The Plight of Latinos - Essay Example

The Plight of the Latinos as Depicted by the Latino Movies Introduction to Latinos Latino Americans are thecitizens of the United States who can trace their origins in the countries of Latin America region or in Spain. There are many sub groups of the Latinos in the United States which are characterized by their national origin as well as with race. Currently, 15.1% of the United States population is taken by the Latinos. The Latinos presence in the North American region can be traced back to the 16th Century and they are believed to have been the second inhabitants of the North American region with the Native Americans. The Latino community has been faced with numerous problems ranging from labor problems to social problems. This can be rooted to the fact that the community is considered as a minority race in the United States alongside other races like the African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans among other minority races. Like others races which had these kinds of problems, there are some movies which have been produced to highlight the problems of the Latino community in the United States. This paper will look into some of these movies and highlight the problems that have been highlighted in these movies. The Latino plight as depicted in films One of the movies that have been produced to highlight the plight of the Latino community is movie titled, 'The Fight in the Fields.' The Fight in the Fields is a Latino documentary movie produced, directed, and written by Rick Tejada-Flores and Ray Telles. The documentary covers the eventful life of Cesar Chavez in his epic struggle. The documentary movie is based on newsreel, archival footage, and interviews with California Governor Jerry Brown, Dolores Huerta, and Cesar Chavez family members including his brother, sister, son and daughter. Cesar Chavez and the farmworkers' struggle is a presentation of the Independent Television Services (ITVS) and are produced by Paradigm Productions (The Fight in the Fields, 16th May). The two hour documentary covers the first successful organizing drive of farm workers in the United States. It first premiered in 1997 in the Sundance Film Festival and was aired across the United States on PBS from 97 through 2000. It was also aired in the Sundance Channel in 2001 and 2002. The main focus of the documentary is on Cesar Chavez's dramatic attempts to unionize farm workers. The documentary covers the following areas of Cesar Chavez life: His earlier years. His adolescent life as a farm worker His young years as a community organizer His relationship and eventual marriage to Helen. Helen Chavez was instrumental in the movement since she supported her husband to focus his energy to the movement. The dramatic events that Cesar Chavez was involved in during his time in the movement. This helped the cause of the movement since it attracted the attention of the press. The non violent strikes attracted the attention of the public. This was a plus to their cause because it put pressure on farm owners and the government. His three hundred mile march. His friendship with Robert Kennedy Cesar Chavez and the farm workers major barrier was the Bracero Program which brought thousands of Mexican contract workers to work in the United States. The movie shows how Cesar Chavez unionized farm workers who led non violent strikes. Up to date migrant workers continue to face numerous problems. There are an estimated three and half million immigrants in the United States who are predominantly Latino (78%). They move their permanent residence so as to seek employment mainly in agricultural farms. Their kind of employment is usually of short durations and demand regular 'migration'. Almost fifty percent of migrant farm workers have less than ninth grade education. They face the problem of language barrier because they speak little or no English. Majority of farm workers live under the poverty level and very few receive worker's compensation or social security. Such benefits are hard to come by. Due to the transient nature of their employment, there are often prevented from establishing local residency. There are thus excluded from benefits such as Medicaid and food stamps. Most of them are legal residents of the United States or citizens. Due to their nature of work, their occupation has been ranked only second to mining as the most hazardous. There work is characterized by high exposure to pesticides, inhalation, and ingestion. They have the highest rate of toxic chemical injuries in the United States. The following factors contribute to the dangers of this work: Farm injuries Prolonged exposure to heat and sun Poor sanitation in the field This results to nearly three hundred children deaths and more than twenty four thousand injuries. It is believed that twenty five to forty percent of farm workers are children. It is due to this fact that the makers of the fight in the field covered the adolescent years of Cesar Chavez in order to highlight the plight of immigrant Latino farm workers. Housing is another major problem faced by Latino immigrants. They usually stay in overcrowded and poorly maintained places. They lack basic things like ventilation, bathing facilities, and safe drinking water. This increase the risk of accidents, infectious diseases and sanitation related diseases. Though migrant farm workers face similar problems to those from those from disadvantaged societies, the transient nature of their work and cultural isolation put more risk for sickness or injury. Another movie that has been produced to highlight the plight of the Latino community is the movie titled, 'Zoot Suit Riots.' Zoot Suit is a Luis Valdez film filmed in 1981 that stars Daniel Valdes, Edward