Y Tu Mama Tambien

The message I got from this film is that kids in all cultures require and want parental attention and supervision. Kids in all societies demonstrate destructive behavior. Sexual promiscuity is not a new thing, but in this day and age it could be deadly.
The boys had way to much time on their hands and the freedom to do what they wanted and with hormones raging well you saw the result. As parents we like to think that we have installed the necessary values in our children to enable them to make the right choices however peer pressure is difficult to withstand.
Tenoch and Julio were lacking in parental involvement. At the wedding his father seemed more interested in the fact that the president was there then the fact that his daughter was getting married. The boys planned their trip to Heavens Mouth and talked Luisa into going along. The amount of drinking/smoking/drugs and sex was ridiculous. Seeing Luisa engaging in sex with the boys was disturbing. This is an all to common occurence in all societies .Though a young adult she was still an adult . Even struggling with the knowledge of her husbands infidelity and her terminal illness she should have known better.
Brief glimpses in the film showed the poverty and disrest in the country. The road blocks/stops looking for ?drugs. Overall it reinforces that children in all cultures need family love,support and involvement. It won't stop all the destructive behavior but maybe it will help the kids stop and think. With all of the scary things out their today it may mean a choice between life and death for a lot of todays youth.

El Viaje de Carol

I really enjoyed this film . Even without the subtitles I think I was able to get the point of the film. I was tempted to watch the film with subtitles but decided to do this post before I did. Carol was a young girl with both American and Spanish heritages. Speaking fluent Spanish certainly helped in her adjustment to Spanish life, however I could see how the American culture sometimes made it difficult for her to adjust. She appeared to be outspoken , able to talk with both adults and children and speak her mind. While her Spanish cousin meekly obeyed her mother, Carol rebelled, climbed out the window ,found her grandfather and convinced him to let her live with him after her mothers death. She wore boys clothing instead of the more feminine way of dress. She looked uncomfortable the few times she had a skirt/dress on. She was a tomboy at heart climbing trees and giving as good as she got.During her first communion she insisted on the more masculine way of dress.
After her mothers death knowing her father was fighting in a war, Carol continued to pay to get letters to her father. She didn't want to upset him with news of her mothers death, even begging her grandfather not to tell him. Her relationship with Tomachi was very sweet , he risked his life and ultimately died to help her father escape.
This was an enjoyable film, Carol's cold climate upbringing was evident she is strong willed ,able to speak her mind and unwilling to conform to societies rules just to fit in. I look forward to rewatching this with subtitles.

Lisa Gallagher

VOVLVER

This film showed the strength of the women from the very beginning. The women are seen taking care of the graves of the men with the winds blowing violently. It's the belief in the village that strong winds can make you crazy.The women live much longer than the men and believe that a person never really dies.
Raimunda ,her sister Sole and daughter Paula visit Raimundas aunt Paula in the village La Mancha. Paula is old and confused and insists that Irene, Raimunda and Soles mother who is supposedly dead has been caring for her. Visions of Irenes ghost had been seen by people in the village, this is accepted as normal.
Raimundas daughter Paula confides that she stabbed her father Paco to death after he attempted to rape her claiming that he was not her father. Raimunda never hesitated she immediately accepted what her daughter told her as fact and went about concealing the crime. She did what she had to do to protect her daughter even telling her daughter remember I killed him. During the process of disposing of the body Raimunda finds out that her aunt Paula had died. Sole attends the funeral alone and returns home to Madrid to find her mothers ghost in the trunk of the car. Accepting that her mothers ghost is there seemed normal to her. Eventually Raimunda meets up with her mothers ghost and realizes that her mother had never really died.
The women in the film were all very strong and capable. Sole supported herself with an illegal beauty salon, Raimunda was able to care for her daughter by running the restaurant without the owners permission. These women were not submissive like most of the films we've viewed.
Each woman lived with their own demons. Raimunda was raped by her father and became pregnant with Paula. She harbored a deep resentment towards Irene for not realizing what was going on and stopping it. Irene finally realizing what had happened to Raimunda and discovering that her husband was having an affair with Augustinas mother set a fire that killed the two.
Realizing that her mother was alive gave the women time to repair their relationship. Irene feeling guilty that she had caused the death of Augustinas mother decided to care for Augustina in her final days of her illness to somehow atone for her sins.
The superstitions would be that the strong winds caused insanity and that the presence of ghosts was common place. I enjoyed the fact that these women did what had to be done in order to survive and were able to maintain loving relationships with each other .

Guantanamera

In this film I thought the hot climate culture was very evident. The relationships were all so passionate. Yoyita's reunion with Candido , even after 50 years the passion remains. As Candido is pledging his eternal love to Yoyita she dies in his arms. He's devastated and thinks about all they could have had if he would have had the courage to travel to Havana many years ago and pursue his dream like Yoyita did. Aldolfo was the typical Machismo character he was loud ,dictatorial, cold,cruel you name it that was him. He managed to keep Gina under his thumb. Like so many of the movies Gina was submissive,wearing the clothes he liked and keeping her hair up. Finally she broke free from him and dared to buy the dress she wanted in order to look good forMariano, she let her hair down and stood up to Adolfo. Mariano had a woman at every stop. Fidelity does not seem to be a mainstay in this culture.
Aldolfo wanted to regain his lost power, he wanted to leave behind his work as a funeral director. His plan was to transport the bodies via a caravan system ,changing vehicles in every town . He cared little about the deceased, he wanted to remain within his timeframe no matter what. At one point he crammed two caskets into one vehicle even though they barely fit. In the end he ended up mixing the bodies up ,the shock killed Candido.
Food or lack thereof was evident. Everywhere they traveled they were buying /smuggling food. Bananas/rum/coffee were bought with dollars, no one would take Cuban money. Poverty and shortages in Cuba were apparent. Ramon blessed his truck with the smoke from a Havana cigar-witchcraft.
As the movie progressed I enjoyed watching Gina break free from Adolfo's hold on her and become her own woman. She found the courage to follow her dreams one of which was Mariano. He also seemed to change when he met Gina again he attempted to break up with the many women he had in every town. A good film I enjoyed it.

