In the film A Better Life , Carlos and Luis do not have a healthy father and son relationship,but that changes when Carlos truck get stolen. Luis is on a path to become a gangster since mostly alone and free to do as he pleases. Because Carlos is working hard everyday to provide for his son, he does not get the chance to be with him nor does he have the strength to stay awake once he gets home which can be very harsh to Luis since they don’t communicate. However, once the truck of Carlos gets stolen, Luis insist to help his father look for it. Throughout their journey together to find the truck they begin to bond. In the very end of the film, Carlos gets put into jail after retrieving his truck back and is announce deportation. Hearing that
his father is going to get deported and separated from him, causing Luis to change his path to become a gangster and help his life change for the better. I believe the filmmaker is trying to reach out to the public to be aware of all the challenges illegal immigrant go through just to have a better life. Although I was blessed to be born in the United States,my mother was not and forced to cross the border to give her children a better life than what she had. Similar to Carlos and Luis, my mother was left alone to raise two children on her own. As seen from the film, Carlos had to work harder than a parent who would normally would to provide for Luis; My mother did the same to provide for her two sons. Filled with anger because of my father’s absence, my brother was beginning to rebel against my mother’s rules. However, it was not an issue for long because my brother and I realized how hard my mother is working to make sure we have what we need. Watching the film made me realize the struggles illegal immigrants go through to obtain a better life, not only for themselves but mainly for their children I believe the filmmaker titles the film A Better Life, because it questions if illegal immigrants do have a better life than they normally would than they would in Mexico. It also questions if the sacrifices they choose to make is worth it for the people they love. I believe Carlos has so much hope after all of the disasters he has been through because of Luis. I believe having a child is what motivated parents to make the sacrifices. I believe people should watch this film because it shows the audience the life of a average illegal immigrant.
In the book, Giovanni and Lusanna, by Gene Bucker, he discusses the scandalous actions of a Florentine woman taking a wealthy high status man to court over the legality of their marriage. Published in 1988, the book explains the legal action taken for and against Lusanna and Giovanni, the social affects placed on both persons throughout their trial, and the roles of both men and women during the time. From the long and complicated trial, it can be inferred that women’s places within Florentine society were limited compared to their male counterparts and that women’s affairs should remain in the home. In this paper, I will examine the legal and societal place of women in Florentine society during the Renaissance. Here, I will argue that women were the “merchandise” of humanity and their main objective was to produce sons.
...g the various reports concerning his father’s suicide, he is drinking, sweating and crying. The full impact of what his father had done to him finally hits him. “What the hell do you mean there were no others involved? I screamed. What were we, chorizo con huevos? No, the sneering voice in my poisoned mind explained, you were chorizo without huevos.” (78 ) Ricky cries out that he was left with his mother and sisters to raise him and he believes he was raised as a weak man. “…and because of your stupid, dramatic abandonment I’ve become a drunken, drug-abusing misfit.” (78 )
"The guitar is shaped like a woman, with a neck you hold and a body you hug against yourself."(Santana 114). Carlos Santana, a very accomplished fourth generation Latino musician, is a very romantic man with his music. He was born on July 20, 1947 in Autlan Mexico, the middle of seven children (biography.com). His parents are Josefina Barragan and Jose Santana. His father was an accomplished professional violinist and as a child Carlos learned to play the instrument from his father, though he did not enjoy the tones it created. Eventually he picked up the electric guitar, for which he developed an ardent passion. How has Carlos Santana's music been a positive impact in Latino culture? Although Carlos Santana's music was heavily influenced by drugs and alcohol, he has been a positive influence on Latino culture because of his musical innovation, resilience in adversity, and world-wide philanthropy.
Another aspect of the film that depicts a positive image of family is the family’s support for Wayne. Although Wayne is serving an eight year prison sentence for armed robbery, Darryl, Sal, Tracey, Steve and Dale are still proud and supportive of him. Dale regularl...
Credibility Statement: The Mexican drug trade is always in the headlines here in Texas due to our proximity to the Mexican border.
In the case of José, born and raised in Mexico, he had to assimilate by eventually learning English to acquire a job to support his wife, María, and his children. Movie critics may argue that Rosa and Enrique’s journey to Los Angeles has a greater impact than that of José. Traveling from Central America to North America is a hard journey to go on. While the path Rosa and Enrique had to take to reach the United States may have been more arduous, comparing the two journeys is an unfair assessment. José’s expedition to Los Angeles, while it was not shown as a visually dark time of his life, did portray how an immigrant may cross the border into America in a different way. In addition, since both films have the same director, Gregory Nava, his decision to emphasize the act of illegally crossing into America in one film and not the other allows him to the artistic license to portray other portions of life as an immigrant. In My Family, Mi Familia, Memo and Toni’s characters depicts the generational changes a family living with two cultures may
Some kids have no other choice but to join the gangs at an early age. Lack of parent supervision has been shown to be linked with both boys and girls joining a gang. Even though most have men to prove they are the violent ones, not every gang member is shown to be violent. While the rest of Luis’s gang members treat women with disrespect, Luis seems to respect everyone no matter what gender they are. Being told his own mom the pain she had to go through influenced his ways of viewing and treating
“The conquest of Western America through the U.S.-Mexico War of 1846-48 forged a new pattern of racialized relations between conquerors, conquered, and the numerous immigrants that settled in the newly acquired territory” (1). In the novel, “Racial Fault Lines” by Tomas Almaguer I am going to identify the Mexican experience in nineteenth-century Anglo California and how it differed significantly from that of other racialized groups.
