Job Discussion Forums

mapache · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 202 Location: Villahermosa

I say the movie Misma Luna last night - great story and direction about the heartbreaking problems of illegal immigrants in the US. The movie struck me as racist, though, because all the white gringos were bad people. The only nice non-Mexicans were Native Americans.

I wonder if I'm overly sensitive or if other who saw it had the same reaction.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Thank you for pointing it out...cued up for download now.

Who produced/directed it?

mapache · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 202 Location: Villahermosa

It's from Fox Searchlight. The director is Patricia Riggen.

Linda T. · Joined: 02 Dec 2007 Posts: 49 Location: California

I saw the movie this past weekend here in the states, but did not have the same reaction (although, as probably the only gringo in the audience, I DID sort of want to climb into a hole during the part where that song making fun of gringos was playing in the background).

I guess I kind of explained away the evilness of the one employer since she was TOTALLY NUTSO! I didn't think the other employer was so bad at all. In fact . . . the most evil character (in my perception) was Mexican (and, the Dad wasn't exactly somebody to write home about either, although he managed to gain my empathy to a certain extent). While I thought the plot was predictable in some ways and therefore, kind of simplistic . . . the actions of the characters were not so predictable. I thought it mimicked real life in that, bad guys do good things sometimes and good guys do bad things. I think maybe what you were picking up on, though, was that much of the movie was exaggerated in order to get the point across. I totally agree. I think maybe it was one of those cases where, in order to convey the truth . . . sometimes you have to sacrifice authenticity. In any case, I DID like it.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Just watched it...very good movie.

mapache · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 202 Location: Villahermosa

Guy, it is a great movie but did you get the same impression of the white gringos I did?

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

I see what you meant, but I didn't read much into it to be honest. I felt that with movie maintaining a constant Hispanic/Mexican point of view, the characters were empty caricatures that simply pushed the storyline forward.

jillford64 · Joined: 15 Feb 2006 Posts: 397 Location: Sin City

I saw it last night. It did not strike me as racist nor did I feel like it was purposefully making a political statement. As Guy said, it was a story presented from a Hispanic/Mexican perspective and the characters were there to move the plot forward.

Phil_K · Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 2041 Location: A World of my Own

An interesting footnote:

One of the actresses in the film was Jacqueline Voltaire, a British born actress who lived in Mexico for around 40 years. I haven't seen the film, but she is tall, thin, blonde and around 60.

She was a regular attender of the Santa Rosa Church in Condesa, where we often go. We went there on Sunday, and there was a portrait of her at the altar...and an urn Sad

. Of course, that rang bells with us...and then rang an even bigger bell with me.

I have a friend who is an oncologist in the Instituto Nacional de Cancerolg�a, and a few weeks ago he told me, "We have one of your compatriots here, an actress, and she's in the last stages". I asked her name and I thought he said, "Jacqueline Walters" and I didn't make the connection, I see her regularly and she didn't look sick.

Of course, now we know.

RIP Jacqueline Voltaire 1948-2008.

jillford64 · Joined: 15 Feb 2006 Posts: 397 Location: Sin City

DId she play Ms. MacKenzie, the little bit crazy woman who fired Rosario from her morning job?

Phil_K · Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 2041 Location: A World of my Own

As I said I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know.

kosherpickle · Joined: 24 Nov 2006 Posts: 93

Phil_K · Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 2041 Location: A World of my Own

[quote="kosherpickle"]

Samantha · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera

Prof.Gringo · Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:07 am Post subject:

It was a good movie. I watched it at home for 10 pesos. I would have liked to the characters developed a little more, more of a back story. For example: Why was the mom in the US in the first place (is her hometown so messed up that she just had to cross into the US illegally and leave her son behind)? What was up with the dad? What happened there? Did he take off and leave Mexico so he didn't have the responsibility or did he go there intending to support his son and things changed? At the end of the movie I also would have liked more closure. I felt it was racist and anti-white in some parts. But I was expecting the movie to be even more anti-gringo. The part where the Chicanos are crossing the border with the kid was unrealistic. If US CSIS gives you more than a cursory inspection you're sent to secondary inspection where they tear your vehicle apart if they want to. All in all it was OK, but it could have been more. Maybe I was hoping for some kind of political statement.

Question: Do you think that the majority of Mexicans that go illegally to the US to work are really better off? In the short term they make more money. But in the long term they don't have anyway to really establish themselves or to get ahead. At least here in Mexico there are things like IMSS, Infonovit, and credit and bank establishments (Banco Azteca, Banco Wal-Mart) that give out small loans and credit to working class people.