Cautiva Documentary

In A Place Where the Sea Remembers, Sandra Benitez invites us into a mesmerizing world filled with love, anger, tragedy and hope. This rich and bewitching story is a bittersweet portrait of the people in Santiago, a Mexican village by the sea. Each character faces a conflict that affects the course of his or her life. The characters in this conflict are Remedios, la curandera of the small town who listens to people’s stories and gives them advice, Marta, a 16 year old teenage girl, who was raped and became pregnant. Chayo is Marta’s big sister and Calendario is Chayo’s husband. Justo Flores, his conflict is person vs. self. One of the most important conflicts in this story is person vs. person, then person vs. supernatural followed by

In this essay, female oppression in La Casa de Bernarda Alba will be discussed and analyzed. However, in order to be able to understand the importance of this theme and the impact it has had on the play, one must first understand the role of female oppression in the Spanish society in the 1930s.

Voces Inocentes is particularly powerful because it is told from the perspective of young Chava, a true innocent voice amidst the chaos. The film does not rely on a political agenda to narrate the story, as Chava does not necessarily understand the varying viewpoints. Chava, along with most of his friends and the boys in the barrio, are terrified of being recruited by the government army. In fact, Chava tragically notes that Ancha, a mentally handicapped man in the village whom the boys befriend, “is the only one not scared to have a birthday” (Voces Inocentes). In some moments in the film it is clear Chava understands the weight of his responsibility to his family and what his future holds if he remains in this village in El Salvador, yet in other moments he is an innocent young boy, driving an imaginary bus and chasing after the girl he likes.

The story begins with a recounting of the story of Tatica, Reyita’s grandmother, and her trial of being abducted from her native Africa and brought to Cuba to be sold into slavery. Tatica’s story sets a precedent that is upheld by the next generations of her family of racial discrimination, struggle for survival and equality, and political activism. Reyita explains that her grandmother’s love of Africa instilled in Reyita a

In El Laberinto del Fauno, Guillermo del Toro uses the theme of obedience to illustrate and condemn two repressive components of fascism: patriarchy and the coercion of free will. This essay will look at two examples of obedience in the film which reveal the abhorrent nature of these aspects of fascism and the importance of resisting them. These are, respectively, the relationship between Captain Vidal and Mercedes and Ofelia’s refusal to compromise her own integrity.

“His nation chewed him up and spat him out like a pinon shell, and when he emerged from an airplane one late afternoon, I knew I would one day make love with him” (Martinez, 3). And so it starts, the story of a nineteen year old Mexican- American girl named Mary (Maria; as he only chooses to call her), who helps out and eventually falls in love with Jose Luis Alegria, a Salvadoran refugee. Martínez's story of María is told against the backdrop of the 12-year civil war in El Salvador. Maria and Jose Luis develop a friendship that slowly turns into a typical novella love affair. Through their relationship, both characters are forced to confront the violence of their

Boyer's article shows how a woman even a woman, even of Indian ethnicity, can take a claim to court, how the family comes in to play a role in the case and how the "deflowering" of Catarina could be rectified with a marriage between her and Juan. The courts dealt with many cases relatively the same as this one. It is shown in this case that the courts were very accessible to the population. Even Catarina, of Indian ethnicity, is able to put forth a claim, on her own, to the judicial system. In this case it can be seen also that the family feels the effects the event of Catarina losing her virginity as her brothers become involved to try and ratify the situation and mend their diminished honour. The brother s petitions to have it taken before the General Indian Court and have Juan marry her as it is said he would. The fact that he didn't marry her is what brings

In “The Secret Lion,” Alberto Alvaro Rios establishes the theme as loss of innocence in a young boy. The narrator brings to life a boy who must leave behind his youthful perceptions about girls, the arroyo, and his green haven. All preconceptions are shattered, and each glimpse of bliss is taken away. Through this the boy gains perspective, and begins to see the world with a new awareness. Rios ingrains the loss of innocence theme through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy who exhibits maturity, autonomy, and disillusionment.