supported his family financially. During this stage of Guzman’s life, he was kicked out of his house by his abusive father. Therefore he decided to live with his grandfather. During Guzman’s teenage era is when he was nicknamed ‘El Chapo’ meaning “...
Language is an important part of who we are. It influences the way we think and behave on a great scale. However, sometimes it is forced upon us to go in different directions just so we can physically and mentally feel as if we belong to the society in which we live in. Just as we see in Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” and Richard Rodriguez’s “A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, both authors faced some challenges along the way by coping with two different languages, while still trying to achieve the social position which they desired.
John Singleton’s view of social problems in South Central Los Angeles happens in a tale of three friends growing up together. Doughboy and Ricky Baker are half-brothers and have opposite personalities. Ricky is a football player who hopes to win a scholarship and spends most of his time playing football. On the other hand, Doughboy is a young man who looks upon his environment for guidance. He is involved in violence, abusing drugs, and participates in violence. In between is their friend Tre, who actually has a father to teach him what is right from wrong. Furious Styles, who is Tre’s father in the film does everything in his strength to keep his son from becoming another startling statistic. As you can see, it is always important for parents to be a part of their child’s life because it can make a big difference not only in their life but also their child’s future.
Ramirez was born in 1960 to his Mexican immigrant parents Julian and Mercedes Ramirez. He was the youngest out of his five siblings of 3 boys and 2 girls. He grew up in El Paso, Texas, where he had a relatively normal childhood to start off with. Even though Ramirez seemed to be on a down hill spiral, his father always maintained that Ramirez was a "good boy". At the age of 12 he started to spend a lot of time with his cousin Mike, a Vietnam veteran, his cousin would show him pictures of women he had raped and tortured during his time in Vietnam. Mike would sometime take Ramirez out to the desert at night to show him how to sneak up on animals and kill them. Ramirez was taught how to use a knife and where the vital spots were on the animals. Some believe that the turning point in Ramirez's life may have been when he witnessed his cousin murder his wife. At the time Ramirez was 13 and was smoking pot with his cousin Mike when his wife came in and allegedly started to "nag" him on getting his life together and getting a job. Mike then took out a gun and shot her in the face. The blood of Mikes wife spattered onto Ramirez. After Mikes conviction Ramirez became fascinated with the photos that Mike had showed him. From being a bright young stude...
After having a conversation with the man who brutally attacked his father and left him to suffer, Don Lupe’s son takes pity on Juvencio and tells his men to kill Juvencio quickly. Juan Rulfo describes this merciful action in the passage, “There he was, as if they'd beaten him, waving his hat against the ground. Shouting. Immediately, the voice from inside said, ‘Tie him up and give him something to drink until he gets drunk so the shots won't hurt him.’” In this scene, Juan Rulfo shows that the son, even after reliving the story of how Juvencio murdered his father, still has a certain amount of empathy for Juvencio, though it is clear that Juvencio felt no empathy for Don Lupe. The son still orders his men to kill Juvencio quickly and to get him drunk, unlike when Juvencio killed Don Lupe and left him to suffer for two days. This demonstrates that Don Lupe’s son is still a compassionate person, even when dealing with the man who murdered his father. Juan Rulfo uses this scene to show the empathetic nature of Don Lupe’s son and the fact that every main character in the story, except for Juvencio, exhibits
His home was the place where it was a private world then homes of his English speakers. Since his family only spoke Spanish at home. However, the further the story goes, Rodriguez recognized he has school and family collide. However later on the story, Richard started to refer to speak English then Spanish. I think that there wasn’t any communication between Richard and his family after that so they started to feel this separation between them. In addition, His family started on trying to speak English to help Richard out. “In an instant, they agreed to give up the language (the sounds) that had revealed and accentuated our family’s closeness” (paragraph 7). In my opinion, since his family started to no longer speak Spanish, Richard family lost their
A prominent theme in The House of the Scorpion is that genetics do not determine one's character. This applies to many characters, but it is demonstrated most clearly in Matt. He is El Patron's clone; his DNA is the exact same. Scientifically, they could be considered the same person. But Matt is different, because he has different experiences, different values, and makes different choices.