aspects of religion.
Tomás is able to see Magdalena’s pregnancy as an incident that can be separated from who she is, and he does not drop his support and love of her because of it. He also tries to convince Ernesto that Magdalena is still the same girl she was. Ernesto tells him: “the girl I knew read the Bible at night and sang in my church. She didn’t run around with boys and fornicate. She didn’t lie to her father.”62 His view of Magdalena is instantly distorted, because he sees her pregnancy as an act of disobedience, dishonesty, and disrespect for God and himself. Ernesto sees Magdalena’s pregnancy as a personal attack, as society will link her actions to him personally. Sociology and Ethnic Studies scholars Mirandé and Enríquez explain that fathers with a Mexican background are so affected by the behavior of their family members because the father counts as “the ultimate authority in the family,” who is “responsible to the outside world for the behavior of family members.”63 In addition, as described by Leandra Hernandez in her analysis on machismo in Quinceañera, Ernesto is unable to “separate his religious beliefs from his love for his daughter,” as a consequence of his “religious-based patriarchal worldview.”64
This religious viewpoint later shapes the way that he comes to accept Magdalena’s pregnancy. It is no coincidence that striking similarities can be drawn between Magdalena and the biblical figure of the virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. They both experienced an immaculate
61 Quinceañera, directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (2006. U.S.: Sony Pictures Classics, 2006), DVD. 62 Quinceañera, Glatzer and Westmoreland, (2006). 63 Mirandé and Enríquez, La Chicana, 112. 64 Leandra H. Hernández, “Paternidad, Masculinidad, And Machismo: Evolving Representations of Mexican American Fathers in Film,” in Deconstructing Dads: Changing Images of Fathers in Popular Culture, ed. Laura Tropp, Janice Kelly (Lexington Books, 2015), 261-262. 30
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 conception, Magdalena’s name bears resemblance to biblical figure Mary Magdalen, and boyfriend Herman suggests at one point that the baby should be named ‘Jesus.’ When Ernesto says to uncle Tomas that “a girl who hasn’t been with a man doesn’t end up with a baby,” Tomas glances at the pendant with the image of the Virgin that he wears on his necklace (Figure 3.2).65
Figure 3.2 - Uncle Tomas looks at his pendant of the Virgin
It is not until Ernesto learns from a doctor that Magdalena told the truth about still being a virgin, that he accepts her back into the family. He no longer thinks of the pregnancy as a disgrace, but now views it as a miracle (“Milagro!”) and as a gracious act from God himself. In Mexican culture, there are some formalized terms that “reflect gender roles and attitudes.” 66 Machismo is a Mexican value in which men are expected to show “manliness, virility, honor, and courage,” hembrismo is the “subordination of females,” and Marianismo entails “motherhood,” and “sacred spiritual superiority associated with the Virgin Mary.67 Mexican women often feel like this belief system functions as a way to “suppress and demean them.”68 Leandra Hernandez writes that Ernesto embodies both the positive and negative sides of machismo.69 On the positive side he is a family man who works two jobs to provide for his family and who loves them, and on the negative side he rejects his daughter when he finds out she is pregnant. Ernesto only re-accepts his daughter in the end when it is proven that she is technically still a virgin. He no longer sees her as a whore, but as a virgin again,
65 Quinceañera, Glatzer and Westmoreland, (2006). 66 James Diego Vigil, From Indians to Chicanos, The Dynamics of Mexican-American Culture, (Long Grove, Ill: Waveland Press, 2012), 204. 67 Rosalie Flores, “The New Chicana and Machismo.” in Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings, ed. by Alma M. Garcia (Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2014), 95-96. 68 Vigil, From Indians to Chicanos, 204. 69 Hernandez, “Paternidad, Masculinidad, and Machismo,” 261-262. 31 which corresponds to the views on the virgin/whore dichotomy that Ana’s mother has in Real Women Have Curves.
Resistance to this image is given by Magdalena herself, since she does not share her father’s views. At one point Carlos tries to convince Magdalena to tell Ernesto how she became pregnant, in order to regain his support. She then responds: “Why should that be so important? So they could hold their heads up in church? So I can be a good girl again? It’s stupid.”70 Magdalena shows a high degree of agency in this scene, as she expresses her opinion that it should not matter to her father how she became pregnant. She clearly makes it known that she has no desire to get in his good graces again if the only way to do so is by convincing him she did not have intercourse. By giving Magdalena this ‘voice,’ the filmmakers present a challenge to the traditional roles that women are expected to conform to. Magdalena is someone who speaks up, and who stands up to the injustices women endure in a patriarchal society with a double standard. Thus, the makers of the film attempt to challenge these male dominant social constructs by viewing the situation from a female perspective.
Regarding the double standard, Chicana feminist Elizabeth Martinez has said that a Chicana woman “is expected to live according to attitudes and prejudices imposed by sexism. These include ideas about virginity, false definitions of femininity and the double standard (one standard of sexual behavior for women, a different standard for men).”71 This is clearly displayed in the different treatment Magdalena and Herman receive. When Herman tells his mother that he did not father Magdalena’s child, she does not encourage her son to take responsibility. She does not want a child to compromise her son’s future, as this is more important to her than supporting Magdalena and her grandchild. Despite being a woman herself, Herman’s mother puts her son’s wellbeing first and protects him. Magdalena and Herman both contributed to the pregnancy, but yet it is the woman who loses out in this case, as the baby is in her body. Herman is off the hook so to speak, and Magdalena, who is only 14 years old, is left to deal with the consequences.
Magdalena, however, shows that she will act like an adult when she tells Carlos that she will not let this baby compromise her own future:
MAGDALENA: “You’re a loser. Smoking pot in the afternoon, watching cartoons. CARLOS: “Look who’s talking, 14 and pregnant. Face it, your life is over.”
70 Quinceañera, Glatzer and Westmoreland, (2006). 71 Elizabeth Martínez, “La Chicana,” in Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings, ed. by Alma M. Garcia (Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2014), 33. 32
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
MAGDALENA: “No it isn’t. I’m going to have my baby, go to school, do everything I planned to do anyway.”72 In this act of agency, Magdalena shows that having a baby does not mean the end of her life, but that she will build a life for herself despite the lack of support.
This double standard for men and women is also evident in the way that Carlos is treated by his family. While heterosexual Herman is not expected to take responsibility for making a girl pregnant, homosexual Carlos is shunned simply for being gay. Comparable to the constraints given to women in Mexican-American society, gay people endure similarly harsh judgments by the rulings of the church. Ethnic Studies scholar Carla Trujillo says that the Pope’s attitude in this matter, who “does not advocate a homosexual lifestyle,” means that “lesbians and gay men are not given sanction by the largely Catholic Chicano community.”73 Carlos is shown as a failure in society. He works as a mechanic, he does drugs, he steals and he has an affair with a married man. He tries to maintain a ‘macho’ appearance by working out, he has a tattoo that says ‘Travieso’ (troublemaker), and he uses ‘cool’ street-language. A striking parallel for the way he behaves – heterosexual on the outside, and gay on the inside – is given in a scene where Carlos steals a cd by rapper Lil’Rob from a car, which later turns out to contain a cd by gay icon Elton John. It is possible that being gay is seen as a threat to the idea of machismo in the Mexican community, which is why he is shunned by his parents and his father in particular. Ironically though, in the end it Carlos who takes the responsibility that Herman, who is seen as a real man, did not take, by promising Magdalena to take care of her and the baby.
3.2 The Effects of Gentrification and the Bicultural Identity
There is another development that affects the characters in the movie. Quinceañera shows the challenges Mexican-Americans endure as a result of the gentrification that takes place in urban areas with a large Latino population. Dialogues by the characters and visual images of the city display what it is like for Latinos to live in in such neighborhoods. The filmmakers have implemented imagery in the décor to reinforce the way of life of the
72 Quinceañera, Glatzer and Westmoreland, (2006). 73 Carla Trujillo, “Chicana Lesbians: Fear and Loathing in the Chicano Community,” in Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings, ed. by Alma M. Garcia (Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2014), 284. 33 characters and the challenges they face. Gentrification is the process of renewal and restoration in neighborhoods where lower classes live, in areas that were previously deemed undesirable or underdeveloped. As areas grow more attractive to live in, an influx of more wealthy inhabitants occurs, which then results in an increased value of property and land. This process forces people that already inhabit the area to relocate, as renting prices grow steep and property developers buy more properties to rent out at a high rate.
Precisely this is the issue that hits uncle Tómas in the movie. He has lived in his apartment for over thirty years. When new neighbors move into the upstairs apartment, we learn that the people who live there are also the owners of uncle Tómas’s place. The new owners are Gary and James, a Caucasian gay couple. After Carlos has an affair with James and Gary finds out about it, uncle Tómas receives a letter with a notice of eviction. It is indicated that Carlos’s affair is being used as an excuse to evict Tómas, and to rent his apartment out at a higher rate.
