The program for the Latin American Film Festival is a comparative program of the disappeared both in Chile and Argentina. It is also a comparative between the films made by United States directors and some that are actually from Latin American directors. Both countries, Argentina and Chile have gone through a military coup in the early 1970s. It was a way of of “more modern forms of authoritarianism” compared to other countries such as Paraguay which had more of a traditional authoritarianism (Military Rebellion in Argentina, p.2). When we observe the four different movies, we see the importance of the military in the everyday life, we see the authoritarianism that is affecting the civilians even though some of the movies have been made with …show more content…
Some might be more realistic than others as for example, the movie Missing is based on a true story. But they all reflect actual events. When we observe the difference of point of views of all of these movies, we see that we learn a lot about what has happened.
In La Historia Official, we have the point of view of the wife, who has had a daughter for now five years, and has actually no idea where she came from. It shows the upper middle class lifestyle, where people are given many things, which have been forcefully taken from others. It shows how the upper middle class, because they other work in the government, have the children of the missing with no other information.
If we look at Imagining Argentina, we have the point of view of the husband who is searching for his wife who went missing but also, we see the torture the wife and daughter go through. It shows both aspects and point of views. This shows more the side of the middle class, and what happened to people who protested, who wrote the truth. And yet, we wonder why did the husband never go missing as he acquired psychic power to see the future and what had happened to each person who had gone
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Some tried to denounce the history and others focused on the disappeared and how it was so fluent in Latin America. This Film Festival shows the different opinions and point of views of the disappeared, how it has affected many families, some that were aware, some who were not, some who were upper middle-class and some in the lower class. It is also very important to say, that depending on the class, it would affect whether you would become disappeared or not… All the families who were upper middle-class, as the movies La Historia Official and Cautiva, both have upper middle-class families and therefore have children they adopted. Whereas, Imagining Argentina, is a couple in the middle class and due to the fact of being journalist, Cecilia went missing. It could be said, that if you were in the upper class, you were more likely to be in government or a military work which would make you less likely to question the government and the military
The resulting work is historical fiction, a recreation of the lives of three Dominican sisters—Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa Mirabal— who were murdered for their attempts to overthrow Trujillo the same year Alvarez's family fled to the United States. The Maribal sisters are heroic women known by their revolutionary name Las Mariposas (The Butterflies). The core of the book is made up of chronological reminiscences by the murdered sisters from childhood to the time of their brutal demise. “The Mirabals are a traditional provincial Dominican family, portrayed in clichéd fashion—a middle¬class rural clan anchored by the inevitably philandering but supportive patriarch and the warm, caring and wise mother”
The book combines a modern interview and a series of flashback memories to tell the girls’ story; the author’s use of rotating perspective also helps the reader gain specific insights into each sister’s life during the Trujillo regime. The late twentieth century was a period
Wright continues the telling of this historical event, under the topic of Fidelismo and the radicalization of Latin American politics. The combination of Castro’s actions and Che Guevara’s calls for revolution in the western hemisphere had a direct and profound effect on Latin American politics. This powerful force came to be known as Fidelismo and broken down to its core “it was simply the attitude that revolution should be pursued immediately” (Wright p. 39). On of the most noticeable symptoms of Fidelismo was an intense growth of demands for change. Wright notes that during this time, the intensity of political activities in many other Latin American countries increased, especially after Castro’s victory.
The films “The other conquest”, “Jerico”, and “I the Worst of All” are all a depiction of what life would be like during the Spanish Conquest. These films give different point of views during the Spanish Conquest. The films give a person a well-rounded view of how the world really changed for different people during a historical movement. After watching these films, one is able to assess and determine their own truth about what exactly happened to Amerindians and Spaniards during this time.
Alvarez’s novel In the Time of the Butterflies bears testament to the monopolizing effects of dictatorships on society through the story of the four Mirabal sisters, Las Mariposas. Each sister shows a different side of Dominican culture, and in turn, the government’s parasitic effect on it. Even the church is not spared from these horrors: whether the church was aided or suppressed was irrelevant to Trujillo; the government must impact every facet of Dominican life. Despite condemning Trujillo, and by extension authoritarian governments, to the farthest extent, Alvarez is careful to avoid deifying the Mirabal sisters, a practice which she sees as one the of main forces that keep dictators in power.
Upper class citizens prepare for future power by going through top of the world schooling, like boarding schools as teens, with others that are going to succeed just as much as them. After graduating from college, which is most likely going to be an Ivy league school, they are fully prepared to handle the power they are going to receive in the coming years. This power can influence many things like future politicians they may meet and even the economy and how the market is going to
HIS 1010 Name: Abdullah Ali Mohammed Madonna ID: 250490 Neoliberalism has occupied Latin America for over three decades. The neoliberalism eliminates tariffs and government subsidies of national industry and implementing national policies that favor the needs of business and investment. In this essay, I am going to discuss the issues that faced Latin America because of neoliberalism and how it brought harm to Latin America. Neoliberalism caused a loss in state revenue, so the amount which helped to fund the social welfare programs faced a loss. The regulations of labors were weakened, financial trading was deregulated, and the prices of agricultural products were no longer controlled by the state.
