Aurora Guerrero, An inspirational Chicana Filmmaker



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=g7Y6RJYQ1rk#!

Mosquita y Mari is the first feature-length film by a Chicana filmmaker debuted at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. It is also the latest project of Aurora Guerrero, an American director, screenwriter, and producer, who also collaborated on the film Real Women Have Curves. A critically acclaimed film that catapult the career of Mexican-American actress, America Ferrera, who played Ana, a first generation Mexican-American teenager on the cusp of womanhood. Pura Lengua and Viernes Girl are other short films created due to efforts of Guerrero and a group called LA Xicana (Chicana) filmmakers. The films have been presented around the world and are a window to the current lives of young people living in Los Angeles.

In Mosquita y Mari the South East L.A. neighborhood is highlighted, a place infused with culture, history, and language. It is also the home of many Mexican American generations full of stories worthy of being shared with the world and that are important to the Chicano/a Movement. Mosquita y Mari is a coming of age story about two fifteen-year old Chicanas growing up in East Los Angeles. It captures the struggles, adventures, and journey of the two young women that display a friendship and sisterhood that transcends all color lines. The film was a collaborative effort because Guerrero involved the community into her project and really took the time to learn the history of the city and the people. It is an important film because rarely are the struggles of Latina women depicted on the big screen. This film combats the historical and political erasure of Chicanas and women of color in society and history.

Guerrero has always been interested in learning about the stories of Chicana women. At UC Berkeley she studied both psychology and Chicano studies. She later moved and fell in love with the city of Los Angeles, a very story rich environment and the birthplace of the Chicana movement. In the past Guerrero has shared that her first inspirations were writers especially, women of color feminist writers like Audre Lorde, Cherrie Moraga, Gloria Anzaldúa, Chrystos, June Jordan, and Angela Davis. She further shared in her words “when I discovered their brave works as a freshman in college, a fierce creative seed was planted in me. It was a calling I had the moment I was stripped naked by their words.” Aurora Guerrero is creating a body of knowledge that future filmmakers and Chicanas can research and also incorporate into their own works.  She is a storyteller of her own and the experiences of Chicanas, but most of all she is achieving female empowerment.

Additional Sources:

This Bridge Called My Back (3)

Reading assignment for Friday, February 24. Your reply (under Comments) is due before class. Remember, you don’t need to answer all or even any of the questions, but your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about the readings. Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.

Choose a poem or essay from the anthology and decide what its theme and message is. How does the author see her position in feminism? What would she say the position of women of color is? What is her hope for the future?

This Bridge Called My Back (2)

Reading assignment for Wednesday, February 22. Your reply (under Comments) is due before class. Remember, you don’t need to answer all or even any of the questions, but your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about the readings. Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.

When you were re-reading Audre Lorde’s essay, what do you thinks she sees as the master’s tools / what is the master’s house?  What is she proposing instead?

Looking at the individual contributions to the anthology, how would you make the case for them with someone who felt offended or threatened by the authors’ anger?

Move Over Wonder Woman

“Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.”  Then as the crowd looks towards the sky they exclaim:

“Look, up in the sky!”

“It’s a bird.”

“It’s a plane”.

“It’s Superman!”

We all heard this famous introduction at least once in our lives, which describes one of the most famous superheroes of all times, Superman.  In 1996 in response to the California Proposition Act 187, that would ban immigrants from services, artist Laura Molina introduced to the world, Cihualyaomiquiz, The Jaguar.  Molina years earlier submitted some art pieces to Detective Comics or DC Comics (twitter image).   Similar to other print groups in the Chicana/o her work was self printed and published.  The cover image of the issue features the main character in a fierce pose facing the viewers and readers.   By looking directly at the audience she rejects the notion of women not looking at men, like the class discusses with the picture of the brown beret with the bandaleras around her chest.  As talked about in the chapter Book Art of Chicana Art: The Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities by Laura E. Pérez, the image of the Jaguar “…overturns stereotypes of the Latina as passive, subservient, and for that matter, less intellectually and culturally sophisticated….” (Pérez, 241).