Before he gets the eviction notice, it is already hinted at by other characters that the neighborhood is changing. The filmmakers have used both the dialogue and imagery as a way to indicate what the people that live in Echo Park are dealing with. At one point Magdalena remarks that “[t]he whole neighborhood is the same. Everyone who moves in is, well, white.”74 This indicates that the area has seen a rise in the amount of Caucasian newcomers. We are also made aware of the social mobility in the area when a conversation take place between two women and Tómas in front of the house of someone called Maria Elena:
WOMAN: “Did you hear that Maria Elena is moving to Sylmar?” TOMÁS: “Is she moving?” WOMAN: “Yeah, did you see how much they’re asking for that house?” TOMÁS: “The neighborhood is sure changing, isn’t it? WOMAN: “So fast.”75 The women go on to discuss how Maria Elena’s old property is listed for a price that is considerably higher than what she paid. The real estate speculation forces its original inhabitants out, to make place for tenants who are willing to pay more. The challenge Tómas faces after the eviction, is finding new accommodation for him and his cousins. Since he is over eighty years old, Magdalena takes the task upon herself to find a new place to live, which proves to be a difficult one. Not only are the listed properties too expensive,
74 Quinceañera, Glatzer and Westmoreland, (2006). 75 Quinceañera, Glatzer and Westmoreland, (2006). 34
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
Magdalena also faces discrimination and prejudice in her efforts to find a house. When she knocks on several doors to inquire about the availability of apartments, she is told by the owners that it is either not going to work out or that the house has just been rented (Figure 3.3), both are excuses not to rent their house to Magdalena.
Figure 3.3 - Magdalena gets rejected by a landlady
Figure 3.4 - “Eliminate your Accent” sign on a telephone pole in Echo Park
There is a moment in the movie where see a sign that says “ACCENT ELIMINATION:
SPEAK AMERICAN STANDARD” (Figure 3.4). The sign is an advertisement that promotes a course in which you can learn to speak English without an accent. This indicates that it is seen as desirable thing to speak English without an accent, possibly for practical reasons like job opportunities. The advertisement symbolizes the changing circumstances in society in which there apparently is a necessity for immigrants to ‘become’ as American as possible. Westmoreland has stated that they spotted the sign when they were filming on the street, and
35 decided to include the sign in the movie because they thought that it “summed it [the gentrification] all up.”76
The advertisement can also be seen as something that ties back to the bicultural identity of the people living in the area. This is stressed by the filmmakers by using the technique of showing images that are closely connected to Mexican culture, such as a Mexican mariachi band, which are alternated with symbols of American culture to indicate that Mexican-Americans often live in both. Tradition goes hand in hand with modern features. For example, Magdalena will celebrate her quinceañera, a Mexican tradition, but she wants her parents to rent a Hummer limousine, an American symbol of modern culture, to transport her and her friends to the celebration. The characters in the movie show a clear love for their background, as they also celebrate other Mexican holidays such as Cinco the Mayo. In a scene where they celebrate Cinco de Mayo, Carlos exclaims: “¡Vive la raza!,” a phrase of Mexican pride.77 Historically, ‘Vive la raza’ (long live the people) is a statement originating from an essay written in 1925 by Mexican José Vasconcelos called La Raza Cósmica. According to sociologist and Chicano Movement expert Laura E. Gómez, the phrase became popular by activists in the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement of the 1970s, who used the phrase to “connote pride and ethnic solidarity among Mexican-Americans.”78 Mexican- Americans are often trying to find a balance in between the American and Mexican culture. As James Diego Vigil states in his book on the dynamics of Mexican-American culture, “[i]t appears that Chicanos/Mexicans are increasingly opting for a bilingual/cultural style and identity.”79 This stance often manifests itself in leading a double life/identity, in which they lead “a primary, private life,” where they “speak(ing) Spanish to their families and follow(ing) Mexican customs, and a second life “[d]uring work hours, at school, or in any place outside the primary area,” where “they would adopt an appropriate English-speaking, Anglo-acting posture.”80 An example of this in the movie is that Magdalena speaks Spanish to her parents, but English to her friends and younger family members.
At the end of the movie, Magdalena is able to find a new place to live, she reconciles with her family, and even Carlos is re-accepted by his parents. There are people that sympathize, and Quinceañera shows that in the end, it does not all have to be bad. To
76 "Ghostboy Interviews QUINCEANERA Directors Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer,” Lowery. 77 Quinceañera, Glatzer and Westmoreland, (2006). 78 Dennis Romero, "Why La Raza Is Not a Racist Term," L.A. Weekly, last accessed February 16, 2017, http://www.laweekly.com/news/dear-trump-fans-la-raza-is-not-a-racist-term-7003572. 79 Vigil, From Indians to Chicanos, 291. 80 Vigil, From Indians to Chicanos, 208. 36
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 conclude, the filmmakers present a challenge to existing images in the way that they show the multiple problems Mexican-Americans face. They have to deal with pressures in the community, such as negative attitudes towards female sexuality and homosexuality that come out of religious convictions or cultural views. There are also external pressures, such as the effects of gentrification, and the pressures of having to adapt to the modern society in order to survive. These pressures cause the bicultural identity people in Mexican-American societies often deal with. The movie attempts to shows us how they manage to move between these different worlds.
3.3 Strategy of Involvement
Neither Westmoreland and Glatzer are of Latin-American descent, and thus the film does not directly qualify as a ‘Chicano’ movie made by Chicanos. However, the inexperience of the directors on the subject has caused a high degree of involvement by the Latino cast and crew in the realization of the movie, as Westmoreland and Glatzer themselves were not particularly knowledgeable about the Spanish language or Mexican-American culture. They have stated in an interview that in order to get it right, they had to consult their neighbors and actors about everything.81 This resulted in what I call a ‘strategy of involvement.’ The use of this strategy in the creation of the movie is innovative in attempting to challenge conventions.
The cast and crew were involved in the film-making process in a number of ways. The directors decided to cast non-union actors, which means that for most actors, it was their first movie ever. They asked people with little acting experience, such as their own friends, to audition. While about 80 percent of the lines were scripted, room was left for the actors to provide their own interpretation in case they thought their character would say or do things differently. Glatzer and Westmoreland admitted their own inexperience and unfamiliarity with the subject and were willing to engage in a collaboration: “we didn't want to set ourselves as grand authorities on Latino culture, and so we really created a feedback loop with our actors on what they felt the characters would say.”82 In addition to the actors’ opportunities to alter the dialogue, in certain scenes the actors were given the freedom to improvise. For example in the scene where Magdalena and her friends sit outside their school building and talk about
81 "Ghostboy Interviews QUINCEANERA Directors Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer,” Lowery. 82 "Ghostboy Interviews QUINCEANERA Directors Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer,” Lowery. 37 boys and clothes. Instead of having a scripted conversation, the actors had a conversation with their own chosen topics. This resulted in a very ‘natural’ scene in which they actors talk as if they are talking to their own friends.
Props for the movie were borrowed from their cleaning lady Alicia’s niece, who had just celebrated her own quinceañera. The dresses, flowers, and the tiara were borrowed, and her friends were invited to be extras in the movie. In addition, the filmmakers mirrored the quinceañera home video they made for Magdalena’s cousin Eileen in the movie shot for shot from Alicia’s nieces quinceañera video.83 To keep the story in a local setting, Glatzer and Westmoreland filmed “across the street, next door and in [their] own house,” and people in the neighborhood would let them use their house for filming. Production designers Denise Hudson and Jonah Markowitz worked closely with neighbors to “get the film’s look.”84 A minimalistic approach was used for the sets, in which more things were removed than added. Westmoreland’s brother created the music for the movie, since there was nearly no music- budget.85
To further pursue a realistic image, they asked the actors to translate their lines into Spanish and to bring their own clothes from home to wear in the scenes.86 As the directors did not speak Spanish themselves, they trusted the actors to translate their lines into Spanish, as they would know best how their characters would express themselves. During the production process, consultations with the cast occurred on Westmoreland and Glatzer’s living room couch “for a rehearsal and fact-finding mission,” in the case a scene “lacked an air of authenticity.”87
From these examples one could conclude that the directors placed a large degree of trust in the cast to take care of matters beyond their expertise, and because of this the cast was able to exert some influence over how they were portrayed. The idea that active involvement can contribute to the gradual breakdown of stereotypes is supported by Latin-American Studies scholar Rosa Linda Fregoso, who says that “more Hispanics have become involved behind the camera” which enables them to “shape their own imagery.”88 While this strategy
83 Peter Bowen, "Birthday Girl," Filmmaker Magazine, last accessed November 13, 2016, https://filmmakermagazine.com/archives/issues/spring2006/features/birthday_girl.php#.V_YsruCLQhe . 84 Bowen, “Birthday Girl,” (2006). 85 Bowen, “Birthday Girl,” (2006). 86 Margy Rochlin, "Not Fat, Not Greek, Not a Wedding, but What a Party," The New York Times, last accessed November 14, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/23/movies/23roch.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2& . 87 Rochlin, “Not Fat, Not Greek, Not a Wedding,” (2006). 88 Rodriguez, Latin Looks, 117. 38
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 of involvement has some value to it, it also raises some issues. We do not know how far the influence of the cast and crew has reached, or to what extent the filmmakers listened to their advice. It is quite possible that certain ideas were overruled, or that the filmmakers had to dismiss or alter an idea simply because it did not work for the script or on screen.
