The film El Contrato showcases the conditions of workers trying to support families back at home. The men all live under one roof, on a contract for a duration of eight months to work in Ontario at a tomato greenhouse. The workers band together and treat each other as a family would, learning to survive. Employers recruit men with little education and with family ties, they do not look for female migrants, and this is particularly noted in the film (El Contrato 2003). Many of these men were unsure of how to accomplish tasks usually completed by their wives, such as cooking and cleaning. This caused tasks to be divided among the men. One would perform the role of barber for the men, for instance. All are of different ages, and judging from the film, you could really see the experience of age. Some believed they would stay here for only one year, while others knew they had no choice but to return again. The migrants experienced the xenophobia in Ontario. Many people were prejudiced, ultimately deciding that these workers were here from a foreign land to steal their jobs and they grew uncomfortable. One worker stated he thinks that slavery still existed in the world, and that he experienced it daily. Conditions for the workers were indicative of that. They worked on holidays, overtime, and did not receive extra payment for their efforts. There were no …show more content…
Whenever they had problems, the consulate should help them. By looking at the video, it seems that the consulate does little for migrants, and largely protects their own interests. (El Contrato 2003) Despite the problems they shared, one thing continued to keep them going: their family back home, their children, wives, parents. As long as they knew they were alright without them, they could continue
Often viewed in several different ways, the division of labor of the home is never easy to assign. Willingly taking on their assigned roles, numerous families abide by these assignments, still; other marriages want equality in this division of household chores. Countless of these tasks can be strenuous and demanding. The responsibilities that come with these daily routines can also be life threatening if not carefully performed. A few of the duties in the day-to-day trade of maintaining a household include tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and caring for children. Division of labor among races is also different. These cultures influence how family roles come about and transpire. First, traditional Mexican American women undertake the
The picture of pre-revolutionary Mexican women was of a woman who had to lived her life constantly in the male shadow. These women were consumed by family life, marriage, and the Catholic Church, and lived silently behind their dominant male counterparts (Soto 31-32). In 1884 (prior to the revolution) the government passed the Mexican Civil Code. It dramatically restricted women's rights at home and at work (Bush and Mumme 351). Soto states that the code "sustains an almost incredible inequality between the conditions of husband and wife, restricts in an exaggerated and arbitrary manner those rights due the woman, and…erases and nullifies her personality" (qtd. Bush and Mumme 351).
In other words, men makes the rules while the females implement them. She gives an example where the mother and mothers-in-law tell their son that its okay to beat their wives if they disobey. Also, expecting their husband to help them with any of their daily duties as housewives. This is not necessary true for all cultures. In fact, Anzaluda contradicts herself with her statement on the Mexican and Chicano cultures. In her next chapter in Borderlands: La Frontera, Anzaluda explains the Chicano’s culture and how there was a goddesses that had strong feminine energy. All of their tribal leaders were female. Furthermore, Anzaluada explains that western and male dominant changed the perspective of the female goddess as evil and seductive to males (Anzaluda, 2012). Here are cultural where gender are neutral and everyone shares responsibilities. Many Central Americans fled the poverty and oppression in their countries to seek a more secure and better life in a new place. As one person settled in the new location and saved enough money, he or she would help family members to migrate. Because of the informal and extended family networks that are part of the Central American culture, natural support systems develop to assist new arrivals. In every ethnic or cultural group there are different individuals who are regarded as leaders by members of the group. Every leader has a place and a role in his or her community. Leaders can be categorized by type, by issue, by rank, by place, by age, and so on. In Chinese communities, the leader is typically the head of the family. If family refers to a grandfather, father, mother, sons and daughters, and grandchildren, then the leader is the grandfather. If family refers to the congregation of a church, the leader is the pastor. If family refers to a clan, the leader is the President of the clan's association. In African American
Jose talks about how he has dealt with things in the past which includes treatment such as the time when he went to the DMV to get his license, “I handed the clerk my green card as a proof of US residency, she flipped it around examining it. ‘This is fake she whispered. Don’t come back here again.’” (Vargas 3). Jose’s encounter with the clerk shows some of society’s hate towards immigrants which is shown by the clerk’s hostile language. Jose may have bypassed this in the future, but had lost many opportunities when he did not have a license. Jose’s calling was to be a reporter, but when he was offered internships, his undocumentation always held him back, “... She called back with the answer I feared: I couldn't do the internship.” (Vargas 30) Jose did however persevere in doing what he wanted but is among those few who beat the “system” unlike most
This essay is a critical film reflection of “El Contrato”, which is a documentary filmed by Min Sook Lee. This film follows the lives of Mexican workers in Leamington, Ontario. Leamington is known for agricultural production of tomatoes. "El Contrato" follows Teodora Bello Marinez, a poor father of four living in Mexico, and many of his countrymen as they make an annual migration to southern Ontario. This film shows the difference with regards to how migrant workers are treated on farms in Canada and that labor laws now take them into accounts.
Expectations are natural to have when events in our lives are left up to chance. It can give us hope and build our passion, but that is not always the case. In “Woman Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros, the Mexican protagonist, Cleófilas, is excited to move to Seguin, Texas with her husband in order to find passion and love similar to that in the books, songs, and telenovelas she obsesses over. However, she was kept from becoming the dimensional woman she dreamed of because of the patriarchal figures in her life, particularly her husband; she instead followed traditional cultural values that taught her men were more dominant than women in society, a woman was meant to become a mother and a housewife, and a woman’s dream is far from reality.
