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For my final post in this series, I decided to shift gears a bit. Instead of viewing one more film and determining its credibility in how its women are treated, I figured it would be insightful to shed some light on current events. The Coronavirus pandemic has caused drastic change for everyone around the world. For some, that means working from home, for others it means they’re now responsible for helping their child log in to online school, and for women in Latin America, it means increased violence. It was predicted near the beginning of the pandemic that household violence could see a sharp increase, and that prediction rings true. With more families cooped up in their house, domestic violence is more common than it once was. I hypothesize it’s due to higher levels of stress and uncertainty, and in extreme cases, it could be easy to get away with it because people aren’t leaving the house as frequently.  In Colombia, gender-based violence surged during lockdown. Crime rates hav...

For my fifth post in this series, I wanted to bring things a little more full-circle. I began this series with a review and analysis of Señorita Extraviada , which is a documentary about the femicides in Ciudad Juárez. For this post I decided to analyze a fictional portrayal of these events from an American perspective in order to critique and analyze the difference in Mexican and American portrayals of these events.  Bordertown is an American film directed by Gregory Nava that follows a reporter, Lauren Adrian, through her journey to document the femicides in Ciudad Juárez. The film focuses on a story of one woman, Eva Jimenez, who was attacked in the outskirts of Juárez, but survived her attack. This is an exclusive story for Lauren, and she becomes invested in the case. She puts herself in Eva’s shoes, and goes to the maquiladora where Eva works. She boards the same bus that Eva did the night of her attack, and then Lauren is attacked herself. However, there were multiple perpet...

In Sin Nombre , violence against women is not at the forefront of the film. The film’s primary focus is on Willy, known to his fellow gang members as Casper, and his gang. The main storyline follows Willy and his turmoil with the Mara Salvatrucha gang (MS-13). The secondary focus of the film, its second storyline, focuses on Sayra, a young woman who is traveling with her father and uncle to New Jersey. Near the beginning of the film, the audience is introduced to Willy’s girlfriend, Martha. Not much is revealed about her, and she is seen as someone that Willy deeply cares about. He must protect her from the reality of the gangs, and he cannot let her identity be known to his brothers in the gang. For instance, in one scene Willy is with Martha and they are approached by some members of Willy’s gang. El Sol, the second in command, asks Willy if Martha is “his girl” to which he responds that she’s “just a friend”. He must do this in order to protect her, because he knows what happens to ...

Maria Full of Grace is a fictional film by Joshua Martson, released in 2004. With the subtitle “based on 1000 true stories”, the film details the life of a seventeen year old girl in desperate need of a higher income. Maria, the main character, works de-thorning flowers for very little money. After an altercation with her boss, Maria decides to quit and pursue a different job. She intends to travel to the capital to meet with a friend about her work, and perhaps get training to work as a maid. However, her ride there, a man named Franklin, offers her a job smuggling cocaine into the United States. In desperate need of money, she takes him up on the offer. In order to prevent detection by TSA, she must swallow large pellets of cocaine wrapped in vinyl gloves. She has a run in with the authorities who suspect her of smuggling, but she is pregnant and unable to be x-rayed to prove that she’s hiding drugs in her stomach.  This film is truly heartbreaking to watch. The director knows e...

Breaking Silence is a short documentary report by Paula Rodriguez Sickert detailing femicide in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. The documentary opens with a synopsis of three killings – one in each country. In Bolivia, statistics show that there is a femicide every three days. In 2012, a woman named Juana Quispe lost her life to femicide. Her relatives and village are still grieving and fighting for justice. In Peru, at the age of nineteen, Ruth Thalia lost her life to femicide. Her boyfriend murdered her after seeing her appear on a reality TV show. In Ecuador, a woman named Katya Cabezas Quintero was attacked by her former partner. He attacked her with a machete, which is a common tool used in Ecuador to cut back heavy undergrowth. Luckily, she survived the attack, losing only her right hand. After the attack, Katya moved with her three children to avoid her attacker and also to move closer to her mother. “Your husband is your husband, even if he beats you, even if he kills you” is a co...

For my first longer-winded post, I figured I should offer a bit of context. This semester (Fall 2020) I had the privilege of taking an honors seminar at UC titled Crime, Deviance, and Media in Latin America. For our final project, we are to post at least six blog posts about a selected subject from our coursework. The focus of my posts will be on gender-based violence in Latin America. By viewing films, reading articles, and additional resources, I will be analyzing the representation of gender-based violence in Latin American media. Are these resources accurate to what goes on in the real world? Or are they glorifications made for entertainment? Señorita Extraviada is a documentary film by Mexican filmmaker Lourdes Portillo. Filmed between 1999 and 2000, and released in 2001, the film chronicles the bouts of terror reigning upon Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Since the early 90’s many young women have gone missing and turned up dead in the deserts of Juárez. The documentary details the killi...