Mosquita Y Mari Theme

Mosquita y Mari is a story that focuses on the relationship between two Chicana teen girls in East Los Angeles. Growing up in immigrant households Yolanda and Mari are expected to prioritize their families’ well-being. As the storyline progresses, unexpected feelings and desires for each other begin to surface.

Pressures at home force them to choose between their obligations to family and the affection between them. While “Mosquita y Mari” explores changing identities and traditional ideas of family; issues of cultural prohibition, homelessness risk, and sexuality surface throughout the film. The opening scene is one that attempts to show the reality inside the Latino community in Huntington Park. Latino music playing in the background and

Mari and her family are in an unstable housing cycle, the family’s inability to afford their rent becomes clear and homelessness becomes one of the main points of Mari’s character. In addition to being a queer Latina, Mari belongs to a single-parent immigrant household and is dealing with an unsuccessful educational experience. Mari’s mother work long hours at a minimum wage job, and Mari feels a strong sense of responsibility to help financially. In Latino households, we are taught to place family above one’s self. The tradition of Latino teenagers hustling to help family stay above water is important. It

Even though Yolanda has a more stable financial household her parents are just as demanding as Mari’s. They require Yolanda to stay focused on school so she can be able to attend college and achieve a high a paying career. Traditional ideas of ‘if you work hard enough you can achieve it’ are presented in the film. Expectations of family are high for Yolanda as she comes from an immigrant family. The need for Yolanda to succeed is crucial as it defines the American dream her parents want her to obtain. Yolanda is faced with an obligation to achieve the American dream her parents so hard worked for. Deviating from these expectations translates into an ungrateful daughter that does not care about what family thinks. Family, for most Latinos is the most important thing. Adding to this idea is being an immigrant; where family is the only thing we have, and know. Keeping the family together is one of the main points in Yolanda’s household; we can conclude that it might be more important than achieving the American dream.

In Latino households where heterosexual couples occur males are the head of the household. Supporting this idea is Yolanda’s dad who makes the decisions in the household and is the one that has the last word. He is the one that ultimately gives permission to his daughter to leave the house and go to college in another state. In the film, we can also see who Latino males have privilege traditions are