If you haven't seen it, it's basically the story of a Mexican - American family in California through the years. It starts near the beginning of the 20th century (when California is still part of Mexico) and ends in current day (which i think is the late 90s). It stars mega Latino actors like Jimmy Smits, Jennifer Lopez, Esai Morales and Edward James Olmos.
It's just a slice of life film. And of course for me it was amazing cuz it was a family kinda like mine up there. I could relate to some of the things going on and the dynamics of family. My heart breaks when Guillermo distances himself from his family and their rich heritage, insisting on being called "William" and completely ashamed of his East L.A. childhood home and his "colorful" relatives. I'm pretty sure that's something all of us have done at one point or another, latino or not. Sometimes it seems easier to just pretend you grew up normal.
But what is "normal"? If i've learned nothing else in this life, I've learned that there's no such thing. That person you think grew up in the normal home with the normal family and the normal life most probably has stories of how completely not normal their life really was/is.
I saw this movie with my grandparents, sitting next to my grandmother who grew up in 1930s and 40s South Texas, just minutes from the Mexico border. We were some of the few Latinos in the theatre, which became evident when Spanish was spoken on screen w/o captions and we seemed to be the only ones that responded in any way. Everyone else around us looked lost and turned their heads towards us when we laughed at the jokes. It was fabulous and alienating at the same time.
And in the beginning of the movie there's a scene where the mom (Jennifer Lopez) gets carted off on a train, rounded up with all the other latinos to be taken back to Mexico. The narrator explains that it was during the Great Depression and politicians etc thought that illegals were contributing to the downfall of the country, so they just took everyone that looked like they belonged in Mexico and shipped them back. This included U.S. citizens.
At that moment in the movie, my grandmother turned to me and said "that's true" and explained that she remembered that happening around her when she was little. Because she and her brother had red hair and fair skin they were never targets, but she knew of others that happened to.
It was a powerful moment for me. It still is when i watch this movie. There are other sadder and more gutwrenching parts, but that one sticks with me. It was the only time in my entire life that my grandmother showed me a glimps into her soul. And all the fights and arguments we used to have where i would tell her how proud i was to be Mexican and she would tell me i needed to be white .... well they suddenly all made sense to me. And I weep for the poor little girl that couldn't be proud of who she was for fear of being taken away from all that she knew.
If you haven't seen this movie, you really should. And if you have, watch it again. It's not just about Latinos, it's about Americans.
(apologies if this is all over the board - i really had a coherent post planned but my heart got in the way)