James Olmos and Tyne Daly. It is a film version of Broadway that finds many members of the production in the film. The film, like the Broadway play is a comedy cum musical with music from Lalo Guerrero and Daniel Valdez. The story is based on a real life story involving a murder trial of the sleepy lagoon. The film is therefore inspired by real life events of young Mexican Americans who are wrongfully charged with the Zoot Suit Riots and murder. The character of Henry Reyna is inspired by Hank Leyvas, a real life Pachuco gangster and defendant. He and members of his gang were unfairly charged with murder and thrown to jail. The film is set in the early 1940s in barrios of Los Angeles. This was during the years of the Zoot Suit riots. The Zoot Suit riots were a series of riots between Latino youths and white marines and sailors. They erupted during the Second World War in throughout the city of Los Angeles. The riots acquired their name from the fact that the young Latinos usually wore Zoot Suits. Although Latino youths were the main target, black and Filipino youths were also targeted. The sleepy lagoon murder became infamous partly because of the Zoot Suit riots. Luis Valdez, who has written and directed the film, creates the character of El Pachuco, who is an idealized Zoot Suiter. He serves as Henry Reyna's conscience and functions as the narrator in the whole story (Zoot Suit Riots, 16th May). Latinos in the United States, like other minority groups such as blacks, have been subjected to various forms of discrimination especially as far as criminal justice is concerned. They for instance experience wage theft, racial profiling and other forms of discrimination. There are numerous claims made by Latinos on police treatment. A report released in April by Southern Poverty Law Center made the following findings: Almost half of Latino respondents interviewed complained of being treated unfairly by the police. At least forty five percent of those who had attended courts complained that there was no interpreter provided. This is a major hurdle taking in consideration that majority of Latinos speak little or no English. There are police checkpoints in their places of residence. The police have the right to impound vehicles if the driver cannot his or her legal status. This is just a minor portrayal of the kind of discrimination that the Latino population goes through in the American criminal justice system. Latinos are imprisoned disproportionately because of racist laws existing in the United States. Once in prison they are discriminated from rehabilitative options and claims of harassment by the United States agencies are numerous. Statistics on Latinos do not reflect a very good image on their part. Although they represent just over eleven percent of the population, they contribute to seventeen percent of prison population and twenty three percent of these are in for drug related offenses. Whereas a white male has only six percent chance that he will serve time in prison, the figure is seventeen percent for the Latinos. Latinos are disproportionately targeted and arrested by the police. For instance four and half percent of Latinos stopped by the police will be arrested compared to two percent of their white counterparts. Latinos are twice as much likely to be imprisoned instead of getting a fine, probation or do time in a county jail (Prison Activist Resource Center, 16th May). Another movie that have been produced to highlight the plight of the Latino community is the movie titled, 'Senorita Extraviada.' Senorita Extraviada is a very solemn, somber, and compelling documentary directed by Lourdes Portillo. It is a compelling documentary that investigates the disappearance of Mexican American women from assembly plants. It was released in 2001 and was shot in Cuidad Juarez in the Mexican border. It is based on the story of hundreds of unresolved murders of young women that occurred ten years prior to the release of the documentary. Lourdes Portillo is a veteran Mexican documentarist who focuses her efforts in efforts interviewing women who are the surviving relatives of the victims. The director also interviews a woman who was raped by the police. She releases the photos of the police doing ritual sadistic group rape and killings. The documentary provides a chronology of the murders that began in 1993. This includes televised comments of some government officials and suspects of the rapes and killings. There are also segments of an interview with a criminal justice official who chaired the task established to seek suspects. Lourdes Portillo mixes the interviews effectively with photos of some of the deceased victims and footage of the streets of Cuidad Juarez. The result is well made documentary. Since the murders began there have been multiple of suspects detained but the killings have gone on. Even after completion of the documentary, the crimes have gone on and no new arrests have been made. There have been a number of confessions but some people claim they have been made under torture (Senorita Extraviada, 16th May). This documentary portrays the kind of unusual tragedy that the women going to work in Maquilladora factories. The federal number of killings released by the time of the documentary was two hundred and fifty eight. The killings continued. Most of the cases do not involve rape, a factor not elaborated by Portillo's documentary. Other related cases involve sadistic rituals by cults, drug trafficking, and human organs smugglers. Portillo does however imply that high level government officials have some contribution to the problem. This is likely because there was deliberate contamination and discarding of evidence in almost all cases. This made forensic analysis on the bodies found