Juan Carlos Rulfo provides an interesting example of the more paradoxical nature of political engagement in documentary. Rulfo’s En el hoyo (2006) deservedly became one of the paradigmatic examples of the genre in Mexico. It documents the story of the construction workers involved in building the upper tier of Mexico City’s Periférico Avenue, a landmark public works project of then left-wing presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration as city mayor. MacLaird reads the film as a cultural product that “sustains reverence for the lower socioeconomic classes that López Obrador’s campaign had initiated, [but] with a more subdued tone than the political rallies and without the condescension and misery painted by the stylized …show more content…
MacLaird correctly portrays the film as a paean to a working class that invisibly participates in public works, risking their lives; she also praises the film’s avoidance of the tremendism predominant in fiction film of the period. However, its ideological commitments are hardly visible because of the close focus on the workers. I think that a critical reading of this documentary requires spectators to dislodge the film’s representation of working-class subjects from any connection to formal left-wing politics. When viewed from this perspective, the film is hardly an endorsement of the infrastructure project it depicts. One should remember that the “segundo piso” (upper tier) was not a particularly popular public works project and, in fact, when Rulfo’s film was released, anti-López Obrador commercials airing on television railed against it to criticize his administration’s high levels of public debt. Moreover, the focus on the workers articulates a criticism of the venture at many levels. It is notable that the workers who intervene in the project are precisely the type of social subjects who will not benefit from the construction. In addition, as Madalina Stefan and Lorena Ortiz point out, the documentary presents a stance that subverts what they call “the narration of national progress” embedded in López Obrador’s developmentalist project by presenting that “progress” from the …show more content…
Its presentation of the Mexican working class through an emphasis on vernacular speech and social criticism plays well in transnational markets like Sundance, in which ideologically-driven independent cinema privileges testimonial narratives and the representation of subaltern subjects from the Global South. At the same time, the film does not offend the sensibilities of corporate media companies like Cinépolis. In fact, one could even say that MacLaird’s reading and mine do not contradict each other because the film is so semiotically open-ended that it allows for both of them: it can be read either as a politically correct rendering of modernization projects from the humanizing perspective of labor or as a critique of those same projects through the denunciation of the exploitation of the workers who participate in them. The lack of an editorial voice in Rulfo’s documentary—proper to many films of the neoliberal era—delivers an ideological ambiguity that allows spectators to appreciate the film regardless of party affiliation. Thus, people favorable to López Obrador—including the city government itself, which appears listed as a coproducer—can see it as celebratory, while audiences critical of him can read it as a
In Mario Suarez’s essay “El Hoyo” it is mainly about a small section of the city of Tucson. It is the area that has been inhabited by Chicanos. The term chicano is the short way of saying Mexicano. Suarez explains the good and the bad about El Hoyo. He says that he does not understand why people come back to El Hoyo, but there is something unexplainable about it that it does. It is possibly the human kindness of El Hoyo that brings people back.
When it comes to analyzing the “banana massacre” scene in chapter 15, I found three narrative techniques the author used to describe this scene. Therefore, one can notice that this part of the book is the climax. As a result, one infers what the author is trying to say about Latin American history and politics.
The author of Mexican Lives, Judith Adler Hellman, grapples with the United States’ economic relationship with their neighbors to the south, Mexico. It also considers, through many interviews, the affairs of one nation. It is a work held to high esteem by many critics, who view this work as an essential part in truly understanding and capturing Mexico’s history. In Mexican Lives, Hellman presents us with a cast from all walks of life. This enables a reader to get more than one perspective, which tends to be bias. It also gives a more inclusive view of the nation of Mexico as a whole. Dealing with rebel activity, free trade, assassinations and their transition into the modern age, it justly captures a Mexico in its true light.
The first turning point in hope for the Chilean road to socialism was that of the election of Salvador Allende as president, which gave many Yarur workers the belief that a ‘workers government’ was on their side. “For the first time, a self-proclaimed ‘workers government’ ruled Chile, dominated by the Left and Pledged to socialist revolution” (Winn, 53). Allende’s role as president gave identity to the Yarur workers that they were being represented and because of so, their struggles of working in the factory conditions set by Amador Yarur would come to an end. This identification with Allende as being represented by there own voice became the first stepping-stone to the demand for socialization of the factory. “The election of a ‘Popular Government’ was a signal...
Throughout the time I spent between the covers of The Prince of Los Cocuyos, I was astounded by Richard Blanco’s dynamic relationship with the novel’s sole “antagonist”: his abuela. It seemed that no matter how many times he was chagrined at her attempts to negotiate the English language, or was forced to repress his very personhood to meet her traditional standards of manhood, she never ceased to be a pillar of support for a young Richard Blanco. But beyond his grandmother, Mr. Blanco made it quite clear that he was surrounded by a pueblo of family and friends throughout his childhood and adolescence, a village that would confound his “becoming” but foster his growth, make him question his identity and yet be intricately connected to it. It
Chávez’s leadership was based on an unshakable commitment to nonviolence, personal sacrifice and a strict work ethic. He emphasized the necessity of adhering to nonviolence, even when faced with violence from employers and growers, because he knew if the strikers used violence to further their goals, the growers and police would not hesitate to respond with even greater vehemence. Despite his commitment to nonviolence, many of the movement’s ‘enemies’, so to speak, made efforts to paint the mo...