In the play by Federico Garcia Lorca, The House of Bernarda Alba, a recurring theme throughout the play is freedom. Lorca expresses freedom using characters, situations and objects. The characters in the story are Bernarda’s daughters who are under her control and have extremely little freedom and privacy by being forced to abide by her rules. Freedom and Repression are most significant themes conveyed throughout the play, the two opposing themes together are important to understanding both the characters and the story as well.

In most history books, Pancho Villa is depicted as a often cruel but always fearless and cunning leader who courageously fought the dictatorial behavior of Porfirian Diaz in the Mexican Revolution. And some of this is certainly true. The great majority of reports and undocumented stories of Pancho Villa's epic struggles against injustice are all about males, but authors Anna Macias and Elena Poniatowska record the fact that women were a big part of the Mexican Revolution and that Villa was a viciously bloodthirsty scoundrel when it came to women and young girls. In order to set the record straight, Macias and Poniatowska present the writings of three women who ably report involvement of women in these moments in history; for example: a) there were women fighting on the side of Villa and his revolutionary band of warriors; and b) "hundreds of thousands" of women "of every class, were among the victims and casualties" of the conflict.

One thing all human beings, have in common is the struggle for self identity. Children are raised by parents or guardians who have struggled and fought for their own identities. In many cases, parents are still trying to figure it out, while raising their own children. Such is the case with the characters in Junot Diaz’s, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The theme of identity is conveyed through the characters’ Dominican culture, social standing, and in finding love. Oscar, Lola, and Yunior are three central characters in Oscar Wao, who’s Dominican cultural and family expectations were major obstacles as they struggled to establish their identity.

The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela is arguably the most important novel of the Mexican Revolution because of how it profoundly captures the atmosphere and intricacies of the occasion. Although the immediate subject of the novel is Demetrio Macias - a peasant supporter of the Mexican Revolution -, one of its extensive themes is the ambivalence surrounding the revolution in reality as seen from a broader perspective. Although often poetically revered as a ‘beautiful’ revolution, scenes throughout the novel paint the lack of overall benevolence even among the protagonist revolutionaries during the tumultuous days of the revolution. This paper will analyze certain brash characteristics of the venerated revolution as represented by Azuela’s

Even though Camila and War Paint's stories are woven throughout the "bigger picture" of Azuela's novel, their characters are meticulously developed and show readers how women within their roles in society and revolution were

In 2011, American filmmaker, Marisa Miller Wolfson, made a 76-minute documentary titled, ‘Vegucated.’ Wolfson, a practicing vegan, cites her research on foods and especially animal-based foods as her rationale for opting to go vegan. Notably, upon going vegan, she became healthier, lost weight, and even felt happier because she was no longer contributing to the inhuman treatment of animals. In her quest to become a vegan, Wolfson made the film after moving to New York City. Her concurrent idea in the film is the effects of animal diets versus the effects of vegan diets. Evidently, through its participants, the film illustrates that avoidance of animal products results to weight loss and

In the film Central Station (Central do Brasil), Walter Salles presents the characters as on a journey to self-discovery. It is a film about identity. Central Station is a melodrama of transformation based on an anomalous-duo comprising of Dora, a jaded retired schoolteacher, and Josué, a nine year-old boy, who embark on a cross-country journey in search of the boy’s father upon the unfortunate death of his mother. The film presents its analysts with many possible interpretations and significations due to its combination of different themes, visual allusions and narrative elements. Central do Brasil film can be interpreted in three ways: as an extended metaphor on the writing process and a narration of personal stories and experiences, as a figurative journey of Brazilian search for its identity depicted in Dora’s transformation and Josué’s quest for his roots, and as a theological allegory inviting a “theological reading of humans struggling to maintain a relationship to an absent God” (Bowman 1). Through a detailed analysis film’s content, production, and reception, this paper interprets Central do Brasil as an allegory representing the pursuit for identity and transformation.