Similar to Superman whose secret identity was mild manner news reporter Clark Kent, the Jaguar was a lawyer by day whose identity was Linda Rivera (Pérez, 238).  The heroine in the comic embraces her culture and history.   Much like the Reclaiming of Aztlan as a way to reconnect with their culture and claim it, her powers come from embracing her ancestors’ gods. The cover image shows our heroine with a “don’t mess with me” expression with two clench fists and a fierce stance as if she was ready to pounce.  Sadly, I couldn’t find a copy of the entire comic online, so I had to rely on summaries of what happened.  In the comic she faces neo-Nazi along with far right-wing politicians.  Through the story, the character’s actions and portrayal sheds the dominant thought as Latina as being passive and soft-spoken.  Instead of standing by, she does what she needs to get the evidence for her clients.  For the soft-spoken part, the cover displays the main character shouting, “¡Watchate, I resist!” for all those that pass by to read.  I think an interesting part of the comic is that is based on actual real life events.  I think that it adds to the overall experience of the readers.  Publishers have taken up this sense that some aspects are grounded or connected to real life events in recent comics.

The comic book world is dominated by male superheroes with a few sprinkles of female superheroes.  Of those sprinkles of female superheroes there was probably only a handful that were widely know to the public. Most of these heroines were aimed to appeal to the male audience with their sex appeal and skimpy clothing.  Among being among the line up of the handful of female superheroes, the character also is among the few characters of diversity.  In the comic book world is dominated by white males.  Yet in the issues we are introduce to a woman praised for her intelligence first, rather than aiming and trying to meet the male readers standards of sex appeal in their comics.

Currently Molina has put aside working on her art projects to run for US Congress in California 25th District 2012.

Reference:

Letter from DC Comics

http://twitpic.com/368nu4

Chicana Art: The Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities by Laura E. Pérez

Pérez, Laura E.  Chicana Art: The Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities. Duke University Press, 2007.

Campaign Site:

http://molinaforcongress.com/

Artist’s Site and Twitter:

http://

Reprint of First Issue

/Info.html

http://twitter.com/#!/Laura_Molina

 

 

 

This Bridge Called My Back (1)

Reading assignment for Monday, February 20.  Reading Assignment: Your reply (under Comments) is due before class. Remember, you don’t need to answer all or even any of the questions, but your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about the readings. Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.

  • Editors: Cherríe Moraga, Gloria Anzaldua, This Bridge Called My Back.  Please have the entire text read by Monday, focusing more on the essays than the poetry.

Based on your reading of the text, who is its intended audience? Is there a multiple answer to this question?  Where do you see it addressed within the text? 

Define Third World feminism.  Which contributors do you see making the strongest / clearest case for it and why?  By the same token, why do these authors define themselves as “radical women of color”? Coming out of our earlier readings, what is radical about this text?

 

Zuzu Angel

Zuzu Angel is well known in Brazil for two things: her work as a fashion designer during the fifties and sixties, and her sudden death that was later revealed as a murder caused by the Brazilian government.

She began her work as a seamstress, and later a fashion designer when she moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her styles became symbolic of Brazilian culture. Her work took her to international runway shows where people could easily recognize an Angel design due to its bright colors and unique patterns. Her work was well received in the U.S. especially.

During this time, Brazil had experienced several changes in the government system–from a coup d’etat in 1964, to an established military government, with Emílio Garrastazu Médici as the president. He achieved what was said to be an economic “miracle” for the country, meanwhile increasing the censorship of the press and enforcing harsher punishments for those who opposed the current regime. Zuzu Angel’s son, Stuart Angel, did just that. A grad student, he would later be kidnapped, tortured, and never found again due to actions taken by the secret military police of Brazil on June, 14, 1971.

Zuzu was not nearly as politically active as her son, but upon hearing of her sons disappearance, her role in the matter completely changed. She used all the resources she had to find her son, and let others know of what the military government had done to him. Alex Polari, a political prisoner who had been in the cell next to Stuart, wrote a letter to Zuzu of all the things he heard next door, and what details he knew of the way her son was tortured. Stuart, being a U.S. citizen, allowed Zuzu to expand her retaliation efforts abroad, so far as handing Henry Kissinger a translated version of Alex Polari’s letter. She also attempted to get her clients and friends, Joan Crawford, Liza Minelli, Jean Shrimpton, Margot Fonteyn and Ted Kennedy, etc. to get involved in the cause. One of her newest fashion lines at the time, was a politically conscious one that sported patterns and designs of caged birds, suns behind bars, war tanks and such.

On April 14, 1976, while driving under the Doi Irmaos bridge, Zuzu Angel died in a car crash. A letter was later found in her home that read “If I appear dead, by accident or otherwise, have been the work of the murderers of my beloved son.” The bridge was later renamed after her. Later, after the end of the authoritarian regime in 1985, the Brazilian government admitted to being involved in the staging of Zuzu’s death. In 2006, a biopic film was released, Zuzu Angel, depicting her life and struggles during the time of her son’s kidnapping.

