This phase of my studies was inspired by a thread on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MPaarlberg/status/1560397489156624384
The first tweet says:
I teach an undergrad class on Latin American politics that incorporates films as a supplement to the readings. Since it's course prep time, I'll share the films I assign, by country, and links where currently available here:
That is right up my alley.
It is also fourteen movies. I knew it would be setting myself up for failure to try and get them all in within a reasonable time period. (I can sometimes be honest about my bandwidth.) Also, some of them will be hard to get.
I did see which ones were available through different library services, and picked five.
And I did not finish La Dictadura Perfecta, Mexico (2014). I did not think about checking for English subtitles, and the DVD I got did not have them. My Spanish is currently too rusty for that.
The movie started with a scene in English with Spanish subtitles which I understood perfectly. In it, Mexico's president makes a huge gaffe while speaking with the US ambassador. Having already watched Cartel Land, it was obviously meant to be Nieto, who was only two years into his term when it was released. I will have to try watching later.
Cartel Land, United States, but mostly set in Mexico (2015)
The ultimate message of this one may be that there are no heroes.
It starts interviewing one masked man talking about how he know manufacturing drugs is wrong, but they need the money; if they didn't do it, someone else would. Possibly true, but then you go to people devastated by the murder of family members because their boss did not pay his protection money. That's not just manufacturing drugs. Then you have a vigilante movement trying to clean up the cartels from their areas, but they grow gradually more corrupt until most of them work for the government, except for the one who ends up in jail. By the time you see that masked man again, there isn't much room left for sympathy.
Meantime, we meet a vigilante border patrol group on the US side. Their founder was initially was mad about jobs lost to immigrants, but realizes there is a bigger picture without appreciably changing.
I do wonder if El Doctor's vigilante group could have been better if they had focused just on their town instead of expanding, but everyone has their own personal level of corruption. The built-in government corruption does not help.
Juan de Los Muertos, Cuba (2010)
I don't generally like zombie movies. I admit this one is funny, much like the similarly named Shaun of the Dead (2004). I think it also gives a good idea of how Cubans are survivors, along with what they have survived, and their love for their island.
It is also drenched in machismo. The only woman who gets any respect is Juan's daughter, and that still does not involve much character development for her. For him, a great part of his love is not wanting anyone to touch her.
All of that goes pretty well with some of the other things I found when reading more about Cuba.
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2019/01/machismo.html
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-bossy-gallito-and-medio-pollito.html
El secreto de sus ojos, Argentina (2009)
In Spanish classes I have seen La Historia Oficial (1985) three times, only matched in frequency by El Norte (1984), a joint US/UK venture, but taking place in Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States. Both were Academy Award winners.
I mention that because the later win for El secreto... made Argentina the first Latin American country to win Best Foreign Language film twice. Do today's Spanish students (or those of a few years ago) watch it?
The two Argentinian films give different views of the past. El secreto starts ten years before La historia and deals directly with crime and corruption. La historia... is more domestic, though that corruption is always in the background. However -- and maybe this is because it concludes in 1999 and was released another ten years after that -- El secreto is much more optimistic. After all the death and disappearance and trouble, for those who are still alive, it is still possible to believe in happiness for them.
Maybe sometimes you just need to endure.
Machuca, Chile (2004)
There is an aspect of this film that I want to spend more time on in a separate post. For now, I just want to mention certain images.
This film covers the end of Salvador Allende's time in office. Changes seem to be coming, and then are harshly stopped.
There is a wall with graffiti seen that is added to, and then completely erased.
You also see a large shantytown several times. It lies between an empty field and a mountain range. We visit the shacks and know some of the residents, but we also see the residents being rounded up and their possessions being destroyed. The last time we see the field and the mountains, some soccer nets have been added to the field, but there is no sign that those homes or those people were ever there.
It does not make you confident that this is a country that will be able to deal with its past.
Unsung: Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam (2013)
This year I discovered this series that goes into the history of various bands. I thought I would just throw in this episode, because Lisa Lisa's success was an inspiration for many Puerto Rican girls from Hell's Kitchen.
It was interesting, but probably less scandalous than some bands' stories.
One thing that was nice was understanding the relationship between Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam and Full Force, which had been kind of confusing. So Lisa Velez participated in auditions for Full Force when they were looking for women vocalists.
Full Force were performers, but they were also producers and they worked with a lot of different musicians. They assembled Cult Jam with Lisa Lisa by combining her with Spanador Moseley and Mike Hughes. and wrote some of their hits, but also sometimes were "with" Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam.
Now you know!
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