Analysis # 4 (or 5)

Quando La Cultura Domina/ When Culture Dominates
The culture that I know best is the Latino culture, but mostly Salvadoran culture. Although it is miles away from Mexico, there are some elements that I can relate to in Gloria Azaldua’s “Borderlands/La Frontera”. Although every Latino experience is different from one another, there are some things that we can all relate to. Azaldua says that her experience is the Tex-Mex experience, some of the topics she discusses are reflected in movie Mi Familia/My Family, such as, family vs. the individual, the roles of women, the struggle of being from the United States and the home land, and the languages that come from being Latino.
The first thing that is noticed about the movie is the title, Mi Familia. The family in the Latino culture is something extremely important. The narrator of the movie says that the greatest day for his family was his sister’s wedding. It wasn’t the best day of his life personally; it was for his whole family. The movie is not about one person or one experience; it is the experience of a family as a whole. In the Latino culture there is no individual because “The individual exists first as kin—as sister, as father, as padrino—and last as self.”(Anzaldua 1019). In this movie there is not one main character because the family is the protagonist. The view does see the individuals and the experiences that they live, but the viewers see how the choices or experiences of the individuals affect the family as a whole.
The women in the scene are doing three different things, being a mother, getting married, and becoming a nun. All three of these women are viewed as positive. There are many old traditions in many Latino cultures that put women in three roles, “to the Church as a nun, to the streets as a prostitute, or to the home as a mother.” (Anzaldua 1018). The movie depicts two of these three roles and one that is on the path of the mother. The movie is alluding to Latino culture very well, especially in terms of women. Women have very strict standards and roles that they have to abide by. Maybe because as Azaldua says, “Culture is made by those in power—men.”(1018).
The character Chucho shows another area of Latino culture that is a branch that only Chicanos have talked about. It is the Latino that is born in the United States. There are many struggles that are faced. First is that of language. I as a Salvadoran born in the United States, raised in South Central Los Angeles, I have many different languages: Salvadoran Spanish, Broken Spanish influenced by Mexicans and Chicanos, Standard English, African American influenced English, and Los Angeles Spanish slang. So what identity do I have if it is that “ethnic identity is twin to linguistic identity.” (Anzaldua 1027)? Would I be a Salvadoran-African American and Mexican Influenced-American? As Latinos, we struggle to be the “turtle” that Anzaldua talks about, carrying our homes on our backs, (1021), and the influences that we learn here. Chuco shows that although he speaks Spanish and although his family follows many Mexican traditions he is not fully into the Mexican tradition. He speaks Spanglish and says “Man, I hate this Mariachi shit”. There are some characteristics that he fights against. Anzaldua shows these are actual characteristics of the Chicano by saying that “In the 50s and 60s, for the slightly educated and agringado Chicanos, there existed a sense of shame at being caught listening to our music.”(1028). Although Chucho might not be that educated her still has that Anglo influence because he is listening to English music while he is washing his car. But, he also has the influence of other Latino cultures because he then listens to Mambo.
As Latinos we have many different influences. We have mixtures of other Latinos in our language. We start listening to their different music. Then we have the other completely different cultures that begin to shape us. We have the Anglo, the African American, the Asian, and so many more depending on our surroundings. So as Latinos who are we? Are we the Chicano, the Salvi, the Latino, the Hispanic, La Raza, Gente, the Brown, or que? No matter what we are though we do try to keep our connections and foundation to our homes.

Works Cited
Anzaldua, Gloria. "Borderlands/La Frontera." Literary Theory, an Anthology (Blackwell Anthologies). Grand Rapids: Blackwell Limited, 2004. 1017-030. Print.
"YouTube - My Family [Mi Familia] Part 4 of 13." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 13 Aug. 2009. .