El Viaje de Carol

I find this to be the most difficult of all the posts we have had since I didn't know what was being said in the film. I considered watching the movie now with subtitles but decided not to wait for the library to get the movie in since this usually takes several days. Not having seen her in her American home it is very difficult for me to compare her new culture. I didn't feel that she had to adapt too much, she already spoke fluent Spanish because of her mother. She met many new people, her grandfather and her aunt and uncle and cousins(?) I don't know if she had met them previously. She seemed to easily make friends with the children she came in contact with. I didn't find the beginning scene where her hat was taken to be very different from any child moving to a new area, whether it was a new city, state or country. Having been a child whose parents moved around a lot, I frequently was in a situation where I had to make new friends and start over again. I did think that the hardest part she had to adapt to was being without her father and knowing he was at war and in constant danger. She seemed relatively happy while her mother was alive. Her mother apparently was able to read and write in English because after she died she had to have Maruca's help to write to her father. I am not sure if she attended church before the move or what religion she practiced but this was an obvious change for her as she seemed somewhat out of place during communion. Also, the revolution going on around her must have been confusing too. After her mother died she must have felt very alone, it was good that she felt so close to her grandfather. I am not sure what happened to her father, and assume that she was returning to America in the end to be with him. The film seemed to be very touching and I probably will watch it with subtitles, just to see what I missed.

Volver

I think that this movie is a tribute to women and their resilience because Raimunda had lived through a terrible tragedy, being impregnated by her own father while her mother stood by and did nothing. She still managed to raise a wonderful daughter, and while she worked very hard for what she had by performing many different jobs, she still persevered. She immediately believed her daughter when she learned what had happened and never once questioned her or tried to blame her. Raimunda should have gone to the authorities, but seemed to do a pretty good job of covering up for her daughter. I think she did not want her daughter to have to go through a trial or the embarrassment of telling anyone what had happened. Raimunda and Sole also had survived the fire that presumably killed their parents and still seemed to have pretty good lives. Sole ran the illegal beauty shop to support herself, her husband had been missing for two years. I thought for sure that there would be a story about that in the end, explaining what happened to him, but there was not.
Can you identify the tension between superstitious beliefs and real life aspects through the film? Provide at least two examples. I think the biggest example is that people actually saw Irene caring for Aunt Paula and assumed that she was a ghost. No one questioned that Irene might actually be there and someone should investigate where Augustina's mother really was. Also during the shooting of the television show with Augustina it is said the town where she lived had the highest rate of insanity. I'm am not sure if that was true, or because the people were so immersed in their superstitious beliefs that it made others think they were crazy. This was a wonderful film.

Guantanamera

I think the first aspect of Hispanic culture that I noticed was the machismo.The way Adolpho treated Gina, telling her what to wear and how to style her hair. Mariano was so blatantly running around with so many different women, much like Ivan in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. I felt these two movies were very similar. I also noticed the selling of goods on the street, how odd that would be here in our area to have someone bring large ropes of garlic(?) to your car window while stopped at a traffic light, or a whole bunch of bananas! This does happen on a smaller scale here, people do sell candy and flower curbside to raise money for different reasons especially around holidays. One of the most odd was when I heard Adolfo speaking of the "permit" he had obtained for travel for four people. We only need a permit, or passport, when we go to different countries. I guess this is something like that. I do not recall anyone checking their permit along the way. Something else that seemed very common or natural for them was when the truck would stop at points along the way people climbed aboard like it was public transportation. It was very dangerous, no seats or seatbelts. Just a load of people standing in the back hanging on to the boards to keep them from falling when the truck stopped and started. It seemed there was always some nice salsa music playing, except when Caudido asked the driver to turn it off so that he could morn properly. I think last thing that really struck me was the vision of the girl who seemed to represent death. I assume there is a strong belief in spirits, the truck driver was performing some type of ritual on the truck before their trip. Aunt Yoyita saw her in a photo right before she died and Caudido acutally saw her several times before his death. Adolpho asked her for help when he was standing alone on the stone column, did he die also?

The Official Story

Gaby's future is uncertain. Alicia is definetly going to search for the truth. Whether or not Roberto tries to stop her is another concern. The ties that Roberto has seem to be able to keep people from talking. He knew of Anna's kidnap and torture without being told by Alicia. I hope that Alicia finds that the woman who was protesting was actually Gaby's grandmother and she is given custody of the child. I can't imagine how they would investigate this, I think the movie was in the early 1980's I know that they were capable of genetic testing at the time but would it even be permitted because might it prove that what was being protested on the streets was actually true. The government would be found to be guilty of the crimes it was being charge with by the public. I believe that Roberto truly loved Alicia and Gaby and wanted nothing but the best for them. I don't think he would have gone to the lengths that he did to "adopt" Gaby if he didn't really love Alicia. I think Roberto,Alicia, Gaby, and the possible grandmother would also disappear if Roberto persues the truth. The men that he associated with seemed to be powerful political people, They made Andrada vanish, I am sure that they wouldn't hesitate to do it again to protect their cause, whatever that was. His job seemed somewhat mysterious. I thought this movie was a little slow, maybe my least favorite. It was very sad that Alicia just accepted the baby and never questioned where Gaby came from until the students and Ana raised her suspicions.