Real Women Have Curves (Las mujeres de verdad tienen curvas), Patricia Cardoso (2002). It’s on reserve at the library.
Reading assignment for Monday, October 1. Your reply (under Comments) is due before class. You do not need to answer these specific questions, but response should demonstrate you’ve done the reading and thought about the text.
Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.
The film is set in 2002 Los Angeles, does this setting shape Ana’s experiences and/or the expectations? Does it influence your viewing of the film? In both cases, how?
What are Ana’s coming of age choices / moments? Does she own her choices?
What are the common roles for Chicanas in the film? How do some characters maintain, defy, or resist “traditional” gender roles?
What roles do mothers, sisters, and friends play in Ana’s evolution?
What roles do her father, grandfather, boyfriend play?
Does Ana and her choices remind you of any of the other young women we’ve read about for the class
Throughout the film, how does Ana view (hetero)sexuality (her own and that of others)?
During one scene, the background music is a song by the Columbian group Aterciopelados titled “chica difícil” from the CD la pipa de la paz (1996). The song’s lyrics begin “Soy una chica difícil, pero yo valgo la pena…”.(I am a difficult girl but I ‘m worth it…). Look up the lyrics for this song and discuss how it speaks to Ana’s growth.
(Discussion questions drawn from and inspired by: http://archive.ecml.at/ and http://chicanaws390.wordpress.com/)
In the film, Ana’s mother both embodies and enforces “traditional” Chicana gender roles. She emphasizes the importance of women to take care of their husband and children, and to devote themselves to family alone. There is no room for individual identity or making your own path, which she refers to as “selfishness.” She does the “traditional” Chicana motherly duties of cooking, cleaning, criticizing, gossiping and fussing over superstitions. She wants nothing more than for her daughters to lose weight, catch a husband, and get married so they can follow in her role. In her “old-fashioned” eyes, virginity is essential for an unmarried girl, and without it, no man will have her. The antagonization of the mother in the film shows the flaws and faults of these traditional expectations. Ana defies these roles by speaking her mind, having pre-martial sex, embracing her physique, and by choosing an education over a life of manual labor and family. Her older sister also defies traditional roles by being 30 and single, as well as owning her own business. Although the business stresses her out, she shows no signs of regretting her single, self-supported life. The overall happiness and confidence of Ana and her sister demonstrate that challenging the restrictive gender roles of tradition is best for Chicanas.
Yes, I agree with you. Her mother, in times became very obnoxious-I think. The gossiping was totally annoying, but her beliefs were very much centered in traditional gender roles. We could really see the conflict between mother and daughter originating from different cultural values.
Ana’s environment being in LA does influence her expectations because she is surrounded by others like her. There is a culture of women like her that just do not go to college and she expects a similar future. She does have many coming of age choices in this film. Choosing to apply to as well as go to college against her parents’ will. Working in the clothing factory was a big coming of age experience or her. She got to witness the hard work and little pay her family received. She also had a coming of a moment when she had to ask her father if she could borrow money for her sister’s business. Ana’s situation definitely resembles “House On Mango St.” because she is growing up in an environment with other low-income individuals all sharing a specific mindset about life. Ana also relates to Moraga in the sense that they both go against the excepted sexual norms. Ana has been told she has to save her virginity for marriage and look good just to get a man, but she believes there is more to her than that like her personality and mind. The experiences in this movie caused ana to have new eye opening experiences and see the possibilities of her life in a whole new light.
It is very true that East L.A. influences who she is because like you said, there are a lot of women like her. In the film we saw this “like her” thing about generations of women working in one place. Environment does influence one’s decisions.
The gender roles of most of the Chicanas in the film are complex. There are those that play into the traditional roles, those that deviate from tradition a little, and then those that don’t buy into the traditional roles at all. This seemed like it had a lot to do with the different generations. Ana’s mother, Carmen, was the one that was by the book in terms of gender roles. Her first line in the movie has to do with telling Ana she has to make breakfast for her father and cousins, who are all male. Throughout the movie we see and hear Carmen tell Ana that she is too “fat” to get a husband, or that Ana is not worthy because she doesn’t iron, clean or do any domestic chores. She takes on the role of what a good Latina is supposed to be. She plays into the virgin/whore dichotomy and takes on the traditional gender roles.
Ana’s sister and Carmen’s other daughter Estela is to me the one that kind of deviates from the traditional gender roles. Her mother Carmen points out that she is also too “fat” to get married so she’s given up hope on Estela, but I think there is a line in the movie when Estela says something about how she doesn’t need a man to make her happy, she’s got her job. But then her job is one that has historically been female. She may be the boss, but she’s still making dresses. Estela is stuck in this in-between place between her mother’s traditional (read: rigid) expectations and the mentalities of her young sister.
Ana’s character is the one that movies away from the traditional roles, maybe not at first, but she does come of age during the film. She’s completely different than her mother, who went to work when she was thirteen years old, while Ana got the opportunity to finish high school and then to go on to college. There are lots of examples, nearly the movie actually, that show Ana broadening the definition, or actually showing that there are no boundaries to Chicana womanhood.
