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Fighting Stereotypes

The Cultural Representation of the Chicana in

American Film

Name: Elise Hoogendoorn Student Number: 11080434

Elise.hoogendoorn@student.uva.nl 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

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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

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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,”

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4 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-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.

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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.

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6 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

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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,

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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.

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9 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.

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10 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

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11 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.

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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

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13 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/.

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14 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

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15 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.

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16 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.

34 Berglund and Brown, “Sin Vergüenza,” 62.

Figure 2.2 - Ana defiantly eats the flan

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17 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.

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18 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.

37 Viladrich et al. ““Do Real Women Have Curves?””, 21. 38 List, Chicano Images, 37.

List, Chicano Images, 28.

39 Rodriguez, Latin Looks, 2.

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19 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.

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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.

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21 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.

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.

Figure 2.5 - Mural of La Virgen de Guadelupe, a

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22 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.

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23 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

Figure 2.6 - Traditional Mariachi's carrying guitars

Figure 2.7 – When Ana walks in the ‘modern’ world, we see a modern

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24 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 ‘FELICIDADESANA’

(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.

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25 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.

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26 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.

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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

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28 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,

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29 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.

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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.”63In 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.

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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

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,” hembrismois 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. Figure 3.2 - Uncle Tomas looks at his pendant of the Virgin

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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

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