Spanglish

We saw the movie Spanglish the other night. It was a good story. It did have some “adult stuff” in it, though rated PG-13 … maybe should have been R. In any case, it wasn’t super apparent, what some of the stuff meant — to younger folks maybe. Those not schooled in the “world” that is.

In any case, it’s a movie that touches on cultural boundaries and what a tale it makes there. 🙂

It’s refreshing to see Adam Sandler play more mature roles of late. This one is good, as is his role in 50 First Dates. That movie in particular is a nice one, with the exception of the “friend” whom has all the dirty humour, while Sandler as light humour of a happy guy that’s nice as well, and very humous nonetheless. Kind and thoughtful and superduper does a good thing for the girl he ends up loving.

In Spanglish he’s a husband, father, and chef, owning a small restaurant that is up and coming. His wife is edgy and unhappy, and the two children they have are chubby and not fashion statements at all. Young teen Daughter is painfully aware of problems she has with her mother, mother expects her to “get in shape” she herself isn’t so motivated to do that. Son is younger and just doing his thing. Enter “Flor”. She’s the one the story centers on.

The movie begins with her, narrated by HER daughter. Her struggle after her husband leaves her, having her daughter not see her visibly upset … and how that works out in their Mexican culture.

They finally leave Mexico and go to LA. They enter the US slyly, which is humorously treated in the movie. They go to the Mexican part of LA, and find that they are back in Mexico and happily stay there for about 6 years (I think that’s the number). Never venturing outside of that area. Until one day she and her English-speaking Cousin appear at the residence of the white family. Flor doesn’t speak English at all. Cousin is there to interpret for her.

Flor gets the job, and the rest of the movie goes over the changes in the household, relationships and all …

The gist of it is that the narration is by Flor’s daugher, it’s an essay written for a college enterance application. It’s about her mother and that’s what the story is, how her Identity is found through her mother, and nothing else.

It’s a story of how Flor found sanctuary in an English household, and eventually put herself to the task of learning English. She’s a laid back latin beauty, a fine lady, kind, considerate, and honest. The chef/dad/husband of the family ends of being attracted to Flor, and she right back. But they avoid each other. Wifey ends up at the end of the whole movie admitting to what she’s been doing, and it’s a bad night. She’s acting horribly and pushing for resolve. Husband leaves. Finds Flor leaving (actually QUIT do to other things that day) and they end up going to his restaurant and talk, he cooks for her. They do have one kiss, but know they must deny themselves. They can’t follow up on their feelings, so talk, talk, talk and this is a tear jerking scene.

Best line in the movie is when Sandler is talking to Flor one night about “hypocrisy”. She couldn’t speak English at this time. Her daughter was with her then, and she translated for her at this point. Something had happend between Flor and the wife about Flor’s daughter. It only came out that night when she was upset that Sandler knew about what she’d done for HIS daughter with some clothing. She was being a “hypocrite” he said. She admitted it immediately. He was stunned that anyone would admit that so easily. It touched him deeply. Also in that conversation is the great line I referenced, about guilt. He asked them if they knew about guilt. “Oh, we are Catholic, we KNOW about guilt!” :LOL:

The story gets into more with the daughter. Flor hadn’t told them she even had a daughter. Flor went home every night. When summer came the family got a house by the beach for the season. They wanted Flor to stay full time since it wasn’t near busses and such. She wanted to quit, couldn’t do it. Finally she admitted she had a daughter. Flor was obviously protecting her daughter. She was horrified to have to expose her to the family. To another culture. Her daughter and she ended up coming to the beach house. Daughter was visibly affected by it and the wifey attached herself to the latin daughter and this is when stuff happened that upset Flor. From then on out Flor was trying to keep her daughter protected, but was losing her. It ended up that she’d go to the same private school as the families children did, on a scholarship. Wife wanted to help her, with her selfish reasons quite obvious. She orchestrated things happening and it was this that finally was the straw that broke the camels back, when daughter wanted to stay at their house for the night instead of coming home, and a relative had just arrived from Mexico finally and the latin family was having a party … Flor wanted daughter there. So that’s when all this happened, the family falling apart, Flor and chef/husband talking, and she quiting, going, then coming back next day for her daughter.

The story ends with Flor and her daughter leaving the house, going to the busstop, and daughter shames her heavily in front of everyone on the street. Flor stops and tells her things, calmly. She snaps that daughter into shape and sees the truth of it. Is she ashamed of her mother? Does she not want to be like her when she grows up? etc. So daughter changes her heart and smiles and snuggles with her mother. Impact is great, as the movie ends, narration of essay ends with the truth that she learned about identity.

Tia Leone plays the Wife. Very harsh, bitter, anxious, stressed … opposite of the happy cute wife in “The Family Man” [another movie I rather like.]

Lesson from it: Be true to your vows. Be true to your cultural upbringing. Your identity is passed down from your family.

But the real Truth for me is that MY identity is in Christ alone. With cultural things only coming in after that. Culture IS important. A right culture is one that honors Christ and carries acceptable traditions of those who’ve gone before you.

Diversity is not homogeny. Homogeny is a mix of all, smoothly mixed to even texture.

True Diversity is keeping our cultures separate, but not walled off. Just keep them real. Keep them fresh. Keep your family ties.