Throughout the film we are reminded that they are in the heart of Los Angeles. The Mexican music and people, the culture, and the diversity are all very present. Ana lives in the East side where she is the odd one out for seeming “white”, thinking too much, and not accepting the traditional ways of life. However, she attends Beverly Hills High School where she lies to her classmates about traveling to Europe after graduation just to fit in with their middle upper class ideals. Los Angeles is so diverse that it really helped capture the moments conveyed in the film.
Ana struggles between her two cultures: the American and the traditional Mexican. This can be seen most in her vehement defiance of her mother’s enforcement of gender roles. She says in one scene, “Why is a women’s virginity the only thing that matters?”. Her mother employs, as Jessica pointed out, the virgin/whore dichotomy mindset. It is an old school way of thinking often associated with the Mexican machismo culture. Ideally for Carmen her daughters would be thin little virgins who had no interest in scholarly things. She keeps two figures of St. Anthony around in hopes that he will help the girls catch a man. Ana believes, however, that a woman is more than her cooking, her cleaning, her genitalia. In the scene where Ana and the women take off their clothes they are accepting themselves as beautiful women regardless of size and age. Ana is no longer afraid of her body. This is also evident in the loss if virginity scene where she makes her boyfriend see her naked body. These are coming of age moments for Ana. She is able to see her self without disgust as she truly wishes to be. Finally, at the end of the film we see her walking New York City, only this walk is special. She walks with her back straight and her head up like her mother says a woman should walk. Ana is a woman; she is her own woman.
Throughout the film we are reminded that this film is taking place right outside our front door. Los Angeles is an extremely diverse area where we find the poorest of poor and the richest of rich within a few miles of each other. Cultures collide frequently. In the film we see many references to the Mexican culture that is so prevalent here. It is clear that Ana is from East Los Angeles where the majority of people are Mexican. Her parents no doubt moved there because of this reason; it is secure. Here is where Ana lives. Where she is asked to make breakfast for the men, constantly told she is too fat and fights to be accepted for more than her “womanhood”. However, Ana attends Beverly Hills High School where she lies about post graduation European adventures. She is a Chicana trapped between what she wants to be and what is expected of her as a Mexican.
As Jessica noted earlier, Carmen employs the virgin/whore dichotomy so often seen in the Mexican machismo culture. Ideally for Carmen her daughters would be thin little virgins who didn’t meddle in scholarly things or better yet pregnant and married. Ana absolutely rejects this ideal. In one scene she expresses to her mother that a woman is more than what’s between her legs. “A woman has thoughts, ideas, a mind of her own”. Estela shares these ideas, however, only to a certain extent. When confronted with Mrs. Glass Estela cowers and gets upset with Ana for speaking up. Though when they are in the factory Estela finally lets loose when she sheds her clothes with the rest of the women; a real coming of age moment for all of those women. I do believe that the different ideals expressed in this film are generational. As Chicanas assimilate to American culture where education and prosperity reign the traditional roles no longer apply to their lives. Women are no longer seen as cooks and maids, but rather individuals with their own autonomy.
Real Women Have Curves takes me back to our class reading of House on Mango Street where Esperanza, full of potential, desires to leave Mango Street. Esperanza has a quality of possibly making it out from Mango Street that people can see. She will go to come back and help the ones who could not leave. Ana also had a desires to leave her current living conditions and her mother’s smothering. Ana does not want to work, in what she called the “sweat shop” with her family because I imagine she has much more talent than the women there.
Like the old women in House on Mango Street that had Esperanza make a wish, Ana’s father is the one who sees Ana potential and desire to continue her education. Ana’s socialization with her community has influenced her greatly. Her life perspective was surrounded by her mother’s smothering and her sister’s fashion boutique. She was surrounded by generations of women who had not attended college and saw marriage as a change of life. This only made her want to go to college much more.
“Chica Dificil” is a great song; I downloaded it as soon as I heard the lyrics. This song relates to Ana because she appears to be difficult to her mother with her American ways. Ana’s outspokenness and her audacity to not care about her physical appearance or even her views on premarital sex make her a complicated woman. Ana has intellect, confidence, and potential that people will enjoy someday. Ella vale la pena, because she has so much to offer.
When Mr. Guzman approaches Ana’s parents with the idea of Ana pursuing higher education, they remind him that decisions on such matters are left to the discretion of the entire family. Ana’s family operates as a collective: If there is mobilization, it is mobilization of the group as a whole. Ana does not own her choices. When she quits her part-time job, she is questioned for her decision. Her mother did not find her explanation to be good enough – so when Ana presents the idea of finding a new job, her mother does not suggest but rather tells her what her next job will be. Clearly, Carmen and Ana have different takes on life – that being said, it’s interesting to see the role that Estela plays. There are times when Estela seems to side with Carmen – she reminds Ana that she has to work, she reminds Ana that everything that is done is for the sake of the collective family – but there are other times when Estela seems to side with Ana – she also find beauty in the female body, she encourages Ana to pursue higher education.