Despite her fame and outreach, not much is known about Zuzu Angel. And against the odds of being a woman of color, and facing an enemy in her own homeland, Zuzu fought in any way she could. I count myself lucky that I was able to see the film and learn about a fellow Latina woman like her. It makes me wonder about other women in and out of Latin America who have stories that are yet to be told. Meanwhile I’m thankful for Marcos Bernstein and Sergio Rezendes’s efforts to put her story out there.

 

Additional Sources:

http://www.thebreeze.org/2008/04-10/top3.html
http://eyesonbrazil.com/2008/10/21/zuzu-angel-bio/
http://educacao.uol.com.br/biografias/zuzu-angel.jhtm

Chicana Generations (2)

Reading assignment for Friday, February 15.  Reading Assignment: Your reply (under Comments) is due before class. Remember, you don’t need to answer all or even any of the questions, but your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about the readings. Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.

  • Helena María Viramontes, “The Moths” (from The Moths and Other Stories, 27-32)
  • Cherríe Moraga, “Looking for the Insatiable Woman” (From Loving in the War Years, 142-150)

Both Moraga and Viramontes are writing with and against mythologies. What myths do you see in these texts? How does each address the issues of generations?

What sort of mothers do you see in Viramontes and Moraga? How does Moraga connect motherhood with sexuality?  Do you see similar issues in Viramontes?

Connection from “The Purepecha: Poorest of the Poor” to AB Trip Experience

Earlier this semester on January 24th the LMU Chicana/o Studies department hosted the screening and panel presentation of the documentary “The Purepecha: Poorest of the Poor.”  The LMU Chair and associate Professor of the Chicana/o Studies Department Dr. Karen Mary Davalos, and filmmaker Cheryl Quintana Leader were the moderators of the discussion. The documentary introduces young Latina, Stephanie Maldonado, who sets out with filmmaker Cheryl Quintana Leader to expose the third world living and working conditions of migrant farm working families living in Duroville, California. Duroville, mobile home park, is just a few minutes away from wealthy tourist attractions in Palm Springs but it is just the opposite of a land filled with middle and upper class citizens. Some of the 6,000 migrant people living in Duroville are from an indigenous tribe in Michoacan, Mexico called the Purepecha. The U.S. District Court Judge, Stephen Larson (who was not able to make it to LMU for the screening) made a historic decision in ruling that the trailer park where these migrant families lived and worked had to be reconstructed or given “human living conditions.”

Sitting and watching the screening of the documentary made me think about the Alternative Break I participated in last year. In May 2011 I went on an Alternative Break California Road Trip exploring various issues in California including: immigration (with Border Angels in San Diego), field workers (with the Dolores Huerta Foundation in Bakersfield), restoration of habitats (with Wild Places in Springville), and human trafficking (in San Francisco). After learning about all these different topics we met with the staff of the legislators to discuss the issues and find out if they were doing anything to better the conditions. The leaders of the group created this trip because they wanted LMU students to find out a little bit more about issues happening in our own backyard, just like Stephanie Maldonado who wanted to shed light on this marginalized community by creating a documentary about it.

The Dolores Huerta Foundation works closely with communities of nearby field working towns: Arvin, Lamont and Weedpatch. In pairs of two our group departed to the various locations with our host families who provided us with more insight on their struggles as field workers. Some of the families who hosted us were leaders of their communities through Vecinos Unidos (united neighbors) through the Dolores Huerta Foundation, which demonstrated a tremendous amount of support to better field workers’ working conditions. The Dolores Huerta Foundation has helped them become agents of change for their own communities.

My host family were field workers before they retired. The woman was very attentive to our needs and made sure we woke up with a good breakfast the three days we stayed over at her house. On the second day we were there two community leaders oriented us on the importance of encouraging other people who are eligible to register to vote. They also described some of the changes that the three nearby communities had undergone through the community organizing they had been involved in. We split up into groups of 2-3 and knocked on every door at a specific neighborhood and made sure we explained to the residents what we were doing. The towns were predominantly Latino so there was a great need for those of us who were bilingual to interpret for the other students in our group who did not spoke Spanish. We did get a few people to register, but in many cases the residents were out in the fields working while we were out there in the morning trying to get people to register to vote. It was amazing to see how much passion these two leaders of the community had for making social change in their communities. They were so positive and enthusiastic about their work and leadership that they always thought about ways to integrate other members of the community in their work.

In our stay we helped with the set up of their youth empowerment event that promoted the importance of a living a healthy lifestyle and exercising. This event was a community effort event and there were many leaders both young and old involved in the preparation. This is a great example of the difference that passionate leaders, like Dolores Huerta and other community organizers from Vecinos Unidos, can make to change the world through a united effort.