impossible. There have been little efforts in upgrading the level of investigating techniques. The local policemen who have been implicated in these heinous acts have not been indicted. These killings are peculiar in a number of ways: The sheer volume of these cases. Their steady and continuing rate of occurrence. This represents a period of more than ten years. The macabre nature of the murders. Peculiar body mutilations. Suggested link to organized crime. They are only confined to the borders of the city of Juarez. This raises suggestions and assumptions that these cases might involve some extreme form of sex tourism. This is business whereby rich sexual sadists mainly thought to be from the United States enter Juarez for group rapes or murders (Latino Criminal Justice Discrimination, 16th May). Farmingville is the title of another movie that has been produced to highlight the plight of the Latino community in the United States. Farmingville is a film that portrays the plight of illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico to work in the low wage labor market. The film shows the rising tensions of the white resident population and charges and countercharges of racism and hate crime. These events tear the community of Farmingville apart. In the last half of the last decade, more than fifteen hundred thousand Mexicans moved to Farmingville, a leafy suburban town. Majority of these people were illegal migrants and found low wage employment in the construction, landscaping, and restraint industries. The majority of Farmingville residents were shocked by the sudden influx of Latinos desperate for work. The overcrowding of Spanish speaking migrants in street corners and rented houses was not received well by the locals. The film reveals the underlying forces and the human impact of the largest influx of workers from Mexico in the history of the United States. The film was documented in over a period of one year and captures the story of Farmingville as it unfolds. Included are the legal and political maneuverings in the town, community organizing, violence, and vigilante action. The Residents form Sachem Quality of Life which blames the illegal Mexican immigrants for bringing overcrowding, noise, and crime to their prior peaceful town. Some of the residents are however sympathetic to the Mexican migrants and plead for tolerance. They form the Citizens for Peaceful Solutions to highlight the plight of the Migrant workers and plead for tolerance. These roles in the film are played residents such as Ed Hernandez, Joe Madsen, and Margaret Bianculli Dyber. The justification from the hotel and construction owners is that the local economy would fall if the migrant Mexicans were to leave. The Mexican workers face low paying, hard working jobs which at times is dangerous. Israel Perez and Magdaleno Escamilla are brutally murdered. They are lied to that they are going to get some job only to be brutally beaten and stabbed. This kind of racist violence is not common in this leafy suburb and raises concern from all quarters. Two white males are charged and convicted with hate based attempted murder. These events attract national media attention. Rather than bring the communities together, these events harden the feelings of both sides and polarizes the community. Some organizations such as American Patrol and California Coalition for Immigration Reform even develop conspiracies that Mexicans want to seize control of the United States (Farmingville, 16th May). The Farmingville film is similar in many ways to Cesar Chavez, the fight in the fields. Both films address the plight of the migrant workers in the United States. They tell of the struggle between the two sides involved in this conflict. Both documentaries depict the migrants as poor and with minimal rights and the residents as well up and in a way oppressing the Mexican migrants (Farmingville, 16th May). Conclusion Like many other minority races in the United States, the Latinos have been faced with many problems and although they have limited avenues of expressing their problems, they have one avenue and that is the movie industry. To this effect the above films have been used to highlight the problems of the Latin people living in the United States. All the above films are made by Latinos and depict the struggle of the Latinos and the problems they face in the United States. Watching these documentaries leaves one with a better view and insight on the life of an average Latino living in the United States. The Latino community has been faced with suspicion by other communities and they have been viewed as being a very violent community. But the state of affairs can be understood if one took time to look at the past of the Latino community whereby many of their countries of origins have not been stable for a number of years and this has led to them immigrating to North America whether legally or illegally. It is important to try and understand the plight of the Latino community and these movies gives a better understanding and insight into the plight of the Latinos living in the United States. Work Cited Farmingville: Retrieved on 16th May 2009 from http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2004/farmingville Latino Criminal Justice Discrimination: Retrieved on 16th May 2009 from www.allacademic.com/meta/p Prison Activist Resource Center (PARC).: "Latinos and the Criminal Injustice System." Senorita Extraviada: Retrieved on 16th May 2009 from http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/ The Fight in the Fields: Retrieved on 16th May 2009 from http://www.pbs.org/itvs/fightfields/film.html Zoot Suit Riots: Retrieved on 16th May 2009 from www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/eng Read More