The filmmakers may say that they needed collaborators to consult with, but this does not necessarily mean that they had a defining impact on the final result of the movie. For instance, 20 percent of the script may have been open to interpretation, but fact remains that 80 percent of the script was written by the filmmakers. Glatzer and Westmoreland call Quinceañera an independent film, and it is true they had no direct influence from the big Hollywood studios, but even independent films need funding. The $400.000 budget for the movie was funded by three investors – two Greeks and one Israeli – all of them first- generation Americans. According to Glatzer and Westmoreland, they were especially interested in “the family and immigrant aspects of the story.”89 However interested in the subject of the movie they may have been, the prime incentive for an investor is to create revenue. There are no indications the investors tried to interfere in the project, but Glatzer has admitted that they did try to rush the process: “[t]he producers were pushing us to start production: ‘We want to recoup our money as soon as possible. Shoot it!’ We had to tell them, ‘Just wait — we have to write it first.’”90
In an interview, lead actress Emily Rios was very positive about the filmmaking process:
I think they [Glatzer and Westmoreland] approached it with respect and were constantly looking to their cast and crew for suggestions on what wasn’t right and what was and everybody played their part in the film. I think the audience will just see the life that they’re living every day.91 Rios suggests that the audience of the film will comprise of people with a similar Mexican background. The cast however, was not made up of just Mexican-American people. For example, the filmmakers mention that some actors were from El Salvador, and another actor was from Chile.92 Even if the cast were able to influence the movie, it is of course still not guaranteed that this has created a realistic Chicano representation because of the variety of
89 Bowen, “Birthday Girl,” (2006). 90 Bowen, “Birthday Girl,” (2006). 91 Paul Fischer, “No Real Life "Quinceanera" for Newcomer Rios,” Film Monthly, last accessed May 10, 2017, http://www.filmmonthly.com/Profiles/Articles/EmilyRios/EmilyRios.html . 92 Bowen, “Birthday Girl,” (2006). 39 backgrounds. Another example of this is that Emily Rios and Jesse Garcia were both raised as Jehovah’s witnesses, so they would not actually know what it is like to grow up in a Catholic family. Glatzer and Westmoreland say that while they were unsure about whether the Latino community would accept the (gay) themes in the movie, the movie was sold out in cinemas in Latino neighborhoods in its opening weekend, and that they received positive reactions from a lot of people who told them that “they felt these issues needed to be aired.”93
It is true that the decision to give the cast and crew control of the actual content of the movie may not have been possible if it were a studio project with a large budget. Making an independent film has its perks, but also its disadvantages. The filmmakers have had a lot of artistic freedom, but because they created a film that covers many different aspects, it took them a while to find a distributor who would buy the movie. This could have gone at the expense of the amount of people that watch the movie. It is not the aim to completely disregard the intentions of the filmmakers, who without a doubt tried to do their best to tell this story, but the question remains whether the collaboration was more of a need because of financial reasons, or a goal to have a realistic representation. Consulting people and asking them to provide items or locations to film at seems inevitable when filming is done on a small budget. In other words, it is the question if this strategy of involvement was made possible by the independent character of the film, or whether it was because of the independence that a collaboration was necessary. When well executed, a strategy of involvement to achieve a real cultural presentation can be effective. For now, the degree of involvement in Quinceañera should be viewed as a step in the right direction.
93 "Ghostboy Interviews QUINCEANERA Directors Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer,” Lowery 40
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
Chapter 4 – One Story: Back to the Roots
Figure 4.1 - 2013 Movie Poster for One Story. Image courtesy of Clint Hernandez on Pinterest
41
After analyzing a semi-independent movie with investors, we will now look at an example of an independent movie that was self-funded. While the characters in Quinceañera experience a possible necessity to adapt to American culture, One Story shows the opposite by conveying a message of “restoration of pride” through the embracement of the rich cultural Mexican heritage by people of Mexican descent living in the U.S.94 This chapter will cover One Story (2013), which was written and directed by Clint Nitkiewicz Hernández, with a budget of $10.000. The storyline revolves around Angie Navarro and her brother Josh, two third- generation Mexican teenagers who grew up in Laguna Beach, California. After their parents have died in a car accident, they are forced to go live with their Mexican grandparents in the neighborhood of Little Tijuana in Los Angeles. At first the two teenagers feel estranged in the Mexican-dominated household of their ‘abuelo’ and ‘abuela’ (grandfather and grandmother), who speak Spanish, and who hold on to the traditions of their native culture. As Angie begins to discuss heritage and identity with a new friend, she develops a desire to reconnect with her roots. She starts to have vivid dreams and flash-backs about tribal dancers wearing native clothing, and Aztecs who perform rituals. These visions gradually make her get back in touch with the history of her people. By the end of the movie, Angie’s reconnection with her heritage is complete, as she embraces her Mexican ancestry by studying the Aztec language of Nahuatl, and by showing affection for her family and culture. Throughout the movie, magical realism and Aztec mythology are used to put Angie in direct contact with the culture of her ancestors, of which she knows very little. Magical realism is a device that is used to add magical or supernatural elements into a normal situation. Through this “seamless merging of fantastic events and everyday experience,” characters can be transported to extraordinary places.95 Visions of mythical Aztec figures and distant lands carry Angie back to the birthplace of Mexican culture. While the native Americans that lived in the Valley of Mexico in the twelfth century are commonly known as Aztecs, the more correct term to refer to the indigenous people that lived in the Valley is ‘Mexica’ (pronunciation: Me-Shi-Ka). The origins of Mexico and Mexico city can be found in Nahuatl, the native language of the ‘Mexicas’, in which Mexico means ‘place of the Mexica.’ Besides native imagery, contemporary art and music also play a significant role. For example, Chicano reggae music and a series of murals in Los Angeles that depict important
94 Mirandé and Enríquez, La Chicana, 11. 95 David J. Leonard and Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo, Latino History and Culture : An Encyclopedia, (Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2015), 397. 42
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 historical events also have a prominent place on screen. They bear a political message that tells people they should remember their history. In this chapter I will analyze the central issue the main character of the movie deals with, which is the struggle with her cultural identity. Secondly, I will describe how both magical realism and politically engaged music and art are used as an instrument to attempt to restore the connection to cultural heritage and family. Finally, I will discuss whether the goals of the director and the message of the film match up successfully, how the independence of the film influences its authenticity or realism, and the effectiveness of independent film.
4.1 Cultural Identity
On the matter of the integration of Mexican-Americans there is a contrast between Quinceañera and One Story. In Quinceañera, certain elements point towards the assimilation of Mexican-Americans to American culture, such as the sign that advertises the elimination of accents and the neighborhood of Echo Park that is being subject to gentrification. In contrast, One Story shows the celebration of Mexican traditions, a strong connection to Mexican culture, and the main characters living in a very lively Chicano neighborhood. One Story attempts to convey a common desire to remain or become more Mexican instead of an imminent necessity to adapt to American culture. The central issue of One Story is signified early on in the movie, when we see the journey Angie and Josh make when they are taken from their parental home to their grandparents’ house in Los Angeles. The scenery changes from sunny beaches and tall buildings to a colorful neighborhood with bungalows, Mexican flags and a mural depicting La Virgen. This entry into a different world is emphasized by the sounds of Mexican guitar music. In the car, Josh, who is visibly shocked at the sight of the area, says: “I think granny is taking a shortcut through the hood.”96 When they pull into the driveway where a welcome party is being held for them, he asks “Who are all these Mexicans?”97 Various Mexican party attributes such as cheerful trumpet music, tacos, Mexican relatives and a sign that says ‘Bienvenidos a Angie y Josh!’ (Welcome Angie and Josh!) mark Angie and Josh’s arrival into
96 One Story, directed by Clint Nitkiewicz Hernandez, (2013. U.S.: New Element Productions, 2013), Online Stream, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYUI6Ndt8xg&feature=youtu.be . 97 One Story, Nitkiewicz Hernandez, (2013). 43 a world that is completely unknown to them. The feelings of wonder and shock as expressed by them show what lies at the heart of the movie; Angie and Josh do not feel like they are Mexican. They have experienced very little of the cultural background of their parents and grandparents, as they were raised in a different city and had almost no contact with relatives. To demonstrate Angie’s mindset on this matter, we need to explore a particular scene in which Angie has a conversation with Jacob, a teenager who lives next door to her grandparents, in more detail. The conversation is an important one, as it clearly lays bare how two third-generation Americans with American-born parents and Mexican-born grandparents have different perspectives on nationality, identity and belonging. What follows is the conversation between Angie and Jacob:
ANGIE: “My abuelita (affectionate name for grandmother) is the best isn’t she. She is a Mexican, I always forget that I am not.” JACOB: “You don’t consider yourself to be Mexican?” ANGIE: “No, I was born in the United States, not Mexico. And my parents, they were born in the United States, so I’m an American duhh.” JACOB: “Well I consider myself Mexican.” ANGIE: “Well, where were your parents born?” JACOB: “In the US also.” ANGIE: “Were you born in the US?” JACOB: “Yeah” ANGIE: “So if you are born in the US and your parents were also born in the US then how are you a Mexican? JACOB: “I’m Chicano, and you’re Chicana. Even though we were born here, you know what I’m saying? Our history runs deep. Really deep.”98
What we learn from this dialogue, is that even though Angie and Jacob are of similar descent, their upbringing has had a large impact on their outlook on nationality, identity and their sense of belonging. Angie is confused as to why Jacob considers himself Mexican, even though he was born and raised in the United States. Jacob’s reply shows the mentality of someone who has been in close contact with his ancestry. His view shows that nationality in terms of place of birth or place of residence is an inherently different construction than the nationality of one’s ‘being,’ or cultural identity. Cultural theorist and sociologist Stuart Hall describes cultural identity as “one shared culture (…) which people with a shared history and
98 One Story, Nitkiewicz Hernandez, (2013). 44
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 ancestry hold in common.”99 Jacob was raised in an active Chicano neighborhood surrounded by people of the same descent, and thus this is the culture he identifies with. Angie lacks this close connection to Chicano culture, as she has not experienced this in the way that Jacob has. Nevertheless, Jacob claims they are both Chicano/a. He presents ‘being Chicano’ as something that is inescapable, as an identity that runs through their veins so to speak. Hall says that “our cultural identities reflect the common historical experiences and shared cultural codes which provide us, as 'one people', with stable, unchanging and continuous frames of reference and meaning.”100 Jacob’s statement “[o]ur history runs deep” refers to this concept of a communal framework, as he believes that this set of shared beliefs and common history should spark a diasporic sense of belonging in Angie. The difference between Angie and Jacob’s views helps to explain why Angie and Josh see their estranged relatives as the Other, as Mexicans are a people they do not identify with. Now that the central problem in the movie is defined, I will expand upon the possible solution the movie offers for Angie’s lack of affinity with her background. In one particular scene, grandfather and grandmother discuss their fear that Angie and Josh will become just like their late mother, with whom they had a strained relationship. She turned her back on them and their culture at a young age, and broke off relations with her family. Josh and Angie’s grandparents express their fear that Angie and Josh will forget where they came from, and that their inability to speak Spanish contributes to this estrangement. They stress the importance of growing up with the culture of your people and speaking their language. Thus, their suggested solution to the problem of alienation, or the search for ‘home’, is to reconnect with this culture. After her move to Little Tijuana, Angie’s friends no longer want to be associated with her now that she lives in a ‘bad’ neighborhood. This event adds to her feelings of isolation and uncertainty about where she belongs. However, she has found a new friend in Jacob, whose ideas inspire her to delve into her background. Her initial reluctance to learn about the history of the Mexican people, and her struggle to connect is replaced with a genuine interest in her ancestry and more time spent with her family.
