Innocent Voices And Maria Full Of Grace: A Comparative Analysis

In Innocent Voices, directed by Luis Mandoki and Maria Full of Grace, directed by Joshua Marston, Chava and Maria struggle with abuse in Latin America. In Innocent Voices, Chava, struggling for an average childhood in El Salvador, is hard-pressed to avoid the war which is raving around him. In Maria Full of Grace, Maria's floriculture income helps her family until she is fired. Her lack of a job, makes her accept a job as a drug mule where she will fly to the United States with cocaine inside her. Chava and Maria achieve contradictory positions as humans determining their stance within violence going on in Latin American.
Chava, is a young child from Cuscatanzingo is growing up during the Salvadoran Civil War. Innocent Voices, describes the Salvadoran Civil from the viewpoint of the civilians who suffered it.

The story follows Chava, as his community confronts the conscription of forcing 12 year old boys to serve in opposition to the leftist milita and the progressive violence of the Civil War.
Chava's world revolves around schoolmates and female relatives as most Cuscatanzingo men are in military camps or the United States.

As Innocent Voices, continues we view Cuscatanzingo being destroyed by the war. Their normalcy is broken by menacing soldiers and reports of explosions. Although Chava and his classmate Christina Maria share a kiss, they are pulled back into reality by two women near them. These two women are seized and put inside a jeep by soldiers. Every day, children pretend play war on stone streets that become real battles later at night. These battles scare the same children by terrorizing them at night with bullets coming through their houses or nearby. In Innocent Voices, the victims rarely carry weapons and we barely see soldiers actually shooting yet, majority is families separated and children abused. Means of appeasing a popular insurgency is not killing but instead demoralization of civilians as to sustain insurgency. The idea of killing anyone, stealing sons and terrorizing families convinces everyone that in reality it is themselves suffering. Furthermore, Maria's situation of violence within Latin America is

similar.
Maria, risks everything to be a drug mule, starting from quitting her flower factory job in order to enter the drug smuggling world. Although unemployed and pregnant, she is desperate for a job. She is persuaded by sweet-talking drug dealers who will give her large sums of money for smuggling heroin into the United States. Before explaining drug smuggling, the movie portrays Maria's live in a rural village where she lives with family. She is expected to turn over every penny she earns from her dethorning roses job. She impulsively quits her job, even though she is pressured into returning. Maria becomes pregnant by Juan, a deadbeat who wants to marry her, yet Maria turns him down because she does not love him. She meets Franklin, a charming recruiter who introduces her to Javier a man who wants her to try being an illicit courier.