El Viaje de Carol

A lesson in full Emerson where non-speaking Spanish people watch a Spanish film with no sub titles. Carol was a soon to be teenager whose father was American and mother was from Spain.
She traveled with her mother to Spain because her father was servihng in the war and her mother was dying. After they arrive in Spain Carol, her mother, and her grandfather visit the grave of her grandmother. You can tell Carol's grandfather thinks she shows disrespect at the grave. Carol was caught up in her American upbringing and probably not to happy being brought to Spain in the first place. At night Carol prayed in American and said goodnight to her Daddy.
Carol meets Tomiche her first love and two of his friends. At first the boys found it fun to pick on Carol. A great part of the movie was when Carol defending herself kicks Tomiche in his private parts.
A sad part was when Carol found her mother dead in the swing. Carol had ask her grandfather not to say anything in a letter to her father about her mother's death, yet her grandfather did so out of duty. Carol's father secretly came to see her as Franko's soldiers hunted him down. The solider shot at Carol's father but hit and killed Tomiche.
The end of the film reflected to the beginning as Carol sat in the back of the buggy the two boys followed along on their bikes, then a touch of magic realism as Tomiche was also there riding and waving with them.

What a movie, Do you think the kissing was elaborated or they really kiss that much? After a while one might feel like they need a shower. All the women played strong rolls which was great after all the macho ism we have viewed. The bonds among family once again very strong with Hispanic culture. We saw superstition in this film, the community really believed that Irene was dead when they saw glimpses of her as she cared for her sister Paula. The strong Eastern winds were mentioned several times, the peoples superstition believed the winds could blow in evil.
As Raimunda took the opportunity to run the restaurant and put Paco's dead body in the spare freezer, I thought she was going to chop it up and serve it in some barbecue like in the movie Fried Green Tomato's which is my favorite movie of all times.
When Irene tells what really happened the day of the fire to her husband and Augustina's mother I feel this scene brings the mystery to light. I felt bad that Irene knew all along the abuse her husband was doing to his daughter and didn't do anything about it.
Augustina was my favorite, she smoked her weed, cared for the sick, and was a true friend. She wanted so much to know what happened to her mother, but not at the expense of others. She stated "we should wash our dirty laundry at home"
When Raimida and Irene talked and Raimunda said " I hated you for not noticing" and when Irene said "Paula is your daughter and your sister" I just could not image.
This movie was a tribute to women and I enjoyed it very much.

Guantanemera

I just read through some of the bloggs and so far no one has mentioned the song One Guantanemera and how it stays around in your head long after the movie was over. I woke up the next morning with that tune in my head and I thought Great, just like some of the grand kids tunes this one just won't go away.
My favorite carector in the film was Gina. She was beautiful and smart she had alot to offer and I found myself rooting for her from the beginning. Aldolfo didn't realize what he had, his abuse to Gina was appearently tipical of the culture and time. Aldolfo showed machoism but then so did Marrieno with his use of many women, at least until he found his true love.
The viewer could easily pull out culture with family, friends and food. Also the salsa music and the cuben cigers.
One thing I found interesting was the story of Olofin. What I got was it rained for thirty days and the only thing that could climb high enough to survive the waters were the children this act cleansed the earth. this story reminds me of Nohahs Ark in the Bible.
I learned reading one blogg that even though cubans drink alot of coffee they don't drink what they raise because of its high quality they drink imported coffee. I feel like if I raise it I would want to drink it.

The Official Story

A good movie that kept my attention. However I had many questions at the end. Was Gabby Sarah's grandchild? Did Alicia really leave Roberto and Gabby or did she come back? The film was good but gave one a sense of hopelessness not knowing if Gabby's parents were dead and if she had other relatives. Roberto was a lawyer and a businessman while Alicia taught history to high school boys. Anna was Alicia's devoted friend, she told Alicia about being kidnapped and electric prodded. She also told about the missing babies and people. I liked the scene at Roberto's family dinner grandpa talking to the children teaching that honesty was more important than material things. Notice when the men speak at the meal the women stayed silent. Alicia thought about herself when she was a child her parents were killed in a car accident her grandma lied to her and said they were coming home. Alicia was wondering who Gabby belonged to and she said "I have never took anything that did not belong to me in my life."Hopelessness is felt throughout the film like the scene where the women were protesting against the army to bring their missing loved ones home