In the wildly popular Mexican film, Los olvidados (1950), Spanish director Luis Buñuel exposes the harsh realities of life in Mexico during the 1950’s. Luis Buñuel’s work on Los olvidados portrays a societal loss for all hope due to crime and violence as an infinitely vicious cycle, coupled with addressing the lack of reform for dilapidated living conditions throughout Mexico. In Los olvidados, Buñuel follows Pedro (Alfonso Mejía) a neglected bastard, and El Jaibo (Roberto Cobo) the leader of a gang of homeless children loitering in vacant lots. For Pedro, and the rest of the cast, a series of unfortunate outcomes have been strung together though common ignorance and a lack of self-control. Luis Buñuel’s use of focal length, editing, and dialogue
In the altar’s center is “a plaster image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, quarter-life size, its brown Indian face staring down on the woman” (Paredes 23). The implication of the stare is of criticism as the Virgin, symbolic of an ideal Mexican womanhood, looks down on Marcela, whose Anglo features starkly contrast with the Virgin’s, and whose actions are in opposition to the values that she represents. This carefully constructed scene is meaningful. Marcela’s lifeless body lies between the bed and the altar, and opposite to the altar is Marcela’s shrine dedicated to Hollywood movie stars. These are the visual images of the opposing forces that characterize the Mexican-American struggle for resistance against American cultural hegemony.
Mel Gibson, the director of “Apocalypto” claims in an interview that his movie was a personal desire to create an exciting chase movie, yet analysis of the motive and inaccuracy of the Maya society reflect on the director own view toward the current world. A movie is not a documentary for history but a decision to put history through a Hollywood movie, both director and audience must be prepared for some tradeoffs. Because films are financially practical a historical films becomes a tradeoff accuracy for drama, as it is a political and cultural ground of the producer. Although the director (Mel Gibson) captivate his audience with completing Hollywood “chase” his claim that “Apocalypto” is a true presentation of the Maya is not accurate; rather
To what extent does the nature and form of a film and literature influence what is or is not presented as “reality?” How do we define what is considered as realism and what isn’t?In the world of realism we find ourselves engulfed in an attitude of living in the moment. By this I mean in regards to realism, we deal with situations as they arise. We do not plan or fabricate or use emotions; we use logic. We see this realism prevalent in Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground.
Isabel Allende’s, My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile, is her memoir about her native country, yet also sheds light to other important societal roles in Chile. As she passionately writes about her experiences, Allende makes it evidently clear that she loves her homeland, regardless of what troubles the country encounters. Nonetheless, it should be noted that her memoir is solely based upon her memories, and incorporates a sense of fiction to better help tell her story through vivid descriptions of the natural landscape and/or the people she interacted with. Her book was compelling to me as her passion for her country was expressed through her usage of language and descriptive experiences that portrayed her emotions during
Throughout time, the concept of “democracy” has been misunderstood and misused by the majority of governments around the world. In the Ecuadorian case, despite suffering innumerable dictatorships in command of several presidents such as José Maria Velasco Ibarra or Guillermo Rodríguez Lara, democratic ideas have prevailed and continue to evolve through the history and through the time. In fact, nowadays democracy is the principal political system in this country, in which the notion of popular sovereignty can be recognized. However, it is not clear what kind of democracy the Republic of Ecuador has. So, in order to clarify what was said before, it will be taken into consideration: (1) the definition of democracy according to three important authors, (2) the principal characteristics of a democracy and the two main types of democracy: (3) direct and (4) representative.
Uruguay ranked number 17 on the Global Democracy Ranking in 2014, making it the most democratic state in all of Latin America (The Economist Intelligence Unit. Democracy Index 2014). The transition from a civilian parliamentary governed by elites to military rule and finally to a full democracy took the country through destructive civil wars, an unstable economy, and military brutality. The one feature that has remained constant through all of the country’s turmoil is the perseverance of its political parties. Before the arrival of Europeans, the area that is now Uruguay was inhabited by groups of indigenous Indians.
Films not only reflect life, it can also shape our norms, attitudes, values, and perception of life. The films tend to help us imagine the unimaginable, let us see the unreasonable to be reasonable, and to accept an unacceptable. They can show the truth, truth as they interpret it, or simply ignore truth altogether to show what is entertaining. Don’t expect that if the film is based on the true story it will be a 100% true story because in reality the movie maker adds flavor