99 Stuart Hall, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora,” in Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, ed. Jonathan Rutherford (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1990), 223. 100 Hall, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora,” 223. 45
4.2 Methods and Means: Music, Art, History, and Mythology
The way Angie is brought into touch with her roots in the movie is by making her familiar with Mexican history through dreams, visual elements such as photographs and murals, and music. In the dreams, magical realism is used as a tool to make Angie relive the history of her forefathers. Spiritualism, mythology, ancient history and old traditions all play a large role in raising her awareness. One Story does not only try to fulfill the goal of teaching Angie the history of her people, but the viewers of the film also learn it with her. One Story literally tells us the story (the ‘One Story’) of the Mexican people. Thus, the movie also has somewhat of an educational role, as it makes the viewer aware of important events in Mexican-American history, while at the same time it conveys a political message. I will first consider the impact of Angie’s relationship with Jacob and the elements in the movie that reinforce his point of view. Their interaction is the first contributing factor to the change in her way of thinking. Right after their conversation about their different views on their links to a Mexican identity, the two are seen taking a walk around Los Angeles. As they walk, a song by L.A. Chicano reggae band Quinto Sol starts to play. The song is called Mexica, and the following lyrics are heard in the scene:
Mexica Tiahui (Mexica forward) Chicano Reggae, Straight From The Barrio Roots-Style, Moving Up, With Our Roots And Our Culture, We’re Not Going To Be Systematically Abused No More, No More Mexica Tiahui, We’ll Never Forget Who We Come From We Will Never Forget, Who We Are We Will Never Forget, Our Ways We Need To Be.101
The references to roots and resisting abuse underscore the song’s nationalistic and diasporic message of Chicano agency. In traditional reggae, the woes and hardships of the Jamaican people that belong to the Rastafari movement are sung. In Chicano reggae, similar struggles are described of the Chicano people and their history of oppression. Luiz Alvarez,
101 Quinto Sol, Mexica Tiahui, in One Story, Hernandez Nitkiewicz, (2013). 46
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 professor of History at UCLA, describes how Quinto Sol and other Chicano reggae bands have found their inspiration in reggae music:
Driven by reggae’s universal appeal and messages of peace, social injustice, and resistance, these Chicana/o musicians interweave their music and political activism to claim dignity in the face of the dehumanizing effects of the anti-immigrant ethos, militarization of the border, poverty, and criminalization that shape the lives of many Chicanas/os and Mexican immigrants in the U.S. Southwest.102
Their music is thus a way for Chicano artists to express agency, or as Alvarez says, to ‘claim dignity’ over the dehumanizing negativity that surrounds Mexican-Americans, such as racism and criminalization. The emphasis on the joint Mexican background works as a way to strengthen the bond among Chicanos. The remembrance of a troubled past and the praise of their people unites them. Quinto Sol formed in the early 1990s, “as part of East L.A.’s Chicano activist and underground music scene.”103 The band is politically engaged, and they clearly advocate an active Chicano movement by proclaiming bold statements such as “Abused No More,” and by the inclusion of delicate topics such as immigration and politics in their songs. In the lyrics of “Mexica” specifically, we find a strong historical sense in the claim of being descents of the indigenous Mexica people. The name of the band, “Quinto Sol”, refers to this historical connection, as it translates as ‘the fifth sun’. According to the Aztec mythology of destruction and creation there have previously been four suns. The destruction of a sun caused a new sun and a new time period to emerge, each with a new world and humanity. The time period of the fifth sun, is the one that we currently live in.104 Quinto Sol also uses the Mexica native language of Nahuatl in certain songs.105 The song plays at the same time when Angie and Jacob walk along the Great Wall of Los Angeles (official name: The History of California) in San Fernando Valley, a community art project that was started by Chicana artist, activist, and artistic director of SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center) Judith Baca in 1974. Under her supervision, eighty different artists along with local youths from diverse backgrounds created sections of the wall. The murals were a collaboration of gigantic proportions, in which “oral historians, ethnologists,
102 Luis Alvarez, “Reggae on the Border: The Possibilities of a Frontera Soundscape,” in: Transnational Encounters: Music and Performance at the U.S.-Mexico Border, ed. By Alejandro L. Madrid, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 24. https://books.google.nl/books?id=GR5wAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA17&hl=nl&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage &q&f=false. 103 Alvarez, “Reggae on the Border,” 24. 104 Alvarez, “Reggae on the Border,” 24. 105 Alvarez, “Reggae on the Border,” 27. 47 scholars, and hundreds of community members” worked together.106 The project is 840 meters wide and four meters high and it displays the history of California up to the 1950s, with historical scenes that show the history of oppression and social struggle through the eyes of women and minorities, and includes revolutions, Aztec history, and images of civil rights leaders.107 Baca was inspired by Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera, and the efforts of activists like leader of the Migrant Workers Union César Chávez in the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s.108 This inspiration led to the specific style of the murals, with a combined use of “mythic Mexican symbols to evoke cultural pride” and “bold colors and strong images.”109
Figure 4.2 – A mural depicting the Mexican Repatriation Besides a long, zoomed-out camera-shot along the murals, there are also a few specific murals that are shown close-up in a slow camera-shot.110 The first mural that is shown displays the Mexican Repatriation of the 1930’s, a period of mass deportation in which over half a million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans were deported to Mexico during the Great Depression. These measures were taken in order to protect economic security for Americans
106 Judith F. Baca, “The Great Wall Explained,” Social and Public Art Resource Center – SPARC, last accessed April 6, 2017, http://sparcinla.org/programs/the-great-wall-mural-los-angeles/ . 107 Joyce Gregory Wyells, “Great Walls, Vibrant Voices,”Americas 52, no.1 (Jan. 2000), 22. 108 Wyells, “Great Walls, Vibrant Voices,” 22. 109 Wyells, “Great Walls, Vibrant Voices,” 22. 110 The following images are not taken directly from the movie, as the quality of screenshots does not do the images justice. Therefore, I have resorted to the use of used photographs of the specific murals found elsewhere. 48
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 by diminishing competition. In the movie, the camera first zooms in on the first word of the description beneath the mural, and then follows along the line from left to right, as if a sentence is being read (Figure 4.2). This technique puts extra emphasis on the depicted event, as it grabs the attention of the viewer, who has no other option than to read along. Then, the camera moves to the mural itself, giving a visual to the description we have just seen. A fat, angry-looking American man gestures a Mexican man and woman to stand in line to board the train. He has money and his pocket and he is smoking a cigar, which are both features of wealth. The man and woman wear luggage tags around their necks, which could indicate that they are seen as objects. A packed train has just left the station.
