The Hollywood portrayal of Latino Family and Reality

The other day  I was watching the movie "Real women have curves" which is about a Mexican American girl Ana (America Ferrera), who is graduating  from high school, but her life is in limbo because she wants to go to college, but economically she can’t afford it. On the other hand, the mother  Carmen Garcia (Lupe Ostiveros) wants her daughter to follow the traditional way  of what a woman is, which is a housewife. As a result, the relationship of mother and daughter is rocky because they argue about education and physical appearance, and marriage.

 Usually, when it comes to decisions in the family, the father has the last word, but in “Real women have curves” is the opposite.  In one scene, the parents  are talking about Ana’s  future education. The mother starts saying “I’ll teach her how to sew, how to raise her children, and teach her how to take care of her husband. She will not learn those things in school” . The father does not share the same opinion. He wants Ana to go to college.  

Sometimes, young students put aside their college plans , so they could help their families financially.In this case, Ana’s mother has been working since she was thirteen  and she mentions that Ana is eighteen and can help them financially. Ana  wants to go to college, and knows her mother does not like the idea of her to get an education  now.When Ana’s teacher , Mr. Guzman(George Lopez)  goes to Ana’s house to tell her the good news that she got accepted at Columbia University with full scholarship. Her father is happy, but her mother is not. At first, they do not know where the university is located, but when they learned that is in New York, things start to change.  Carmen starts arguing that Ana would abandon her beloved grandpa and leave her sister Estela (Ingrid Oliu) with all the work at the sweatshop, even though Estela does not agree with her mother on this. Some Latino families are very closed, and some of them do not want the children to leave to other places far from home.

Personally, not long ago I went to the West coast to visit some relatives, and they are very religious. In one of our conversations came up the topic of marriage. My aunt advise that I should get married soon. I replied to her that right now my priority is not to get married, but to finish college. Some traditional Latino families have the tendency that women marry at young age. One of my cousins is one year younger than me. My aunt and uncle set some arrangements  with another family, so the son and my cousin could meet and start hanging out. Although, my cousin does go to college, and once she graduates,  she wants to get married and starts a family.

The women of today have changed.  We want to study, get a degree, work and have a family. Some of us are mothers, are  single, and want to have a better life  for the future generations.