The Official Story

I enjoyed this film even though I felt like it was drawn out in places. Alicia is a naieve history teacher married to a wealthy lawyer. Childless for a number of years Alicia and Roberto adopted a little girl named Gaby. Roberto handled the adoption and Alicia who seemed subserviant never asked any questions regarding her birth/adoption.
Alicia lived in blissful ignorance in regards to the effects of the war until her best friend Ana showed up unexpectedly one day. Ana opened up to Alicia about the kidnapping, subsequent torture she endured and her exile. Ana spoke about the many pregnant woman who were held captive with her whose babies were taken and placed with government officials for adoption.This and the beliefs of her students caused Alicia to have doubts about where Gaby ,who is five now, came from since Roberto handled the adoption.
Alicia questions Roberto about Gaby's birth mother. Each time she brings it up Roberto gets angry/agressive so she attempts to find the information herself. She goes to the hospital and is not very successful in getting information. She meets Sara who is a member of the grandmothers of the plaza de mayo. They are a large group of women who are trying to find out what happened to their children after they were kidnapped by the military. Sara believes that Alicia needs help finding a child. Sara sees Gaby and realizes that there is a strong resemblence to her daughter. Alicia is distraught. During the time Alicia spends searching for answers regarding Gabys birth she seems to gain confidence in herself ,she leaves her hair down and seems to stand up to Roberto more.
When Sara and Roberto meet he becomes angry when he realizes that they feel she may be Gabys grandmother and he throws her out. Roberto asks where Gaby is , Alicia responds Horrible isn't it, not knowing where your daughter is. Roberto, enraged, beats Alicia .The beating is stopped when Gabby calls. Alicia leaves the house. Hopefully with no intention of returning.
I feel like Roberto was becoming increasingly panicked that things were getting out of control .He seemed to place great value on the fact that he wasn't a "loser". Thats what he kept saying to his father when they were arguing.I think he saw that life as he knew it was going to change. He completely lost control when Alicia stood up to him and dared question him about his activities. I hope Alicia and Gaby remained together and made a new life which included Sara.

Like Water For Chocolate

In this movie Tita the youngest of three daughters is bound by tradition to remain unmarried and care for her mother until she dies.This seems like a terrible tradition to me. Tita becomes bitter, she is forced to standby and watch as the love of her life marries her sister in order to remain close to her. Tita had a very close relationship with Nacha from whom she learned about love and cooking. Tita and Mama Elena had an abusive mother daughter relationship. Tita seemed to be the one she took all her anger out on.
Tita was able to manipulate the emotions of everyone who ate her food. When forced to prepare the cake for her sister Rosaura's and Pedros wedding her tears fell in the cake batter, when the guests ate the cake everyone became extremely upset and were vomiting. After Tita recievied roses from Pedro her mother told her to get rid of them, she wanted no relationship between Tita and Pedro, Nacha came to her in a vision and said make quail with rose petal sauce. This created a sexual experience for Tita/Pedro as they were eating as well as everyone else at the table. Gertrudis was so overcome she ended up setting the shower on fire with the heat from her body. She was picked up by Juan Alyandrez and left naked on his horse.
Pedro /Rosaura had a son whom Tita ended up breastfeeding even though she was still a virgin. Tita was devastated when he died . She blamed Mama Elena for his death because she had forced Pedro/rosaura to move away to keep tita/pedro apart. Tita had a breakdown and was taken from the ranch by Dr Paul. As she was leaving she was covered with the quilt/afghan she had knitted while crying over her lost relationship with Pedro , the quilt was miles long. This showed the depth of her caring.
Even after she was dead Mama Elena was able to torment Tita. Tita would have visions /ghost like visits from her mother. Thus the abuse was able to continue. Tita was finally able to lay it to rest when she stood up to her mother.
Twenty four years later Pedro and Tita finally came together. Talk about undying love. While making love ,Pedro is so overcome all his "matches" burn and he dies. Tita eats sulpher from the match tips to ignite all her" matches " choosing to die rather than live without the love of her life. I have to say I really enjoyed this movie.

Diarios de Motocicleta

I feel like there are many scenes in the film that helped shape Ernesto's personality. When he was saying goodbye to his family you could see how much he loved them and they him. Family unity is very important, it gives a person the ability to try new things knowing they have something to fall back on. He was able to embark on his journey with his friend secure in his decision.
Ernesto was honest and trustworthy. His girlfriend gave him fifteen dollars to buy her panties. He refused to spend the money on anything else. Even when extremely ill he denied himself medical care refusing to spend her money on himself. Honesty prevailed when he told the doctor to stick with medicine because his writing was terrible.
Ernesto saw so much devastation and destruction on his journey like the man and woman who were forced out of their home to find work. In the end he gave the couple the fifteen dollars after he and his girlfriend broke up even though he could have benefited from it himself. That self sacrifice continued throughout the film. While watching from a nice boat as the poorer people were pulled behind in a small vessel you could see his anguish and you knew that he did not believe in the segregation.
When he reached the leper colony he refused to wear gloves choosing instead to humanize the individuals. The lepers were surprised that someone was actually touching them without a barrier in between. How long had it been since they were touched and made to feel worthy.By giving of himself he touched many lives. Ernesto gave up a life of privilege to fight for what he believed in . He was honest, trustworthy, compassionate and brave all qualities of a good leader