Cammy Reagan; Y tu mama' tambien

I was not thrilled with this film. It was not the nudity, sex, or the drug use that bothered me, I just did not think it was really an appropriate film for the use of cultural diversity. The thing that I really brought away from the film was that it was teens at their "best" or their "worst" if you wanted to describe it that way. I think it proves that teens not only get out of control here in America, they get out of control in any country. They will do anything for the attention they are seeking. This is a natural reaction for any child that is not getting the attention they need. These two boys were left to fend for themselves on a regular basis. They were left to their own imaginations wherever it took them. They chose to bury themselves in sex, drugs, and alcohol. The other thing that peaked my interest was the fact that Tenoch came from a wealthy upbringing and Julio came from a poor upbringing. They managed to become the best of friends.
What one did not have the other could manage to come up with. They both had girlfriends that were going away to Italy for the summer. They made promises to their girlfriends and the girlfriends made promises to the boys of fidelity and continued love in their absence. This did not last long when they met Luisa, the wife of Tenoch's cousin. Each of the boys befriended her and invited her along for a trip to the beach and the private beach that did not apparently exist, nonetheless they set out to find it. They finally reach their destination after they had fought, had sex with Luisa and only by chance meeting a family on the beach who takes them on tours of the local beaches. They come upon the Heavens Mouth, the beach that they had told Luisa about. Luisa knows the entire time of the trip that she was terminally ill. She chose to not to tell Jano her husband of her illness, she chose to leave him. I think that when Jano called her and told her of his infidelity, she realized that she had spent a lot of time lonely, waiting for her husband to come home, all the while he was cheating on her which she suspected the whole time. I don't think she set out to get even with him, I think since she was dying, she thought it was time for her to live and experience things she had never experienced before. It would have been nice to see the ending of the movie in order to see if the boys would have done any growing up after the experiences of their youth.

Cammy Reagan; Carol's Journey

It took me a little bit to settle into this movie, however I think I was able to get the idea behind the movie. Carol was a young tomboyish girl who dressed the part. She wore pants most of the time, she only wore dresses on occasions when they were warranted. She learned quickly that there was some difference in the culture in which she grew up in when she first encountered Tomi. He was a young boy that taunted her as she rode on the back of a horse drawn wagon en route to her grandfather's house. With Tomi's taunts he took her hat away from her. Her response to that was to yell at him and call him a thief. After being in Spain for a few days and getting a bicycle from her grandfather, she encountered Tomi again and wrestled with him to get her hat back. Tomi proved to be stronger than she until she kicked him in his private parts to get the upper hand. Later when they were in the cemetery, Tomi was being harassed by the police and Carol took up for him, consequently the police left Tomi alone and they became friends after that. Her mother proved her American roots when they were on the train and she light a cigarette in front of the priest. She was dressed very modern. There were times that I thought that her mother was ill when she coughed and acted as if she was having trouble breathing. I anticipated her demise when she was sitting on the swing in the garden and Carol went looking for her. She tried to live with her aunt after her mother's death and it was apparent that she did not like the rules of the house, so she ran away--something that would definitely happen in America, then going to live with her grandfather. She was very protective of her father in that she did not want her grandfather to tell him of her mother's death since he was serving in the war. Carol seemed to know the ways around the system as well, since she was able to send letters to her father without her grandfather knowing. Her independence was very apparent throughout this film, with her refusal to wear a dress at her first communion which she really did not want to do, she dressed like the boys did. She also showed her independence when she sat reading a book at the cemetery when her mother died, which has been seen as very disrespectful of the dead. This has not been the culture of Hispanic people in all of the films that we have screened. The other thing that I noticed to be the common theme in all of the films, the importance of family. This was shown when her aunt took her in after her mother's death and her moving to her grandfather's house, both of which took her in without question.
I think if there had been subtitles for this film it may have been a little easier to screen, however I think I was able to figure out the plot of the movie.