Throughout the novel you can see that Tobar was serious when he hinted that women were not allowed in the work place. Men were the bread winners in Chile and that is how they wanted to keep it. In Chile men see women as the one who stays home and raises the children. One example of seeing this in the novel is after the mine has collapsed, but no one knows about it yet Monica Avalos, Florence Avalos a miner trapped in the mine’s wife, is preparing dinner for her family and sewing her son’s sweater. As you can see she is doing the chores of the house. Monica is taking care of her son and making sure that diner is on the table when Florence gets home from work.
In the Mexican- American community it is established that the man is the provider and the person in charge while the women is the subordinate caregiver. These masochist gender roles are seen at play in Villareal’s “Pocho”. In the novel, the society the characters live in follow these traditional gender roles very intently. Through this, the novel is stating that you must be adhere to the established gender roles to be a part of the community. We can see this through many instances in the text. For example, in the text Richard exerts his dominance over Zelda and his sisters to prove his masculinity. The novel says, “He slapped her twice, and she ran into the house screaming.” (Villarreal, p.147) This illustrates how in the Mexican- American community to be considered a man you must exert your dominance over women. In the same way, to become a woman you have to succumb to male dominance. For example, in the novel Zelda becomes a woman when she succumbs to Richard’s will. The text says, “It was the end of an era for her; her dominance was over, and her life would be a different one from now on.” (Villarreal,
In Sandra Cisneros’ Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, there are a number of short stories that represent different aspects of Hispanic culture such as family life, religion, language, machismo, border crossing, and archetypal women. In the short stories, there are tales of woman and men facing adversities and pain, children growing up with a positive family life as well as children learning how tough life could be, and the concepts of what men and women are supposed to be are challenged through AIDs, man supremacy, cars driven by particular characters, and through the people they interact with on an intimate level.
A culture where a female was inferior to the superior males and limits their choices of whatever they want to be in their life. Cisneros suggests that for young immigrant woman without education or perspective, immigration to "the other side" can be just as restrictive as life in Mexico. This belief pushed Mexican American women to the lower depths of society with no one to leaning against to but themselves. Men are always powerful while women are often weak and helpless. Both texts well explained traditional gender roles in Mexican culture in detail which can often be distinguished that men do as they pleased. Conversely, women on the other hand are ideally placed in the home to take care of the children, and the house chores. Anzaldúa explained her early and young adult facing difficulties and challenges from sociocultural differences in the American mainstream culture and her own men dominant Mexican traditions in the first-person point of view. Cisneros's “Woman Hollering Creek” is believed to be an excellent example of a conflict within the family, which the wife must endure physical and psychological abuses from her husband in Mexican cultural background in the U.S.A. Mexican Americans are the most numerous of all immigrant groups and are also one of our oldest ethnic groups, many having come here at least as long ago
In The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail, Oscar Martinez comments on the injustices that occur while migrating from Central America. Central Americans are forced to leave their countries in fear of the inevitable consequences. The systematic abuse Central Americans endure while migrating is founded on that fear which results in more repercussions for migrants. The psychological effects of migrating is used by Martinez to give insight on the atrocities that happen in Central America. The corruption involved while migrating in Central America is against human rights and should be brought immediate attention internationally. Martinez uses the experiences of migrants to expose Mexico’s passivity on the subject and to expose readers’ to the hard truths that occur while migrating.
In the Woman Hollering Creek, Sandra Cisneros makes use of several short stories to expose the Mexican culture destined gender roles inequalities against women. From a very young age most Mexican girls are endangered to take the household responsibilities as their core duty. Once they reach adolescence they imperilled to think about marriage as the unrivalled way for them to leave their parents support. I argue that the Mexican culture through the medium of tradition and media is assembling a society in which woman, from the moment they are born, bear a life of parental and marital submission.
In the documentary, “The Harvest,” the migrant works are exposed to subjective meanings by the way they view their work environment in the farming fields of agriculture. Most of the migrant works shown in the film are depicted as interpreting their social status as poverty and the inability to escape the harsh and demanding work environments they find themselves in. This can be best scene in the video where the young migrant female child is picking apples hoping that maybe her relocation to family in Florida might better her chances of a better education. Many view their situation as helpless as the one father finds himself with the daily struggles of vehicular upkeep and the challenges of always having to move from field to field for work.
Feminism revolves around the notion that men and women are equal, an idea that is seldom accepted or embraced at the end of the twentieth century in Latin America. Set during the revolution of 1970, Isabel Allende’s autobiographical novel, The House of the Spirits, weaves a story about the lives of women through four generations. The idea of male dominance is prominent throughout both the political and social arenas of Latino communities. However, Allende uses members of the Del Valle family to portray the theme of feminism evolving during this time. Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, highlights the intertwined lives of two Latin American women, Clara and Alba, to develop feministic attitudes and overcome discrimination in their community,
In Latin America, women are treated differently from men and children. They do lots of work for unexplainable reasons. Others for religious reasons and family orders and others because of the men involved. Women are like objects to men and have to obey their orders to either be rich or to live. Some have sex to get the men’s approval, others marry a rich man that they don’t even know very well, and become slaves. An important book called Chronicles of a Death Foretold is an example of how these women are treated. Purisima del Carmen, Angela Vicario's mother, has raised Angela and her sisters to be good wives. The girls do not marry until late in life, rarely socializing beyond the outsides of their own home. They spend their time sewing, weaving, washing and ironing. Other occupations include arranging flowers, cleaning up the house, and writing engagement letters to other men. They also keep the old traditions alive, such as helping the sick, comforting the dying, and covering the dead. While their mother believes they are perfect, men view them as too tied to their women's traditions. The men are afraid that the women would pay more attention to their job more than the men. Throughout the book, the women receive the respect they deserve from the men and others around them.