They’ve set a shining example of how the will to make a difference can have drastic and incredible results effective or not to the immediate situation at hand, it encourages the surrounding people to question the value of their freedom. After the dictatorship fell, the trial of the murderers was on T.V. for a month, and they admitted to killing the Mirabal sisters and Rufino by strangulation. Although they died however, their sacrifice had not gone unnoticed. The memory of their sacrifice is honored today, by a national holiday and monuments, and through these closure is found, but their story is not lost. “Las Mariposas” leave an important legacy that enforces the ever existing
Another foundations that I can add is effect social change, this reflect the type of movement that the workers create based on the fact that they were being discriminated in the company, affecting the lives. Last foundations that connect on this film it is Chicano film language, we can see how the combination of languages, between Spanish and English and cultural codes that the people from the film shows as part of the Mexican American culture. For example these three techniques foundations create a strong image to this film in the way that we can see the scene where the woman’s are in prison because of the movement. The whole scene creates an atmosphere of anger, and desperation, referring to the woman’s expressions “queremos la formula, queremos camas, queremos baño”. I can connect this great scene for a moment of expressing the support from each other by forcing the sheriff to give them their needs and
Martinez’s story is not so much one that pieces together the events of the crash, nor the lives of the three youths, but it is an immigrant’s tale, discovered through the crossings of the various Chavez family members and profiles of Cheranos in Mexico.
The conflicts between the citizens of the Arroyo Blanco Estates and the Latino and Hispanic characters - otherwise known as the bourgeoisie and the proletariats, respectively - are symbolic of the class conflict theorized by the Marxist school of thought. This excerpt shows the members of the Arroyo Blanco Estate rejoicing over the disbandment of a labour exchange – an informally agreed upon meeting location where immigrants (both legal and not) lay in wait in the hopes of finding work for the day, at any pay rate. This quote is spoken by Jack Cherrystone, one of the most developed characters of the bourgeoisie and a symbol of capitalism itself; Jack is extremely vocal about his hatred of immigrants, citing their economic codependence as a
The conflict that arose in the 1930s and 40s in Spain can be defined as the struggle between the two ideologies of Spanish society; the traditionalists who wanted to hold on to conservative catholic values and the republicans who sought to embrace the wave of progressive modernism that had already swept through most of the western world. Spain was once the world’s most powerful empire, but due to clashing political beliefs, a broken and ever changing political system, and a destroyed economy, by the late 1800s it had fallen apart into a divided country where chaos ruled. Thousands lived in complete poverty and misery, working jobs that could not support their growing families. Infant mortality skyrocketed as the economy plunged. While the economy went from one crisis to another, the people began to protest the draconian censorship of the government, forcing the militaristic dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera to step down. His resignment resulted in the country’s first real step towards democracy, the Second Spanish Republic. During the municipal elections, new radically ideological politocal parties began to emerge, both on the extreme left and right wings. The right wing parties were supported by the monarchists, upperclass, conservatives, and the catholic church. However, among these parties was the small, yet rapidly growing facist falange party created by Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, son of the former dictator and a man who would have astounding influence on the lives of thousand of people, even long after his death. The falange sought to restore Spain to its former glory under the rule of one pow...
Another theme found in both films is the idea of resisting the urge to only look out for yourself. In the last vignette of La Ciudad, a woman working a sweatshop needs money for her sick daughter, but has not been paid for weeks. At the end of the vignette, she stops working in protest and all her coworkers stop working as well in solidarity. By doing this, her coworkers are risking their jobs and income, which is a huge deal because they are already living in poverty. However, they take this risk and resist the pressure to look out for only themselves because they understand the woman’s
...omplish political goals. The liberal politics of Latino cinema endure to this day, in the land of Aztlan and throughout the United States.
Life in Mexico was, before the Revolution, defined by the figure of the patron that held all of power in a certain area. Juan Preciado, who was born in an urban city outside of Comala, “came to Comala because [he] had been told that [his] father, a man named Pedro Paramo lived there” (1). He initially was unaware of the general dislike that his father was subjected to in that area of Mexico. Pedro was regarded as “[l]iving bile” (1) by the people that still inhabited Comala, a classification that Juan did not expect. This reveals that it was not known by those outside of the patron’s dominion of the cruel abuse that they levied upon their people. Pedro Paramo held...
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story, “One of These Days,” describes the disparity between everyday working class people and higher class politicians. The story focuses mainly on two contrasting characters: a humble dentist, Aurelio Escovar, and an aggressive and abusive mayor who takes advantage of his townspeople. Deep in this piece, the situation between the two characters symbolize the corruption of power and the negative influence it can put on society. Though the mayor owns all of the dominance out of everyone in the town, the dentist receives influence for a period of time, taking advantage of it at all cost. We learn at the end of the passage that no matter the identity nor class of an individual, the excess of power can lead to corruption.