Cammy Reagan; Volver

This was finally a film that was not about a long lost love, or a macho man wanting to control his wife. This was, in fact a film that showed the resilience of a woman (Raimunda) who had an childhood filled with sexual abuse at the hands of her father, which resulted in the birth of her child (Paula) named after her Aunt Paula. She spent a lot of time with her Aunt Paula who seemed to be a source of support for her as she dealt with her abuse and the fact that her mother did not notice what was happening to her. She had met and married Paco while she was pregnant with Paula and he assumed the role of her father. She grew up thinking he was her father until one day after the loss of his job, he was home with her. He attempted to rape Paula and she defended herself, subsequently killing him. When Raimunda arrived home, Paula was waiting for her at the bus stop in the rain. She told her mother what had happened and that something had happened, Raimunda discovered Paco dead in the kitchen. In order to protect her daughter, she tells her to always remember that she was the one that killed Paco. She cleans the kitchen and enlists the help of Paula to get him out of the apartment. Raimunda had been entrusted with the keys to Emilio's restaurant while he was away. She managed to get Paco's body in the freezer until she could figure out what to do with it, otherwise.
While Raimunda has is in the restaurant one day, a man comes by looking for a place to buy food for the film crew he was working with in the city, she decides since she is in need of money, to cater a meal for the film crew. This resulted in several meals being catered as well as a party for the finish of the film. Another man tries to see the restaurant and she has to confess to Emilio that she was using the restaurant since Paco had"left them". All the while she is enlisting the help of her friends to get the freezer out of the restaurant and get rid of the body. In the interim, her mother has reappeared as a "ghost". This must be a superstition that is common in the Hispanic culture, as we have seen many films that deal with the visions of spirits. It is believed that Irene the ghost of Sole and Raimunda's mother has been helping take care of their sick Aunt Paula, and Agustina the neighbor has heard her talking to her during the night. After Aunt Paula dies, Irene hides herself in the trunk of Sole's car, ending up living with her and helping her shampoo her clients hair. How strange was it that Sole thought she was a ghost, but she could color her hair, I thought that was pretty funny. Raimunda and her mother finally make amends when they talk about what happened to Raimunda, and Irene tells her of the guilt she felt for what happened to her, she was so angry that she set the fire that killed Raimunda and Sole's father as well as Agustina's mother, who was having an affair with him. Irene made amends for killing Agustina's mother by caring for Agustina when she found out she had terminal cancer and was dying. Irene vowed to take care of her until she died. This film shows how women will always be the care taker, the one who is the solid rock that the children depend on. Even in the Hispanic culture it is the woman that ultimately pushes on and teaches the others to survive no matter what the circumstances are. The women in this film dealt with the adversity in their lives head on and did whatever necessary to protect the family, even if it was against the law.

Cammy Reagan; Guantanamera

I found this film to be very entertaining. It had a common recurring theme for all of the movies we have viewed this quarter...long lost love. As with Tita and Pedro in Like Water for Chocolate, Candido waited for Yoyita to return to him, when she finally returned and they were about to revive the long lost love they had for one another, Yoyita passed away. As with the other films, family plays a huge part as shown with the closeness Gina felt toward her Aunt Yoyita. She was very distraught when she passed away. The other recurrent theme in these films is the macho men, who make all the rules for the women to follow and obey. When they don't do as the husband wishes, they are beaten and made to feel less than human. Adolfo was a very macho man. He was intent on being right and completing his job of delivering Gina's aunt to her grave in Havana no matter what the cost would be. He had visions of greatness and actually daydreamed of a statue of himself being worshipped by others. His affinity toward "greatness" was ultimately the demise of his marriage to Gina, who was expressing her independence from him by purchasing a dress that he did not approve of, as well as her wanting to be her own woman and express her view regarding all of the travel and transfers of caskets in order to reach the final destination of death and the grave, which was pretty comical to me. The mere fact that it seemed to take DAYS to get to Havana for Aunt Yoyita's burial. And then there was Mariano, a long lost "forbidden" love for Gina. (He, too was quite the womanizer as we have seen in several of the films we have screened.) A student that fell in love with her while taking her class, leaving her a note to find expressing his love for her. They lost contact when she stopped teaching and married Adolfo. When they bumped into each other, they both felt the love they had for one another rekindle. They finally reached their final destination when they rode off in the rain on a bicycle, of all things. There were also some things in this film I noticed...the selling of stalks of bananas and bags of garlic when they stopped at small towns. The music was very Hispanic, the salsa style. The rituals that also surrounded the truck driver Ramon with blowing smoke on the tires and inside the truck to ensure safe travel I think were pretty common for this culture. This film was fun to screen!