Stephanie Maldonado, a 13 year old, began developing her view on social justice by focusing on the community at Duroville. I’m sure that the community at Duroville will also be willing to be agents of change if they are given the support they need just like the community that the Dolores Huerta Foundation has close ties with. Stephanie Maldonado, coming from a low-income neighborhood in Long Beach, has a passion to do something about communities that are disempowered and forgotten. Many children like herself have great potential to rise up and make the world a better place. We as adults, or emerging adults, have the responsibility to be more politically and socially conscious of our world and know how we can contribute for the betterment of our communities.

Resources/ links:

Chicana Generations (1)

Reading Assignment: Your reply (under Comments) is due before class on Wednesday, February 15. Remember, you don’t need to answer all or even any of the questions, but your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about the readings. Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.

  • Lorna Dee Cervantes, “Beneath the Shadow of the Freeway”
  • Angie Chabram Dernersesian “And, Yes…The Earth Did Part: On Splitting Chicana/o Subjectivity” (from Building With Our Hands, 34-56)
  • Bernice Zamora, “Notes From a Chicana Coed” (from Making Face, Making Soul)

Reading both Cervantes and Dernersesian, how do you see the images of generations in Chicana feminism?  What can each woman in Cervantes’ poem represent?  What do you associate with the poetic images of freeways and their shadows?  Do you agree with Dernersesian’s thesis that Chicana poetry / art constructs and positions multiple Chicana identities? According to Dernersesian, how do these identities relate to Rendón’s machismo / malinchismo dichotomy?

How does Zamora’s “Notes From a Chicana Coed” read along side Cervantes’s “Beneath the Shadow of the Freeway”?

Reading from Dernersesian’s article, how would you say Aztlán is split in Cervantes’ poem? How in Zamora’s?

 

Negative and Positive machismo?

Machismo is a word that was made by Anglo men to describe Latino men, but machismo can have both a negative and positive meaning to it. According to Rosalie Flores in Chicana Feminist Thought, she desribes machismo as “an elusive Mexican value, inbred and fostered by parental anxiety for the males in the family to show manliness, virility, honor, and courage…”. A Chicano man can act machismo in a positive light, like refusing to take days off of work because he puts the pressures of  paying the bills, putting food on the table, and his families well being, on his back with pride. Such machismo actions can encourage males and females of the family to have the same great work ethic in life, as well as the same selfless values.

However, the machismo mindset can be negative for a Chicano if it is used to oppress women. ow their “machismo”. The “negative” machismo mindset that some men had towards the Chicana Feminist movement  has affected the Chicana feminist movement negatively. Majority of these Chicano men who exercised the “negative” machismo believed during the Chicana Feminist movement that it was the womens duty to  cook, clean, and take care of the children, and not have a voice in the Chicano movement. Some men felt women could only have secretarial jobs during the movement, and this lead to some men greatly opposing the Chicana Feminist movement.  When some of the Chicano men start seeing their wives go against the customs that have been embedded in their minds of women just being in the background, their first instinct was to “correct” such behaviors. Some Chicano men saw women and their wives overriding  their disapproval to join the Chicana feminist movements as truly wrong.  The way some Chicano men stopped the voice of their wives was to stop them from joining  the Chicana Feminist movement because of their negative “machismo” mindset and actions.

According to Machismo-Bibliography. “A person isn’t born macho”, it is taught, which means acting machismo is taught.  Chicano..The Chicano male who is acts machismo in the wrong way is stunting the growth of Chicano people as a whole in a way. The potential great acts and ideas by Chicana women can be suppressed forever if their voice isn’t heard. The great idea or act of a Chicana women can have for the empowerment of her people could encourage other Chicano’s, male or female, to expand on her work. A perfect example is the success that the Chicana Feminist movement had on the Chicano community as a whole. Their are groups such as the brown Berets that currently allow women to have a voice in their organization and the women have successfully helped provide food, counseling, and guidance for the Chicano community. If such women were silenced by men negatively using “machismo” then their Chicano community as a whole wouldn’t have been able to positively benefit from the ideas of these Chicana women.


References:

  • Garcia, Alma M., ed. 1997. Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings. Vol. 1. New York , NY : Routledge. 21-24.
  •   Garcia. 48-50.
  •    Garcia. 119.
  • Garcia. 93.
  • Garcia. 113-116
  • Mirandé, Alfredo, and Enríquez, Evangelina. 1979. La Chicana. Chicago , IL : University of Chicago Press. 12-13
  • Mirandé. 242.
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicana_feminism