In my review of Frida (2002), a American biography of the life a Mexican painter Frida Kalho played by Salma Hayek. The film details the political and promiscuous lives of Frida Kalho and Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina). In many cases dramas films that portray artistic painters would normally fall on deaf ears, but this movie dives deep into the psychology of Frida. At the beginning of their marriage Kahlo advises Diego Rivera that “she expects his loyalty, not his faithfulness in the marriage”. Roger Ebert describes their love affair as “a sexual faithfulness is a bourgeois ideal that they reject as Marxist bohemians who disdain the conventional”. In other words because they are apart of the communist movement, Frida and Diego chose to have an open relationship, which in the middle-class and the elite class would consider that type of lifestyle tacky and uncouth. Frida participated in lesbian and heterosexual relationships, while Diego had countless affairs with other women. Oddly, both Frida and Diego had narcissistic ways, on one hand they both had affairs, but both got jealous when the other slept with other partners. Frida had a lesbian relationship with Black entertainer Josephine Baker (famously known for her topless banana dance) and Leon Trotsky (Soviet politician and founder of the Red Army).Julie Taymor’s amazing depiction of the colorful, but complicated life of Kahlo. Frida’s father was German Jewish, while her mother was Mexican. Frida was born in Mexico City and was going to school in the field of medicine. At the age of 18 Frida was in a nearly fatal bus accident that completely impeded her ability to ave children. After the accident Frida chose to paint self portraits in order to deal with her insecurities of not being able to have children and her pain. The depictions of her portraits displayed pain and misunderstanding of dealing with herself. Each painting ingratiated her pain and views about herself being alone.Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina) was a famous muralist. He had a special gift of painting as well as sleeping with numerous women, even though he was married to his wife Lupe (Valeria Golino). Diego womanizing ways expressed his zeal for life and his male chauvinistic behaviors. When Frida and Diego first had sex, Lupe walks in on them, but later Lupe brings them breakfast in bed. Diego’s overbearing ways with women are like his painting, a work of art that must be exposed.

In the end Frida is advised she is going to die. Frida’s portraits shows her mostly alone or with Diego, which expresses her feeling of being in love for Diego and her disdain for the pains in her life such as losing the ability to have children and the pain she deals with from the accident from her youth. Her final work of art was her being in her death bed in the last scene of the movie, which highlights her struggles within herself.

The Miss International Beauty pageant is a symbol of beauty and elegance. In the film Miss Bala 2011 which was written by Mauricio Katz and Gerardo Naranjo and directed by Gerardo Naranjo, recreates the chilling trials and tribulations of real life 2008 Miss Sinaloa (Laura Zuniga). Naranjo shocked the world with an amazing twisted story of a 23 year old pageant contestant Laura Zuniga, played by Stephanie Sigman, caught up in the world of the Mexican drug-trafficking cartel. In 2006, President Felipe Calderon in cooperation with the American’s Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) ordered the Mexican Military to confront the drug cartel with brute force. Five years after the order from President Calderon there were close to 50,000 deaths related to this war on drugs. Instead of highlighting the drug war, Naranjo focused on the innocent victim in his story.
This film is would seem to be an oxymoron film, meaning that it is completely opposite of what society would expect from a beauty pageant film. I would compare this film to Zoot Suit (1981) where you have Chicano gang-members carrying switchblades singing and dancing a jitterbug. Naranjo transformed the film from beauty pageant to a bullet pageant. Ironically, the title of the film Miss Bala translated in Spanish means Miss Bullet. Naranjo miraculously kept the focus on the innocent victim instead of only focusing on just the drug trade. The scene is set in Baja Mexico where Laura Zuniga (Stephanie Sigman), a pageant contestant goes to a bar with her friend and a gunfight breaks out with the drug cartel and the police. In a panic to survive Zuniga runs to a corrupt cop that takes her hostage; then kidnaps her brother and dad for leverage to make Zuniga transport drug money across the United States border. It is quite obvious that the film tackles the two issues at hand, one being the Mexican/ American drug-trafficking problem and the innocent victims that are claimed everyday.

In the final scene of the movie Zuniga is captured and driven to an unknown location and
dropped off. In essence, this exaggerated thriller could and has happened to many innocent victims that end up in jail or even worse–dead. Naranjo illustrated just how quickly things can change if you are not careful in border towns that are known for drug trafficking.

In America, one of the greatest pass times is watching television (T.V.) sitcoms. A sitcom is genre of comedy centered on characters who share a common environment, such as a home, workplace, or even a bar. Many of these made for T.V. sitcoms have a comedic dialogue that dealt with social issues. Chico And The Man was one of these T.V. shows. This was the first T.V. sitcom that headlined a Mexican character as the star of the show.The show used racial prejudices and stereotypical satire to captivate its audience. The shows characters were Ed Brown (the Man) played by Jack Albertson, the racially prejudiced, alcoholic seventh generation White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) garage owner not willing to except the racially changing city of East Los Angeles. Then there is Freddie Prinze, who plays Chico Rodriguez (Chico), the Chicano mechanic who desires to become the business partner of Ed, but ends up as a employee to the bigoted owner. At every turn Ed berates Chico’s heritage with ethnic slurs. In return Chico would responds to those racially derogatory statements with factual statements highlighting the greatness of his culture. This sitcom tackled the never ending racial divide between race and culture in our society through laughter.
The sitcom made its debut September 13, 1974 thru July 21, 1978. The garage was set in a East Los Angeles neighborhood in which Ed is upset that East Los Angeles was being taken over by Chicanos in Ed’s view. In his first episode Ed uses ethnic slurs highlighting his dislike for Chicanos. Ed belief is that he likes Mexicans, but he does not like Chicanos. In a statement to Chico Ed asks him ”what is the difference between a Mexican and a Chicano? Mexicans know where their from and go home, Chicanos do not”. These type of stereotypical racial satire displays the disdain toward the immigration of minorities. In Ed’s view he has no problem with Mexicans because in his opinion “they know their place”, which is to stay out of the way of WASPs. On the other hand Ed thinks Chicanos are peasants and do not know their place in society. One thing that Ed soon realizes is that Chico is a part of his family, despite his ethnicity.
Chico’s character is a proud Chicano that tries everyday to elevate the thinking of Ed’s racial stupidity. There is a sense that Chico understands the fears of Ed’s naive thinking and tries to show Ed the error of his ways through comedy. Chico advises Ed that Chicanos are proud Mexican Americans that are descendants from this land before White America took over the country. This sitcom dove into racial inequality that Mexican immigrants had to deal with on a daily basis. Which is ironic that this is the plight of every immigrant that comes to America today. On July 21 1978 was the last airing of this show due to the accidental death of Freddie Prince from an drug overdose. He died during his second season on the show. The show continued on for two more seasons, but the rating continued to decline until the end of season 4, which was it’s last.

My name is Mario Anderson Sr. I am the father of three sons; married with one grandson. I and in my senior year of my college. My major is IDS with a concentration in Environmental Studies. This will be the completion of the second phase of my three phase goal to becoming a Lawyer. The main reason for talking this class is to fulfill my academic obligations in order to graduate, but the other reason for taking this class is to gain insight into the complex struggles that the Latin culture has faced in film. A better understanding of the plight of minorities in film adds to my respect, and appreciation for minorities that proactively taking steps to take the leading role in creating quality films of their own culture in films.