Mi Vida Loca
Mi Vida Loca means “my crazy life (as a girl).” The movie documents the phenomenon of female gangs in the early nineties in Los Angeles. It is written and directed by Allison Anders, who grew up in Los Angeles and went to UCLA. She uses personal experiences to help influence her story writing. In Echo Park, a group of young Mexican-Americans show what it means to live in the inner city. The film looks at gang lifestyle from a woman’s point of view to uncover relationships, conflicts, gang loyalty, and identity. The “homegirls” portray their female friendships through their daily lives of survival in Echo Park. It is a rough life with almost every “homegirl” having a baby by the time they are twenty-one and almost every “homeboy” being handicapped, killed, or in jail by the time they reach their early twenties. The girls try to become autonomous from the men in their lives by forming their own female gang. The gang culture of Mi Vida Loca reflects and constructs culturally understood gender roles.
The basic plot is based around two Chicano girls and their childhood lives. The movie is split up into three episodes. Maribel “Mousie” and Mona “Sad Girl” were childhood best friends that become enemies over a boy, Ernesto. Sad Girl is the main narrator of the movie. This drug dealer first falls for Mousie, but then gets Sad Girl pregnant also. He spends most of his money on his two babies and his prize possession, Suavecito, his mini-truck. The two young mothers arrange a fight one-on-one for a bloody confrontation. Neither of them gets hurt, but Ernesto is shot by one of his Caucasian clients on the same night. With Ernesto out of both of their lives, they can move on and earn back each other’s friendship.
After Ernesto’s death shadow takes over his brother’s drug dealing business with the help of Shadow, a female gangster that was shot with Ernesto. Meanwhile, Anhenica “Giggles” is released from a four-year sentence in prison for the crimes of her deceased boyfriend. As an older “homegirl”, the girls look up to her and ask for guidance. Giggles and the girls discuss the future of Sauvecito and agree selling it. But the men have already decided to enter it in a car show that Ernesto was looking forward to. Giggles has decided on changing her lifestyle to be an independent, working woman. The “homegirls” are disappointed that Giggles wants to pursue...
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... the gender role that women can have power over men and get what they want through sex. She is using him for the car, and he is using the car for sex.
Gender roles play a huge part in Mi Vida Loca. Growing up, the kids had nowhere else to turn, but to each other. This is a factor in deciding the roles that they will become. As dropouts of high school, they have to survive on the street. For the boys, that means becoming “tough” to gain respect and leadership from other boys. For the girls, it meant finding someone to provide for them.
These roles can be broken as shown through Giggles independence and eventually the female gangsters creating their own complicated operations. Giggles friend who took care of her baby demonstrates independence, strength, and intelligence by living on her own and becoming mature. Also, at the end Little Sleepy is shot by one of El Duran’s girls. Her taking the initiative and resorting to murder goes against the female gender role.
Works Cited
Anders, Allison. Mi Vida Loca. Cineville Inc. 1993.
French, Marilyn. “Gender Roles.” One World, Many Cultures. Ed. Stuart Hirschberg. 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995. 143-152.
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Even though Luis’s gang try to change his way of treating women, Luis is a strong character and does not change his beliefs. “Some gangs initiate females by having them have sex with all the ranking members of the gang” (Report Gang Crime Tips). Just like the gangs on the streets, Luis’s gang also believes women are only meant to have sex. His gang keeps reminding him, that women are weak and men have more power than them. However, Luis knows women should not be treated that way and simply ignores them.
Grande introduces to the audience various characters that cross Juana 's path to either alter or assist her on her journey to find her father. Through those individuals, Grande offers a strong comparison of female characters who follow the norms, versus those that challenge gender roles that
Junot Diaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is focused on the hyper-masculine culture of the Dominican, and many argue that his portrayal of the slew of women in the novel is misogynistic because they are often silenced by the plot and kept out of the narration (Matsui). However, Diaz crafts strong women, and it is society that views them as objects. The novel recognizes the masculine lens of the culture while still examining the lives of resilient women. In this way, the novel showcases a feminist stance and critiques the misogynist culture it is set in by showcasing the strength and depth of these women that help to shape the narrative while acknowledging that it is the limits society places on them because of their sexuality
This novel is a story of a Chicano family. Sofi, her husband Domingo together with their four daughters – Esperanza, Fe, Caridad, and Loca live in the little town of Tome, New Mexico. The story focuses on the struggles of Sofi, the death of her daughters and the problems of their town. Sofi endures all the hardships and problems that come her way. Her marriage is deteriorating; her daughters are dying one by one. But, she endures it all and comes out stronger and more enlightened than ever. Sofi is a woman that never gives up no matter how poorly life treats her. The author- Ana Castillo mixes religion, super natural occurrences, sex, laughter and heartbreak in this novel. The novel is tragic, with no happy ending but at the same time funny and inspiring. It is full of the victory of the human spirit. The names of Sofi’s first three daughters denote the three major Christian ideals (Hope, Faith and Charity).