Figure 4.3 – A mural depicting Indian assimilation Subsequently, the camera moves to a mural that depicts an act of forced Indian assimilation (Figure 4.3). Here again, the technique of filming the description from left to right before showing the mural is used. On the left, we see a Native American with braids and native clothing walking with his head down; he looks defeated. In the middle, two men wearing uniforms, possibly policemen or border patrol, cut off his braids and forcefully take off his clothing. On the right, the man, now wearing jeans and short hair, walks towards a boarding school. Guisela Latorre, professor of contemporary Chicana/o, and Latin American art at Ohio State, writes in her book on Chicano murals that this particular mural depicts “the ‘Americanization’ and displacement from ancestral lands of Native American communities in
49 the United States.”111 The government’s objective was to accelerate the process of assimilation and integration of Native Americans to American culture by removing Indians from their lands and by stripping them of their identity. These attempts of acculturation have taken place throughout history, but this scene depicts a scene from the 1860s. In that decade, the U.S Bureau of Indian Affairs created boarding schools for Indian children with the intention of civilizing them by using “education as a tool” to make it easier for them to “assimilate into the mainstream of the ‘American way of life.’“112
Figure 4.4 – A mural depicting the Mexican-American War
A third mural shows the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) (Figure 4.4). On the SPARC website it says that this mural depicts “[t]he battle between the Mexican army and the U.S. cavalry for the control of California.”113 In the movie, only the left side of the mural is shown. Two Mexican soldiers fire their guns, and two farmers raise their fists in the air. The one in the back holds a banner with the nationalistic phrase ‘Viva Mexico.’ Baca’s method of “charting a common history of dispossession and displacement” between marginalized groups has led to a unique perspective of historical events.114 The
111 Guisela Latorre, Walls of Empowerment: Chicano/a Indigenist Murals of California, (Austin: University of Texas Press 2008), 193. 112 “History and Culture, Boarding Schools, ” American Indian Relief Council, last accessed April 6, 2017, http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=airc_hist_boardingschools . 113 Baca, Judith F., “The Great Wall – History and Description.” Social and Public Art Resource Center – SPARC, last accessed April 6, 2017, http://sparcinla.org/the-great-wall-part-2/. 114 Latorre, Walls of Empowerment, 194. 50
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 murals can be seen as an overview of what multiple minorities with a shared colonial experience have endured and overcome. Besides creating a connection between people of various backgrounds, the mural has several other functions. Joyce Gregory Wyells, journalist contributing writer for Américas, writes in an article on the murals that this “outdoor art” serves as “a vehicle for communication and education,” as the project involved the efforts of the community.115 Community art projects like the L.A. murals thus have an educational function, as they lead to a heightened awareness of historical events. Finally, anthropologist and criminologist James Diego Vigil underlines the empowering element of showing the past: “[t]he murals draw especially from historical inspirations such as the Mexican Revolution and the Indian legacies, thus reminding viewers of the rich past and revolutionary potential of the Chicano people.”116 The murals are filmed through the wire fence where Angie and Josh are previously seen walking, which implies that they are looking at the murals as they walk by them. The prior conversation on identity is thus followed by a scene that puts Angie in direct contact with the culture and history that she does not feel linked to. Therefore, the song and the art serve as a direct illustration to Jacob’s notion that “[o]ur history runs deep.” The second contributing factor to the change in Angie’s way of thinking is how she is brought into contact with the history of her people through dreams and flashbacks. Along with Jacob’s impact, we can say that together they cause a turning point away from Angie’s initial reluctance to associate with Mexican culture and her limited view of nationality and identity.
Figure 4.5 - The beach in Angie’s dream
115 Wyells, “Great Walls,” 22. 116 Vigil, From Indians to Chicanos, 253. 51
Figure 4.6 - The personification of the Aztec ruler Cuauhtémoc
Figure 4.7 - Tribal woman with a native headdress
After smoking marijuana in the park with Jacob, she goes to bed and starts having a vivid dream. In a hallucinogenic dream-like state, she awakes in her dream, lying underneath a waterfall on a tropical beach (Figure 4.5). She hears rhythmic tribal music, performed on drums by Aztec warriors that dance on the beach. The dancers seem to be performing a ritualistic dance. One of the warriors is the embodiment of the historical figure Cuauhtémoc, whose name means “descended like an eagle.”117 He was the last ruler of the Mexica city state, and capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan in the period 1520-1521.118 Corresponding
117 “Cuauhtémoc,” New World Encyclopedia, last accessed April 10, 2017, http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Cuauht%C3%A9moc. 118 Clint Nitkiewicz Hernandez, “Cuauhtemoc: Chicano / Mexica / Aztec Related Art for the movie One Story,” Pinterest, https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/534380312005435070/. 52
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 to the meaning of his name, the headgear the warrior is wearing resembles the beak and head of an eagle, surrounded by numerous feathers (Figure 4.6). Cuauhtémoc is an important national figure in Mexico, where he is seen the “embodiment of indigenist nationalism in Mexico.” 119 Cuauhtémoc was the only Aztec leader that stood up to and survived the conquest of the Spanish Empire led by Hernán Cortés. The presence of Cuauhtémoc thus seems to be a deliberate choice, as he is a significant symbol of nationalism and resistance. A second warrior is a young woman wearing a crown-like headpiece with feathers, who looks like an Aztec princess (Figure 4.7). She dances to the drum-music in a trance-like state, and holds a foreign wooden object. Through the use of magical realism, Angie is able to witnesses the ritual dance on the beach with her own eyes, as if she had gone back in time. She has transcended from the ‘normal’ world, or present day, into a world where anything can happen and anything can be seen, heard or done. This allows her to relive a part of the history of her people, which subsequently inspires her to learn more about that history.
Figure 4.8 - The temple of Tenochtitlan
119 Paul Gillingham, Cuauhtémoc's Bones: Forging National Identity in Modern Mexico, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press 2011), 11. 53
Figure 4.9 - Mexicas performing a ritual
Figure 4.10 - Nahuatl dictionary Minutes later, another fusion of reality and fantasy takes place. When grandfather and grandmother look at an old photo-album of their holiday in Mexico, the scene fades out into a mystical flashback in time. We see an Aztec city with a temple (Figure 4.8), and then a ritual performed by Mexica people (Figure 4.9). One person is blowing on a seashell, and another is writing down symbols on paper. The urban settlement we see in Figure 4.8 is Tenochtitlan, the city of which Cuauhtémoc was the ruler.120 Right after this flashback, we see grandfather and Angie looking at the photo-album. They come across a photo of a woman dressed as an Aztec princess, who turns out to be her grandmother. They have the following conversation:
ANGIE: “Hey abuelo, I know ‘princesa’ means princess, but what does Mexica mean? ABUELO: “A Mexica is the true native from the Valle de Mexico”
120 Clint Nitkiewicz Hernandez, “Tenochtitlan: Chicano / Mexica / Aztec Related Art for the movie One Story,” Pinterest, https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/534380312005435062/ . 54
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
ANGIE: “Mexicas? I thought they were just called Aztecs.” ABUELO: “No mija121, you watch too many movies. You’d better read more.”
On the table lies a wooden box. They open the box and we hear pan-flute music. The box contains a wooden pagan figurine and a scroll with symbols, which appears to be the same scroll we saw in the fade-out scene of Tenochtitlan.
ANGIE: “What are all of these pictures?” ABUELO: “These are not pictures, this is a poem. And I will read it to you.”
(Abuelo then reads her the poem in Nahuatl.)
ANGIE: “Abuelo I can’t believe you can read all of these pictures.” ABUELO: “These are not pictures. This is Nahuatl, the true language of the Mexicas.” ANGIE: “Abuelo you have to tell me what it says.” ABUELO: ´I cannot translate it for you. You have to learn it.”122
Subsequently, there is a scene where Angie is reading a Nahuatl dictionary. The page she is looking at, contains feminine words, such as ‘queen,’ ‘heroine,’ and ‘daughter’ (Figure 4.10). That Angie is learning Nahuatl can be seen as an act of getting back in touch with the roots that she rejected at first. The result of both the insights in history, and her journey in the spiritual world, have visibly caused Angie to get back in touch with her Mexican roots. Her renewed awareness of cultural heritage has caused the relationship with her family to grow tighter, and Angie has embraced her culture. This is also emphasized by a scene at the end of the movie. We see a similar party in her grandparent’s backyard to the scene at the beginning of the film when Josh and Angie are welcomed to their new home, while we hear the same trumpet music. At their welcome party, Angie and Josh were not even present, as they chose to remain in their room. At the party at the end of the movie however, Angie is more present than ever, visibly having a good time and engaging with the other guests. The occasion for the party is not given, but it can be seen as a symbolic welcome party for Angie, now that she has truly arrived in the family. Josh, who has not undergone the same change as Angie, is reluctant to participate and stays in his room. It is unknown why only Angie undergoes a change. An explanation could be that the
121 “Mija” derives from “mi hija,” which means my daughter. It is often used as slang to refer to a loved one. 122 One Story, Nitkiewicz Hernandez, (2013).
55 focus lies on Angie as she is in a similar predicament as her own mother was, in having to make a choice between accepting or rejecting her culture. Another possibility is that only Angie is in contact with Jacob, and she has a closer connection to their grandfather.
