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:

• Film Guide: http://filmguide.sundance.org/film/120091/mosquita_y_mari
• Meet the young cast: http://www.sundance.org/video/next-12-aurora-guerrero/
• Bing Commercial of movie that played during the Oscars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=g7Y6RJYQ1rk#!