Film Review: The Other Side of Immigration

The Other Side of Immigration

2009 NR 55 minutes

Contemporary immigration issues between the United States and Mexico receive careful study in this documentary, which uses extensive interviews to outline the experiences and perspectives of ordinary citizens in the Mexican countryside. In examining the economic factors prompting Mexicans to seek work in the United States and the social pressures that result, the film presents an affecting look at a complex political and moral issue.

Director: Roy Germano

Film Review: Todo el Poder

by Fernando Sarinana in Spanish with English subtitles.

       

Apparently inspired by Sarinana’s own experiences in Mexico City, this film tells the story of a filmmaker, Gabriel, who continues to be mugged. In this case, however, the police are no help, because the police are the “bad guys.” One of the bad guys is police chief, Elvis Quijano, a man obsessed with Elvis Presley,  women, drugs, and power. 

Article Review: Sola, Jose, “The Origins and Formation of the Latino Community in Northeast Ohio, 1900 to 2009

Cleveland Latino Fest - Tracy Boulian l Plain Dealer file photo

Mexicans have, in the past two decades, emigrated to other parts of the U.S., other than the traditional areas of California and Texas. They are increasingly emigrating to the Midwest. There has, however, been a long history of Mexicans in Ohio. Sola’s article is a good overview of the history of Latinos in Ohio, as well as an overview of immigration from Mexico in general.

During the Depression, when jobs were tight, immigrants from Mexico, and even American citizens of Mexican origin, were “returned” to Mexico. U.S. citizens were denied their rights and families were broken up.

Book Review: The Circuit

 In his autobiographical work, “The Circuit,” Francisco Jiménez exemplifies the qualities that many immigrants must have: being hard working and not giving up. Jiménez had much to overcome in order to obtain an education.

Book Review: The Garbage King

The Garbage King 
by Elizabeth Laird
 336pp, Macmillan

Set in modern-day Ethiopia, The Garbage King contrasts the lives of two boys: one poor, orphaned Mamo, the other wealthy, but misunderstood Dani, who both grow up in Addis Ababa. Mamo is tricked and sold into slavery and by his wits and determination manages to get back to Addis, where he lives with a gang of street children. Dani, too, finds himself living on the streets.

The lives of the two boys become intertwined. This book is a good introduction to the lives of children in Ethiopia after years of civil war. It also exposes the very-real facts of abuses against children and of child labor in Ethiopia.

This book is recommended for students of high intermediate ESL and above.

*(For the year 2000, the International Labour Organization stated that there would be 3,375,000 economically active children, 1,632,000 girls and 1,743,000 boys between the ages of 10-14, representing 41.10% of this age group. (ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)

el andalón - a documentary film

This short documentary (30 minutes) is uplifting and inspiring. Don Sergio Castro has dedicated his life to helping poor indigenous people of the southern state of Chiapas in Mexico. Six and a half days a week, he holds free clinics for people, many of whom are burn victims. The people he helps are too poor to afford doctors.

Iranian Film: “10” by Abbas Kiarostami

Abbas Kiarostami is one of Iran’s top directors and has won a number of awards, including the prestigious Palme d’Or. “10” was also nominated for a Palme d’Or.

“10” is an unusual film, but a moving one. There are ten short episodes, all of which occur in a car driven around Tehran by a woman. Each episode depicts (but not heavy-handedly) a different social problem in Iran, most of which deal with women.

Film Review: Sentenced Home

As a result of stricter post-Sept. 11 antiterrorism laws, three Cambodian-American immigrants living in Seattle face deportation for felony crimes they committed -- and served time for -- as teens, many years earlier. Following their subjects over the course of three years, filmmakers David Grabias and Nicole Newnham put a human face on troubling aspects of immigration in America in this documentary, which screened on PBS's "Independent Lens" series.

Persian Girls: A Memoir

If you only have time to read one book about women in Iran, or modern Iran in general, this is it.

“Persian Girls” is a memoir of Nahid Rachlin's childhood in Iran in the 1950’s and 1960’s, a period of great change. It is the story of Nahid’s  relationships with the important women in her life: her aunt, her mother, her sisters, her grandmother; and the men: her father and her brothers.

Book Review, Cambodia: Dragon Chica

Dragon Chica by May-Lee Chai

A family survives the horror of the killing fields of Pol Pot in Cambodia in the 1970's,  or at least part of a family survives and, finally, in the 1980’s, reaches the United States. The widowed mother and her five children move from place to place, having financial difficulties wherever they go, and facing cultural misunderstandings  from those who know nothing of Cambodia or Cambodians.

DVD Review: Bordertown

Bordertown (2006, Director Gregory Nava, starring Jennifer Lopez, Antonio Banderas, Maya Zapata, and Martin Sheen)

“A lot of people don’t want people to know about this,” says Gregory Nava, the director of “Bordertown.” “This” is the rape and murder of hundreds of women (some say thousands) in the border factory towns of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico. Amnesty International and other human rights organizations are very concerned about what has been called “femicide,” the killing of women.

The film was inspired by the real life hero, Barbara Martinez Jitner, who posed as a maquila worker in order to make her film, “La Frontera.”