To understand fully the implicit meaning and cultural challenges the film presents, a general knowledge of the film’s contents must be presented. The protagonist, Tita, suffers from typical Hispanic cultural oppression. The family rule, a common rule in this culture, was that the youngest daughter is to remain unwed for the duration of her mother’s life, and remain home to care for her. Mama Elena offers her daughter, Tita’s older sister Rosaura, to wed a man named Pedro, who is unknowingly in mutual love with Tita. Tita is forced to bake the cake for the wedding, which contains many tears that she cried during the process. Tita’s bitter tears cause all the wedding guests to become ill after consuming the cake, and Tita discovers she can influence others through her cooking. Throughout the film, Tita’s cooking plays an important role in all the events that transpire.
This movie is based on changing the lives of Mexican Americans by making a stand and challenging the authority. Even when the cops were against them the whole time and even with the brutal beatings they received within one of the walk out, they held on. They stuck to their guns and they proved their point. The main character was threatened by the school administrators, she was told if she went through with the walkout she would be expelled. While they wanted everyone who was going to graduate to simply look the other way, the students risked it all and gave it their all to make their voices
4. Judith L. Kellogg, “Le Livre de la cite des dames: Reconfiguring Knowledge and Reimagining Gendered Space” in Christine de Pizan: A Casebook edited by Barbra K. Altman and Deborah L. McGrady, New York: Routledge, 2003.
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
started up in 1903. Of course, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. George Baldwin Selden, an inventor, earned himself a patent for the automobile in 1895. This halted production of the Model A almost entirely. Ford eventually gained the support of other carmakers and eventually shut down the Selden Patent. Henry Ford faced many other challenges including greedy employees, failed model t prototypes and many more things. However, Ford also had his Triumphs in some of the things he's most famous for. First, Ford invented the assembly line. Before, one car would be assembled at a time bringing all the parts around to one place. Ford’s assembly line changed this. Now they could make and mass produce several cars at a time. Heres how it works: a bare chassis would roll down a conveyor. Along the way the engine, wheels, body, and a black paint job would be applied. Going along with the assembly line, Ford was also able to make a cheap, easy to fix,
French, Katherine L., and Allyson M. Poska. Women and Gender in the Western past. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Print.
This movie takes place in Los Angeles and is about racial conflicts within a group of people which occur in a series of events. Since there are a wide variety of characters in this movie, it can be confusing to the viewer. In the plot, Graham is an African-American detective whose younger brother is a criminal. His mother cares more about his brother than Graham and she wants Graham to bring his brother back home, which in turn hurts Graham. Graham?s partner Ria is a Hispanic woman who comes to find that her and Graham?s ethnicities conflict when she had sex with him. Rick is the Los Angeles district attorney who is also op...
Cosmetic surgery is essentially not a bad thing. Some people suffer facial and body injuries or are born with a deformity which can only be corrected by plastic surgery. Cosmetic surgery can also be a life saver in cases of extreme obesity. However, some people-especially young females- are becoming too obsessed with their looks and body. The quest of finding the perfect body has led many to the operating table, opting for multiple cosmetic surgeries.
Plastic surgery is identified as the process of restructuring or fixing parts of the body by the transferal of tissue. Largely, surgeons utilize plastic surgery for the treatment of damage or for cosmetic purposes. As far as history has shown us, the first plastic surgery was found to be implemented in India during the period of the Indus Valley Civilization. India also started practicing reconstructive surgery techniques by around the era of 800 BC. The Romans were also known to perform plastic surgery. Moving ahead into plastic surgery’s developmental history, in the years prior to the First World War, a vast amount of developments were beginning to change the practices of surgery in general, and facial reconstruction in particular. Before
Moreover to changes the media has cause us to make, cosmetic surgery been the gateway to our body dissatisfaction. The difference between cosmetic and plastic is for aesthetic purposes. Cosmetic surgery is to change the appearance of facial features and body dissatisfactions. Plastic surgery is to demolish any flaws that are scars, burns or areas where it dysfunction. Cosmetic surgery has been highly influenced by the media. The first plastic surgery was during the world war 1. The surgery was commonly performed on soldiers to restore their faces after the war. We adapted the cosmetic and plastic surgery as a norm activity when we don’t like our features. People are pressured to be wrinkle-free, thin and beautiful (Bawdon para. 4). Magazine