4.3 The Filmmaker’s Objectives and the Uses of Independent Film
One Story is a movie with a clear and positive message, in which the main character ultimately accepts her culture. It is possible to get a clear idea of the filmmakers’ goal, as Nitkiewicz Hernandez tried to get his message out on a variety of platforms, including YouTube and Facebook. As One Story is an independent film that was made on a small budget, filmmaker Clint Hernandez used a variety of crowdfunding websites, such as Kickstarter, in order to raise money for the production of the movie. The statements on the Kickstarter website about the goal and purpose of the movie illustrate the filmmaker’s intentions:
This film's intent is for art, and for getting people in society to think. This is an indie film and it's main purpose is not profit! However funding is needed to get the final film completed and out into the public. One Story is the first film of it's kind, it breaks all Hollywood stereotypes of Latinos, Mexicans, and Indigenous people. It's universal theme makes one think about where we come from, and why we are so dwelled on the false idea that money is the only cure. It is a comedic drama with many twists and excitement. Learn how the barrio really is, not how Hollywood wants you to believe. The truth is always more interesting, entertaining, and self rewarding as an audience.123
Foremost, he stresses that the movie was not made with the intention of making money. His main objectives were creating art, and raising awareness. He also specifically mentions that another one of his aims is to break down stereotypes. In a speech he gave at the premiere of One Story, Nitkiewicz Hernandez expressed that giving a more realistic and positive portrayal of Mexicans in order to “promote the Mexican culture in a positive light” was the prime motivation for creating the movie.124 Furthermore, Nitkiewicz Hernandez lists
123 Clint Nitkiewicz Hernandez, “One Story Feature Film,” Kickstarter, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1768922966/one-story-feature-film. 124 Pocho Sanchez, “One Story-the Movie - Opening Screening in Hollywood Ca-(Pocho1 Tv 2013),” Filmed [2013], YouTube video, Duration 03:24, Posted [March 2013], https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpsUGd_w5Vw&feature=youtu.be.
56
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 a fourth goal, which is to encourage cultural pride. He feels that One Story identifies “a global issue in society, in which many Mexicans, and Latinos are only proud of their European roots and many times ashamed of their Native ancestry.”125 He wanted to bring this trend of rejecting the native background under attention, and felt it was needed to “express the true elegance and beauty of the modern day Indigenous and Mexican culture.”126 Lastly, on crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo, Hernandéz emphasizes the sense of cultural pride that he wants to convey by saying “we must showcase the power of our cultural heritage to the rest of the world!”127 This pride is not just limited to Mexicans or Mexican-Americans, but it “can apply to any cultures out there,” which means that he thinks the film is suitable to all kinds of people.128 Nitkiewicz Hernandez was able to exercise full creative control over the contents and cinematography of the film, as he was not held accountable by a production company. He gathered his own resources, wrote the screenplay, did the special effects work himself, and used his own production company to produce the movie; a process that has taken several years to complete.129 The positive side of being an independent filmmaker, is that it was possible for him to apply his views to the movie in the ways that he chose. However, not being affiliated with a big studio has its consequences. Besides providing funding and resources, production companies have the task of making sure the project does not fail. This means that besides concerning themselves with the contents of the movie, they also make sure that the movie plays in as many theatres as possible, and they take care of the promotion of the movie and DVD sales; all in order to make sure the movie makes the biggest profit possible. Nitkiewicz Hernandez had to take care of these things himself. His main objective may not have been to turn a profit, but this is goes at the expense of the distribution and promotion of the film, as this often goes hand in hand with the amount of people that watch a movie. The availability of One Story is very limited. Physical copies on DVD are not available, and the only way to obtain a copy of the movie is by buying an online stream on the
125 Clint Nitkiewicz Hernandez, “Profile,” Kickstarter, https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/1768922966/about. 126 Nitkiewicz Hernandez, “Profile.” 127 Clint Nitkiewicz Hernandez, “One Story the Movie, Una Historia la Pelicula,” INDIEGOGO, https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/one-story-the-movie-una-historia-la-pelicula#/ . 128 Nitkiewicz Hernandez, “One Story the Movie, Una Historia la Pelicula.” 129 According to IMDB, the movie was released on March 21, 2013, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1427924/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 . There is a message on the Kickstarter page for the movie that dates from August 8, 2011, which says that the movie is 75% complete. 57 official One Story Facebook page.130 There are no figures available for the amount of cinemas the movie played at, the amount of people that went to see it, or the amount of sales of the online stream. Besides winning the Silver Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival mid-production in 2011, there are no reviews or references findable, with the exception of a mention of the synopsis in a 2009 movie encyclopedia-book when the movie- project was still in its infancy.131 We can deduct from the very limited availability of information on the film, and its limited accessibility, that there is a strong possibility that few people have actually seen it. An interested viewer needs to be familiar with the existence of the movie, and then needs to put a lot of effort in the search for a copy to watch. This raises the question whether a film is still effective and valuable when it is difficult to obtain and when people are unaware of its existence; how positive or real the message of the movie may be. Naturally, the movie may be used for academic purposes, in this very thesis for example, but this detracts from the initial purpose of the movie to influence a large audience. Benshoff and Griffin write that the limited access to independent film can be attributed to the way Hollywood films are dominant:
Hollywood films so dominate American theatres (and video-store shelves and cable programming schedules) that US citizens have relatively little access to other types of films – films often made by minority filmmakers that tell stories and express viewpoints and that are ignored or underexplored in Hollywood movies.132
Independent movies often show a different perspective than Hollywood films, which gives them value, but they are frequently unable to compete against blockbusters that take up most of the screen-time in theatres. A possible solution to the problem of availability may be to engage in a collaboration with a bigger company, but in reality this is not an easy option for independent filmmakers. Patricia Kim, Chicano Studies and Media scholar, writes: “Minority filmmakers today are largely unable to obtain funding and support from the industry unless they can prove that their project will “sell” to their community and, hopefully, cross-over into the U.S. mainstream.”133 Because money is the main incentive for the big companies, and independent filmmakers do not often have the objective of making money, they do not easily qualify for a collaboration.
130 Clint Nitkiewicz Hernandez, “One Story Movie,” Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/onestorymovie/ . 131 Scott. L Baugh, Latino American Cinema: An Encyclopedia of Movies, Stars, Concepts, and Trends, (ABC- CLIO, 2012), 199. 132 Benshoff and Griffin, America on Film, 24. 133 Patricia Kim-Rajal, review of Shot in America: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema, by Chon A. Noriega, Dispositio 24, No. 51 (2000), 206. 58
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
Apparently, this leaves independent filmmakers in a catch-22 situation where a choice has to be made between full control over the message of a movie and a limited release, or recognition and a widespread release, but the need to give up full autonomy. Nitkiewicz Hernandéz has clearly embraced the disadvantages of independent film and chose the first option.
59
Conclusion
In this conclusion I will answer the research question “in what ways are filmmakers challenging conventional images of Chicanas in movies that are made after 2000.” While all three movies have an overarching theme that deals with the struggle of living two different lives, or finding a balance amidst two different cultural worlds, the way each movies deals with this is different in execution because each filmmaker uses his or her own methods. All three movies feature teenagers that come of age and that are looking for an identity. They have to make life-changing choices, and they rebel against their parents and the social norm. In their children’s eyes, parents often have an outdated outlook on what they expect from them. Though rebelling against parents is a phase that most teenagers go through, the fact that rebelling against society and finding an identity is a theme in all three movies indicates that children of immigrant parents deal with this to a large extent. As the children of immigrants are raised in, and influenced by modern American society, it is often a source of conflict between them and their parents. Real Women Have Curves shows a teenage girl that wishes to break free from the culture she was raised in, and the traditional expectations her mother wants her to meet. She experiences the bonds of her family as constricting, and she wishes to make a better life for herself by following her dream of attending university. To pursue this dream of upward mobility, she needs to leave home and break with traditions. The movie features a strong main character, who does not let her mother shame her into leading a life her mother wants her to live. She makes her own choices about her future, and her body. There is a clear message of body-positivity, female autonomy, and sexual liberation. The way she moves in between two different cultures is emphasized by the cinematography, which visually shows how she travels from one to the other.
In Quinceañera, the main character experiences a similar restrictive culture when her religious parents do not accept her pregnancy. The movie points out how Catholicism can be a strong influence in the conservative views of immigrant parents, as they put their religious beliefs before the needs of their daughter. It also shows characters who are deeply religious, but who experience religion in an entirely different way. While conservative views are still prevalent amongst first-generation immigrants, the movie shows that younger generations have very different norms and values. The characters in the movie are shown to be still in
60
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 touch with their Mexican background when they celebrate holidays like quinceañera and Cinco de Mayo, but they do not let traditional notions, such as the idea that their actions represent their family, dictate their lives. They care less about how people perceive them and they wish to be seen as individuals, which is influenced by their upbringing in America. The movie also shows how developments in society like gentrification have an impact on the people that live in such a neighborhood, and it hints at the need for people to assimilate.
The other side of the spectrum is shown in One Story. The main character undergoes a change after her parents have died, and she goes to live with her Mexican grandparents. She starts to learn about the rich culture of her ancestors, and interacts with people that identify themselves as Chicanos and who believe that one cannot escape his or her background. They make her realize that Mexican cultural history is part of her history too, and she comes to embrace the culture instead of dismissing it. The movie uses music and art to emphasize the message of acceptance and cultural pride, and it employs the use of magical realism to inspire the main character in her spiritual journey.
