How Does Race Function in Accordance to Gender Identity in the Movie Entre Nos?

Race and Gender in the Movie Entre Nos

Entre Nos

One of the most common cities in the United States for Colombian immigrants to flee to, like Mariana and her family did in the 2009 film, Entre Nos, is to the projects of Jackson Heights in Queens, New York, known by the residents as "El Chapinerito" which is named after the city of Bogota in their country. Many Colombian immigrants left the country for the States after the trade and industry depression in the 1960s to search for work in the bigger urban cities to be able to provide for their families like millions of other settlers. From 1960 to 1977 the Immigration and Naturalization Service reported almost 120,000 Colombians migrated to the United States to set themselves free from their poverty stricken streets to a more industrialized nation like the diverse and booming market that was developing within and surrounding suburbs of New York City to support their families they brought or either left behind (Sturner, 2011). The movie, Entre Nos, was written and directed by Paola Mendoza, who stars as protagonist Mariana, who was inspired by factual events about Mariana and her Colombian family of two children, a baby on the way, and a husband who was living within Jackson Heights. The motion picture reflects how difficult it is surviving and living as a minority in harmony to the inner self, and more people are able to understand the reality of what life is like as a migrant trying to take care of their family in a foreign land with the constant worry of failure as a parent, pressure from society, and with no education.

Even though the United States has always been a place for diversity of many nationalities and outsiders to many countries and foreign lands, their educational background has limited these people to break social, educational, and occupational barriers like Mariana and her family had trouble with in Queens, New York. Many women and men who come to live that may bring their loved ones are uneducated and do not know how to speak English and the children are the only ones who know how to communicate for millions of parents with English as a second language in their countries. It is hard for these men and women who are deemed by society as illiterate to communicate with employers, landlords, schools, and function in their daily lifestyles who spend years learning possibly never becoming completely knowledgeable unless determined like the mother, Mariana in this movie did when her husband, Antonio, deserted her and her two kids and one on the way to leave for Miami. When Gabriel leaves for Miami leaving his wife and kids in New York to struggle with nothing but themselves, it represents how many families who are uneducated and cannot communicate struggle to make it in America from other countries and what they have to do to learn how to make it in the environment they are unfamiliar with. The family begins picking up the pieces of their lives like many other women who are single parents and from different ethnicities that have trouble finding a good career and education when the mother decides how she is going to help her family out of the situation they are in.

The new single mother, Mariana, has to learn how to get along in society like with talking to her neighbors, landlords, people on the street, and has to learn to become accepted and communicate with people to be able to start providing for her family and become more accepted as she finds out who she really is in life. Mariana must take up selling meet on the streets with her children 10-year-old son Gabriel and her 6-year-old daughter, Andrea, yet they fail miserably with the business, yet she must do something because she is unable to apply for a real opportunity because her English is not strong enough which keeps her from taking on so many other obstacles and roles in her environment. The mother gets the idea to have her family start collecting cans, and her family helps her dig in the trash dumpsters on Jackson Heights and surrounding areas to recycle the goodies in return for some cash because she is determined to do something with the bills overdue and a baby on the way. She is able to assimilate on the streets with the help of other immigrants and people who can speak her language and children to help for her to help her learn how to survive in a diverse society as her English and skills as a more fitful parent increase and she begins to get back on her feet.

The inspiring film was based on the life of the woman who plays Mariana, Paola Mendoza, who also takes a look at her own mother's fears as a parent and what she must do as an outsider as a minority to make it in a foreign land like a million of other immigrants who come to America each year. Antonio approaches Mariana to tell her he has found work in Miami, and when he gets settled in to his new place, he will send for her and the children, yet after the weeks go buy and the message from her only friend, she learns the truth that he is not coming back and she has to fight to be a parent and make it for her children. This represents the reality of how scary it can be in a world where Mariana feels like a complete stranger, who has nothing but her children like many other women who have no other choice but to face these obstacles who are limited like many other women who are immigrants. According to the Public Policy Institute at least 28% of immigrants that live in homes have no one over 13% who speak English making it difficult for parents to be able to learn how to ever come to support their families (Hill, 2011).