The Immigrant Issue: Is it so clear?
The Immigrant Issue: Is it so clear? & Review of the Film: Maria Full of Grace
I laid awake in bed last night for several hours, completely engrossed in thought about the movie, “Maria Full of Grace.” It was a fulfilling and chilling masterpiece, capturing third world mentality and the struggles of three Columbian girls smuggling drugs into the United States. Although not considered a documentary in the traditional sense, it could not hold a claim to fiction either. There was no melodrama, like in a conventional Hollywood script, but the audience was not spoon-fed an education like Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 911”. Maria, the main character, played by amateur actress Catalina Moreno, is thoroughly compelling as a stubborn and brave adolescent, with a stoic and precocious personality. Despite her family’s poverty and her unwanted pregnancy, she desperately wants a way out of her meager surroundings. She looks to America for a new life as a band-aid to life in Colombia. There, she can make a decent wage to send back to her family. In America, her baby can have opportunities she cannot have. Early in the narrative, Maria looks to the sky and climbs to the roof to be closer to her idealized freedom. In the meantime, she knows she must endanger her life, by participating in the drug trade. Each digested heroine pellet is her future, good or bad.
Her authentic performance and the raw narrative brought a frightening realization: I could have been her. I recently proclaimed to my boyfriend in Los Angeles that California’s immigration policy should be tighter and more restrictive. I found myself pontificating about something I knew little about. Yet, I was once an immigrant. Granted, I am far removed from the five year old that landed in Florida from Honduras. But I was an illegal alien until my citizen papers were accepted in 1989, leaving me an unabashed, but unaware pre-teen.
In my other blog entries, I’ve said America was founded on immigrants, or the so-called “melting-pot” principle. Let’s disregard that we massacred, raped and wiped out an entire race of indigenous people. Let’s disregard that Blacks were not considered African Americans then; they were cattle. Sure, we had a melting pot ideology. So, let me edit my statement. America was founded on the white man’s civilized melting pot: a heck of a lot of Irish, Danish, English, Dutch, Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese, and the occasional Jew (if the community could handle it). We, “true Americans,” as some of us consider ourselves, are suddenly having an “Us” versus “Them” mind-set. When did this come about? I believe it was after World War II. Let me get into this debate a little later, so I may not digress. “True Americans” is a contradiction, paradox and an irony. Beyond anthropology and sociology’s credo that humans do not own lands (no one and nothing does), I ask you and myself why it is that we’ve begun a political game of Us vs. Them? Also, why have we created a Patriot Act, which not only invades our privacy, but also limits immigration and the liberties many generations have partaken in? Have we returned to a Puritan society? Have we not advanced at all with human and societal growth?
I CAN believe it, because I too made a claim of “Us” versus “Them” (referring to Mexicans) not too long ago. I am ashamed, especially after watching a film, in which its essence and entirety captures the spirit of the American way and the passionate desire to be a part of this free and prosperous nation. I found myself looking out of Maria’s eyes with a wet wonderment and the bewilderment of newfound freedom. Immigration is not such a clear case, an ease in analysis. There is emotion tied to its disputable core, buried deep in the soil, because this nation has grown from such a history. And what a profound history is it! Can you imagine this entire nation being run by the white rich Christian Coalition? Can you imagine not ever having known a friend of color? Can you imagine little or no diversity? There are many countries like this in the world, where communism and/or dictatorship live. Please, friends, make sure you think hard about making this country less diverse and more uniform. Ironically, we are only homogenous when we are diverse, liberated and unique.
I laid awake in bed last night for several hours, completely engrossed in thought about the movie, “Maria Full of Grace.” It was a fulfilling and chilling masterpiece, capturing third world mentality and the struggles of three Columbian girls smuggling drugs into the United States. Although not considered a documentary in the traditional sense, it could not hold a claim to fiction either. There was no melodrama, like in a conventional Hollywood script, but the audience was not spoon-fed an education like Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 911”. Maria, the main character, played by amateur actress Catalina Moreno, is thoroughly compelling as a stubborn and brave adolescent, with a stoic and precocious personality. Despite her family’s poverty and her unwanted pregnancy, she desperately wants a way out of her meager surroundings. She looks to America for a new life as a band-aid to life in Colombia. There, she can make a decent wage to send back to her family. In America, her baby can have opportunities she cannot have. Early in the narrative, Maria looks to the sky and climbs to the roof to be closer to her idealized freedom. In the meantime, she knows she must endanger her life, by participating in the drug trade. Each digested heroine pellet is her future, good or bad.
Her authentic performance and the raw narrative brought a frightening realization: I could have been her. I recently proclaimed to my boyfriend in Los Angeles that California’s immigration policy should be tighter and more restrictive. I found myself pontificating about something I knew little about. Yet, I was once an immigrant. Granted, I am far removed from the five year old that landed in Florida from Honduras. But I was an illegal alien until my citizen papers were accepted in 1989, leaving me an unabashed, but unaware pre-teen.
In my other blog entries, I’ve said America was founded on immigrants, or the so-called “melting-pot” principle. Let’s disregard that we massacred, raped and wiped out an entire race of indigenous people. Let’s disregard that Blacks were not considered African Americans then; they were cattle. Sure, we had a melting pot ideology. So, let me edit my statement. America was founded on the white man’s civilized melting pot: a heck of a lot of Irish, Danish, English, Dutch, Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese, and the occasional Jew (if the community could handle it). We, “true Americans,” as some of us consider ourselves, are suddenly having an “Us” versus “Them” mind-set. When did this come about? I believe it was after World War II. Let me get into this debate a little later, so I may not digress. “True Americans” is a contradiction, paradox and an irony. Beyond anthropology and sociology’s credo that humans do not own lands (no one and nothing does), I ask you and myself why it is that we’ve begun a political game of Us vs. Them? Also, why have we created a Patriot Act, which not only invades our privacy, but also limits immigration and the liberties many generations have partaken in? Have we returned to a Puritan society? Have we not advanced at all with human and societal growth?
I CAN believe it, because I too made a claim of “Us” versus “Them” (referring to Mexicans) not too long ago. I am ashamed, especially after watching a film, in which its essence and entirety captures the spirit of the American way and the passionate desire to be a part of this free and prosperous nation. I found myself looking out of Maria’s eyes with a wet wonderment and the bewilderment of newfound freedom. Immigration is not such a clear case, an ease in analysis. There is emotion tied to its disputable core, buried deep in the soil, because this nation has grown from such a history. And what a profound history is it! Can you imagine this entire nation being run by the white rich Christian Coalition? Can you imagine not ever having known a friend of color? Can you imagine little or no diversity? There are many countries like this in the world, where communism and/or dictatorship live. Please, friends, make sure you think hard about making this country less diverse and more uniform. Ironically, we are only homogenous when we are diverse, liberated and unique.
More thoughts later…Jo
posted by Only The Lonely @ 9:12 PM
<< Home