The analysis of these three movies shows that the maker of the most independent film out of the three, One Story, has had the most autonomy over the contents of his movie. Director Nitkiewicz Hernandez has a pronounced opinion about Chicano pride, and he wishes to raise awareness and spread this message of cultural pride. The more independent a film is, the higher the possible degree of involvement by cast and crew, and the lesser any influence by a Hollywood studio is. One could argue that Hernandez has presented the most realistic image of the Chicano experience in his movie. In my view, the hypothesis that the filmmakers with a high degree of autonomy are able to create the most realistic image corresponds with the results of the research. This is however, not a very surprising conclusion, as it is obvious that a filmmaker who is not dependent on a studio has the ability to exercise full creative control, and to use any idea or message he wants in his or her movie. It is no surprise as the name of the type of movie itself – independent – already indicates independency, and therefore control over the material. Nitkiewicz Hernandez was able to put a message of activism in One Story, and that is why the movie turned out as an advocate for maintaining cultural traditions and a non-assimilationist attitude. However, autonomy is not a measurable good, and it is not possible to check how much influence external parties have had in the filmmaking process. Autonomy is also not a measure for a realistic portrayal, or a perfect indicator for accuracy.
61
Real Women Have Curves is the only movie that is affiliated with a big company (HBO Film), and the budget of the film makes it the biggest film out of the three. It is likely that HBO Film has had significant influence in the creation of the film, but there is a chance that the movie turned out exactly the way director Cardoso wanted it to, even with the possible interference of a studio. In the words of the filmmakers of Quinceañera, they relied upon the help of the Latino cast and crew in order to create a realistic image, so there was a degree of active involvement by the community, but they were still dependent on investors and thus the main goal of the movie was to turn a profit. Less interference from a movie studio is beneficial to the character of a film, in the way that there is more room for activism and an ideological message. One Story director Nitkiewicz Hernandez has expressed explicitly that his foremost goal for creating the movie was not financial gain, but to get a message out.
There is however also a big downside to making small-scale independent films. Independence, and not having making a profit as a goal go at the cost of how far-reaching the influence of a movie is, because less people will be able to view it. When we compare the three movies on budget, gross, and number of theatres the movie has shown in Table 1, we see that there are no available numbers for One Story:
Movie Budget Domestic and Shown in Foreign gross Amount of Theatres Real Women Have $3.000.000 $7,777,790 163 Curves Quinceañera $300.000 $2,522,787 96 One Story $10.000 - - Table 1 : Budget, gross, and amount of theatres it was shown in per movie, numbers are gathered from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) and Box Office Mojo (BoxOfficeMojo.com)
Real Women have Curves is the movie with the biggest budget and gross, and it is also the movie that was shown in the most theatres. The budget for Quinceañera was 13% of the budget for Real Women Have Curves, and One Story had just 2,5% of the budget that Quinceañera had (and 0,33%, not even 1% of Real Women Have Curves’s budget). Relatively speaking, Quinceañera has had the biggest gross in comparison to its budget, and it was shown in ninety-six theatres. The numbers for One Story are not registered, but it is very likely that the movie has screened in just a few theatres, and that it has made very little profit, as it was not made with the purpose of making a profit. The limited availability of the movie
62
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434 makes it very likely that few people have seen it. The question remains whether a movie like this is still effective, how noble its message may be.
Besides the problem of how independent movies have limited influence, there are some other issues. Representation is a problematic term in the way that not all the people that belong to a certain group can be represented. All immigrants of Mexican descent have experienced varied degrees of American cultural influence, come from very different backgrounds, and have a different position in society. A ‘Mexican-American representation’ is therefore never representative for the full group. Who are actually represented in a movie, and which people will feel like they are represented in a positive way is a difficult question.
One would agree that the stereotypes that are shown in older movies and cartoons or comedies are not an accurate representation but more of an outdated caricature. In these three movies however, the problem of representation exists too, as fact remains that these are works of fiction in which reality is simulated. One Story for example, will certainly speak to people who feel strong ties to their heritage, and who wish to see an improved social standing for Mexicans (and Mexican-Americans). These people will feel proud to be of Mexican descent, they do not want to give up that culture in order to ‘become’ more American to fit in society, and it is likely they will describe themselves as Chicanos/as. Even if they feel all these things, it is still possible that they think that the portrayal in the movie is incorrect.
It is also likely that other immigrants, first-generation immigrants in particular, do not share this view. They could have left the home country for economic reasons, and they could be happy and grateful to be in America. Second- and third-generation immigrants could have had so much influence from their upbringing in America that they call themselves Americans and no longer feel a connection to Mexico. A movie might try to show that cultural pride should be encouraged, but it is not possible to enforce these values onto people. In addition, the conclusion that I have drawn from my research may be the one I deem correct, but this is subjective to my own perspective and I could have seen things in the wrong light. I am not of Mexican-American descent, and I am not a Chicana. I cannot speak for the people that are being represented, because I do not belong to that particular group.
To conclude, this research shows that there is a variety of ways to counter prevalent images, and there are different levels of how realistic an image is. Cultural representation remains a problematic area, as the issue of representation is an intricate area with no clear borders. Independent filmmakers are able to incorporate more of their ideas and ideals into a
63 movie, which can lead to more activist messages that try to raise awareness. However, the disadvantage of independent film is that it does not reach a large audience, which goes at the cost of the effectiveness. Both types of movies have their pros and cons, and some people may prefer the way they are presented by studio movies over independent movies and vice versa. In my view, all movies that try to pursue a realistic portrayal have a certain degree of value to them, and as long as there are filmmakers who are committed to breaking stereotypes down, they should all be considered to be contributing to making a difference.
64
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
Bibliography
Alvarez, Luis. “Reggae on the Border: The Possibilities of a Frontera Soundscape.” In: Transnational Encounters: Music and Performance at the U.S.-Mexico Border, edited by Alejandro L. Madrid, 19-40. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. https://books.google.nl/books?id=GR5wAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA17&hl=nl&source=gbs_ toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false. Baca, Judith F.. “The Great Wall Explained.” Social and Public Art Resource Center – SPARC. Last Accessed April 6, 2017. http://sparcinla.org/programs/the-great-wall- mural-los-angeles/. Baca, Judith F.. “The Great Wall – History and Description.” Social and Public Art Resource Center – SPARC. Last Accessed April 6, 2017. http://sparcinla.org/the-great-wall-part- 2/. Baugh, Scott L.. Latino American Cinema: An Encyclopedia of Movies, Stars, Concepts, and Trends. ABC-CLIO 2012, 199. Benshoff, Harry M., and Sean Griffin. America on Film, Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. Berglund, Jeff, and Monica Brown. “Sin Vergüenza: Resisting Body Shame in Real Women Have Curves and Caramelo.” In Mediating Chicana/O Culture: Multicultural American Vernacular, edited by Scott L. Baugh, 62-73. Newcastle, U.K.: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006. Bowen, Peter. "Birthday Girl." Filmmaker Magazine. Last Accessed November 13, 2016. https://filmmakermagazine.com/archives/issues/spring2006/features/birthday_girl.ph p#.V_YsruCLQhe.
Byrd, Craig. “Curtain Call: Playwright Josefina López Revisits Real Women Have Curves on Its 25th Anniversary.” Los Angeles Magazine. Last accessed February 11, 2016. http://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/curtain-call-playwright-josefina-lopez-revisits- real-women-have-curves-on-its-25-anniversary/. “Cuauhtémoc.” New World Encyclopedia. Last Accessed April 10, 2017. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Cuauht%C3%A9moc. “'Drug Dealers, Criminals, Rapists': What Trump Thinks of Mexicans.” BBC.com. Last accessed May 13, 2017. http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada- 37230916/what-trump-has-said-about-mexicans. Esparza, Elia. “Real Women Have Curves 10th Anniversary Event Tribute to Lupe Ontiveros.” Latin Heat Entertainment. Last accessed February 12, 2016. http://www.latinheat.com/everything-related-to-film/film/real-women-have-curves- 10th-anniversary-event-tribute-to-lupe-ontiveros/.
65
Fischer, Paul. “No Real Life "Quinceanera" for Newcomer Rios,” Film Monthly. Last Accessed May 10, 2017. http://www.filmmonthly.com/Profiles/Articles/EmilyRios/EmilyRios.html. Flores, Rosalie. “The New Chicana and Machismo.” In Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings, edited by Alma M. Garcia, 95-97. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2014.
Fregoso, Rosa Linda. The Bronze Screen: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. Fregoso, Rosa Linda. MeXicana Encounters: The Making of Social Identities on the Borderlands. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
"Ghostboy Interviews QUINCEANERA Directors Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer.” By David Patrick Lowery. Aint It Cool News. Last Accesssed May 10, 2006. http://www.aintitcool.com/node/24240.