Cammy Reagan; The Official Story

I found this to be movie heart wrenching. It is amazing that such horrific things can happen in a modern world (even though it was 1976). I was a young wife at that time and find it hard to believe things like that were happening in my era. Gaby was a beautiful little girl that was normal in everyway. I think she had a past that she in her heart knew was there, she just did not realize it. She showed that in the songs that she sang and the way she reacted when her older cousins were playing war games. The one thing I found hard to believe was how naive Alicia was. How could such an educated woman be so unaware of what was happening around her. She taught Argentinan history. How could she not know about the victims of the dirty war? How could she not realize what had happened to her good friend who had been tortured by paramilitary forces for living with a man who was thought to be a submersive? I amazed me that the middle class women could put "blinders" on and not see the world as it was. Caught in the middle of all of this was Gaby and the countless others who were taken or murdered by the military and the brutal Argentine regime.
I did like that Alicia started to figure things out after her conversation with her friend Ana, who finally revealed to her how she was brutalized and the things she witnessed while she was in exile. Alicia's interest was peaked when she questioned Roberto and he told her to put it out of her head. This is where the machismo theme came in, as we have seen in a lot of the films we have seen. Roberto was the "head of the household". He made the rules and Alicia was to follow them. He was to be the breadwinner. I saw him as not only machismo, as he was a father who wanted to keep his family together.
I do not think that Gaby's life would have been hopeless. I think she could have had the best of both worlds. I think that Alicia and Roberto could have worked out with Gaby's grandmother a way for them to be the caregivers for her and let her have her grandmother. She could have given her the family she was never going to know otherwise and the mother and father she knew and loved dearly. This was a very powerful movie. I can see why it won an Oscar.

Cammy Reagan; Like Water Like Chocolate

This was a different film, however I did enjoy it. The themes that came to light for me were the fact family traditions were to be followed at any cost. They were unrealistic though. The fact that the last born daughter was bound to care for the mother until death was very unrealistic. I saw many things in this film that could be considered in the magic realism stance. When Tita was born and her mother was unable to nurse from her mother and had to be cared for "in the kitchen" by Nacha the family cook. Tita grew up in the kitchen and became very comfortable in that role. When she met Pedro and fell in love with him, her mother superco eded her wishes and told her that the tradition was to care for her until her death. Her mother decided that Pedro would marry Rosaura. Pedro agreed to marry her in order to be close to Tita, which in a strange kind of way was a little romantic in that if he could not have the one that he loved, he would marry the next best thing. Tita and Pedro met many obstacles along the path of their love story. Tita prepared the food for Rosaura and Pedro's wedding, then became the house cook. The magic realism also was seen when she made quail with rose petal sauce that was an aphrodisiac and Gertrudis took off to take a hot shower and was carried off with Juan Alejandrez in the nude. Dr. Brown met Tita when she cared for Rosaura when she helped with the delivery of her nephew, and then was consequently cared for by him after her nephew died and Tita needed help of her own. He fell in love with her and when she confessed to him that she had been with another man that he did not care what she had done, he would marry her anyway. Tita could not give up on the love that she had for Pedro and in the end after the death of her mother and sister, they were finally able to be together with no obstacles. They were finally together in love and in death. What a romantic ending.

Cammy Reagan; Motorcycle Diaries

In the beginning, I saw Ernesto as a handsome, young, naive man lacking humility. On his journey with Alberto he endured hunger, lack of shelter, severe and extreme weather, and illness. As he and Alberto traveled, they met many people along the way who had much less than they had. I think the beginning the turning point for him was when he met the couple who had their livelihood taken away because they were communist. Ernesto gave his coat to the woman so she would not be cold. I think he was frustrated with the lack of caring shown by the owners of the mines who took men to work, when he told them that the men needed water. He gave away the American money when he could have gotten what he and Alberto needed with it. I think another turning point for him was when he and Alberto worked at the leprosy clinic and he saw the sick as humans, not just dick people. He did not follow the rules when he chose not to wear gloves when caring for them. Then when the time came for them to say goodbye, he left his birthday celebration and swam across the Amazon river to spend his birthday with the sick. I felt he did not like the separation of sick from the healthy. I think his journey gave him humility and the inner strength to try and force change for those who did not have the strength to do it for themselves. He set out to make a difference and died in the process of that journey. He became a very selfless man who gave up a life that could have been very easy and comfortable for the good of his countrymen.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Cammy Reagan