Gillingham, Paul. Cuauhtémoc's Bones: Forging National Identity in Modern Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press 2011, 11. González, Ana Luisa. “Latina Filmmaker Patricia Cardoso Was Almost Hired to Direct a Feature 7 Times.” LA Weekly. Last accessed February 11, 2016. http://www.laweekly.com/arts/latina-filmmaker-patricia-cardoso-was-almost-hired-to- direct-a-feature-7-times-6187905. Gonzalez, Maria. “Love and Conflict: Mexican American Women Writers as Daughters,” in Elizabeth Brown-Guillory, Women of Color: Mother-Daughter Relationships in Twentieth-Century Literature. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996. Quoted in Cristina Herrera, Contemporary Chicana Literature: (Re)Writing the Maternal Script. Amherst, New York: Cambria Press, 2014. https://books.google.com/books?id=N7R5CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT120. Hall, Stuart. “Cultural Identity and Diaspora.” In Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, edited by Jonathan Rutherford, 222-237. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1990. Hernandez, Laura H.. “Paternidad, Masculinidad, and Machismo: Evolving Representations of Mexican American Fathers in Film.” In Deconstructing Dads: Changing Images of Fathers in Popular Culture, edited by Laura Tropp, Janice Kelly, 247-272. Lexington Books, 2015. “History and Culture, Boarding Schools.” American Indian Relief Council. Last Accessed April 6, 2017. http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=airc_hist_boardingschoo ls. Johansen, Jason C. “Notes on Chicano Cinema.” Jump Cut, no. 23 (Oct 1980): 9-10. https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC23folder/ChicanoCinema.html. Kim-Rajal, Patricia. Review of Shot in America: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema, by Chon A. Noriega, 203-206. Dispositio 24, No. 51, 2000.
66
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
Keller, Gary D. Hispanics and United States Film: An Overview and Handbook. Tempe, Arizona: Bilingual Review/Press, 1994. Latorre, Guisela. Walls of Empowerment: Chicano/a Indigenist Murals of California. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008. Launius, Christine. “Real Women Have Curves: A Feminist Narrative of Upward Mobility.” American Drama, (Summer 2007): 15-28.
Leonard, David J. and Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo, Latino History and Culture : An Encyclopedia. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2015. List, Christine. Chicano Images: Refiguring Ethnicity in Mainstream Film. New York: Garland, 1996. Mario T. Garcia, Mario T. "Introduction: Chicano Studies in the 1980s," in M. T. Garcia, et. al., History, Culture, and Society: Chicano Studies in the 1980s. Ypsilanti: Bilingual Press Editorial Biningue, 1983. Quoted in Richard Maxwell, “The Chicano Movement, The Broadcast Reform Movement, And The Sociology of "Minorities And Media”: A Study Of Cultural Hegemony In The United States.” Confluencia 3, no. 2 (Summer 1988), 89-102. Martínez, Elizabeth. “La Chicana.” In Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings, edited by Alma M. Garcia, 32-34. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2014.
Mirandé, Alfredo, and Evangelina Enríquez. La Chicana, The Mexican-American Woman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979. Moraga, Cherríe. “The Last Generation.” In Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings, edited by Alma M. García, 290-291. New York: Routledge Inc., 1997. Nitkiewicz Hernandez, Clint. “Cuauhtemoc: Chicano / Mexica / Aztec Related Art for the movie One Story.” Pinterest. https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/534380312005435070/. Nitkiewicz Hernandez, Clint. “One Story Feature Film.” Kickstarter. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1768922966/one-story-feature-film. Nitkiewicz Hernandez, Clint. “One Story Movie.” Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/onestorymovie/. Nitkiewicz Hernandez, Clint. “One Story the Movie, Una Historia la Pelicula.” INDIEGOGO. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/one-story-the-movie-una-historia-la-pelicula#/ . Nitkiewicz Hernandez, Clint. “Profile.” Kickstarter. https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/1768922966/about. Nitkiewicz Hernandez, Clint. “Tenochtitlan: Chicano / Mexica / Aztec Related Art for the movie One Story.” Pinterest. https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/534380312005435062/ . Olivárez, Elizabeth. “Women’s Rights and the Mexican-American Woman.” In Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings, edited by Alma M. Garcia, 131- 136. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2014.
67
One Story. Directed by Clint Nitkiewicz Hernandez. 2013. U.S.: New Element Productions, 2013. Online Stream. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYUI6Ndt8xg&feature=youtu.be. Perez, Daniel. "Chicana Aesthetics: A View of Unconcealed Alterities and Affirmations of Chicana Identity through Laura Aguilar’s Photographic Images." LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University 2, no. 1 (2013): 1-8. doi:10.5642/lux.201301.22. Quinceañera. Directed by Richard Glatzer, and Wash Westmoreland. 2006. U.S.: Sony Pictures Classics, 2006. DVD. Real Women Have Curves. Directed by Patricia Cardoso. 2002. U.S.: Newmarket Films, 2002. DVD.
Rochlin, Margy. "Not Fat, Not Greek, Not a Wedding, but What a Party." The New York Times. Last Accessed November 14, 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/23/movies/23roch.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&.
Rodriguez, Clara, E. Heroes, Lovers, and Others: The Story of Latinos in Hollywood. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2004. Rodriguez, Clara E. Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. Media. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997. Romero, Dennis. "Why La Raza Is Not a Racist Term." L.A. Weekly. Last Accessed February 16, 2017. http://www.laweekly.com/news/dear-trump-fans-la-raza-is-not-a- racist-term-7003572.
Rosales Herrera, Raúl. “Latino Representations in Film: From the Latin Lover to the Latin Boom.” In Latinos and American Popular Culture, edited by Patricia M. Montilla, 107-134. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2013. Sanchez, Pocho. “One Story-the Movie - Opening Screening in Hollywood Ca-(Pocho1 Tv 2013).” Filmed [2013]. YouTube video, Duration 03:24. Posted [March 2013]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpsUGd_w5Vw&feature=youtu.be. Shaw, Stephanie. “Real Women Have Curves.” Chicago Reader. Last accessed February 11, 2016. http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/real-women-have- curves/Content?oid=883127. “The Quinceañera Celebration.” Learn NC. Last Accessed October 7, 2016. http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/chngmexico/218. Trujillo, Carla. “Chicana Lesbians: Fear and Loathing in the Chicano Community.” In Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings, edited by Alma M. Garcia, 281-287. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2014.
68
Elise Hoogendoorn | 11080434
Vigil, James Diego. From Indians to Chicanos The Dynamics of Mexican-American Culture. Long Grove, Ill: Waveland Press, 2012.
Viladrich, Anahí, Ming-Chin Yeh, Nancy Bruning, and Rachael Weiss. “‘‘Do Real Women Have Curves?’’ Paradoxical Body Images among Latinas in New York City.” Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health 11, no.1 (2008): 20-28. Accessed June 12, 2016. doi: 10.1007/s10903-008-9176-9. Wyells, Joyce Gregory. “Great Walls, Vibrant Voices.” Americas 52, no. 1 (Jan. 2000).
Images
Image on Title Page: Wilson, Mark. “Religious Leaders Rally For Immigrant Rights at Capitol.” Getty Images News. March 27, 2006. Figure 2.1: “Real Women Have Curves (2002).” IMDB.com http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0296166/mediaviewer/rm3161523968 Figure 2.2-2.7 are stills taken from: Real Women Have Curves. Directed by Patricia Cardoso. 2002. U.S.: Newmarket Films, 2002. DVD. Figure 3.1: “Quinceañera Movie Poster.” Moviexclusive.com http://www.moviexclusive.com/review/quinceanera/poster.jpg Figure 3.2-3.4 are stills taken from: Quinceañera. Directed by Richard Glatzer, and Wash Westmoreland. 2006. U.S.: Sony Pictures Classics, 2006. DVD. Figure 4.1: Nitkiewicz Hernandez, Clint. “A movie poster for the Mexica / Chicano feature film completed 2013.: Chicano / Mexica / Aztec Related Art for the movie One Story.” Pinterest. https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/534380312005434721/ Figure 4.2: Social and Public Art Resource Center. “350,000 Mexican Americans Deported - Segment From the Great Wall of Los Angeles.” DigitalHistory.uh.edu. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=8&psid=2492&filepath=htt p://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/primarysources_upload/images/mexican_americans_dep orted_l.jpg Figure 4.3: “The Mural Makers.” Moc-Pages.com. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/- FOywwKAdT_s/T0f3SORi6qI/AAAAAAAAAno/9N8EDTtLiFU/s1600/LA+418.jpg
69
Figure 4.4: Rodriguez, Chloe. “Small view of the Great Wall of Los Angeles.” THESOURCE Metro.net. August 20, 2013. http://thesource.metro.net/2013/08/20/the-day-pass-diary- riding-the-metro-orange-line/. Figure 4.5: Nitkiewicz Hernandez, Clint. “Chicano / Mexica / Aztec Related Art for the movie One Story.” Pinterest. https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/534380312005435076/. Figure 4.6: Nitkiewicz Hernandez, Clint. “Cuauhtemoc: “Chicano / Mexica / Aztec Related Art for the movie One Story.” Pinterest. https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/534380312005435070/ . Figure 4.7: Nitkiewicz Hernandez, Clint. “Chicano / Mexica / Aztec Related Art for the movie One Story.” Pinterest. https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/534380312005435073/. Figure 4.8: Nitkiewicz Hernandez, Clint. “Tenochtitlan. Visual Effects: Chicano / Mexica / Aztec Related Art for the movie One Story.” Pinterest. https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/534380312005435062/. Figure 4.9: Nitkiewicz Hernandez, Clint. “Chicano / Mexica / Aztec Related Art for the movie One Story.” Pinterest. https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/534380312005435082/ . Figure 4.10 is a still taken from: One Story. Directed by Clint Nitkiewicz Hernandez. 2013. U.S.: New Element Productions, 2013. Online Stream. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYUI6Ndt8xg&feature=youtu.be.
70