I think that the Spanish speaking women in this film were definitely over the top. There was much machismo noted in the film. Of course, that was the culture back when the film was made not only in Spain, but in America, as well. Women during that era spent a lot of time trying to please their man, not as today as most women are very independent and self sufficient. Given the era that this film was made, I did not think that the feelings were over reacted, however for the current era, it would be complete over reaction. I do, however believe that reactions that occurred in this film are what many women who have dealt with infidelity would be, just maybe not as extreme as these reactions were. You may still find some women that react in those extreme way in today's culture, as you can see on the evening news any given night of the week. I think that women of today are much more sophisticated and educated. They don't feel it is necessary to have a man to take care of them, as they are able to take care of themselves and their children. This has also been proven time and time again. I also think that women of today would seek to get a divorce, if married, since it is much easier to do so and people do not look down on you for doing so, or they will just break up with the man that has done them so wrong. Women are not as forgiving as they once were.
I thought the film was somewhat humorous. One of the thoughts that I took away from the movie was that Carlos was the apple that did not fall far from the tree. He was in the apartment with his fiancee' who was asleep on the balcony, kissing another woman. Not only did he kiss Candela, he kissed Pepa as well. I thought "like father, like son". The plot itself was almost a slapstick comedy with the phone being thrown out the window, the spiked gazpacho that was given to the police officers, the makeup and the hair that Lucia sported were quite remarkable.

Machuca

Cammy Reagan:

I thought it was very interesting how the two boys interacted. It was child development 101. It proves the fact that children do not see color, race, religion or any of the things that adults see and use to judge others. These children were innocent. They new they had obvious differences, but they did not let that interfere with their friendship until the end of the movie when the change in government happened. Pedro and Gonzalo had the same familial problems in that Pedro's father was obviously an alcoholic and did not take care of his family the way he should have done. Gonzalo's mother also did things that were not in the best interest of Gonzalo especially when she took him to her boyfriends houses and had him take gifts from them. There was also an obvious difference in the two social classes. The rich had everything and the poor had nothing. The housing was noticably different in that Pedro lived in a small shanty with several family members sharing the same space. They had very little in the way of clothing and he noticed the difference in what Gonzalo had when he went to his house and saw the amount of clothing he had in his closet. There was also a difference in the food they ate. Gonzalo did not eat the snack that was offered to him at Pedro's house. I saw some of the same things in this film as I saw in Under the Same Moon. There were obvious distinctions in the rich vs the poor. There were some of the same struggles in trying to make a better life for their families. The best message I took away from this film is that we all need to be less judgemental and accepting of others no matter how different they are from ourselves. If we could do this, just think of how much better the world would be. While watching this film I found it hard to follow at times and felt as if it jumped from scene to scene without any lead into each different scene. I am definately seeing the world from a different perspective. I did see myself as a pretty culturally diverse person before watching these past two movies, but I am seeing that I have a lot more to learn ......

Under the Same Moon

This film was very enlightening. It showed many different things regarding the Hispanic culture. I first noted the importance of family in the first few minutes of the film by the way Carlito was so attentive to his ill grandmother and in the fact that she cared for him in his mother's absence. There was also the birthday party in which there were many family members in attendance. It also gave me insight in the difficulties of these people, first with the dream that Rosario was having at the beginning of the movie about crossing the border and being chased by border police. It also showed the difficulties in finding honest work and the fight to keep her jobs. The fact that Rosario worked so hard to try to get money to bring Carlito to the US with her and the lengths she was willing to go to in order to provide a better life for him were eye opening. Carlito also went to great lengths to try to return to his mother. The fact that he left Mexico on his own and got jobs in order to obtain his dream were amazing. It was also appalling that someone in the US would allow a small child to work in a diner for food and a place to sleep. This would not have happened had the child been of American descent. It also showed that trust and caring can happen when he was left behind and Enrique, who did not want to help him, became a friend and helper who sacrificed himself in order to help Carlito obtain the dream of reuniting with his mother. Had I not been so intent on keeping up with the plot of the movie and taking notes, I would have probably shed tears at the end of the movie.