I didn’t have the stomach to watch ‘Maria Full of Grace’. I saw the poster and was instinctively repulsed. So I wasn’t surprised to see this review of it by a Colombian writer. In the review, the writer notes how all the Colombian characters are unsympathetic and the only decent characters in the film are some American agents. How corrosive the Colombian drug trade is, how it corrupts the innocent youths of America. Even the movie ‘Traffic’, which I liked, presented this same image. The reality is rather different.
A story from the AP. A number of US Army personnel who had been stationed in Colombia might be extradited to Colombia to face charges. Five US soldiers were arrested after 35 pounds of cocaine was found on a US military plane heading to Texas from Colombia. One of them has already been released. As usual, the story is replete with anonymous sources from the US military and Attorney General’s office. One such official noted that the troops remain under the jurisdiction of the US regardless of where they’re stationed (that’s a page out of 19th century colonialism in case anyone was wondering, and is called ‘extraterritoriality’).
A Colombian friend noted the irony. The troops are there to fight the drug war. The troops are smuggling the drugs. The drug smuggling justifies the troops being there.
And all the while, the peasants and unionists are liquidated, the territories taken over, the multinationals moving in.
Speaking of the liquidations, another Colombian reader specifically asked that I address this most recent massacre in Colombia, which I alluded to in the anniversary email but have yet to report on in detail (I apologize). There is an open letter signed by Aviva Chomsky, Leonardo Boff, and others about the massacre in the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado, to Alvaro Uribe Velez, and a piece by Javier Giraldo, Colombia’s best known human rights activist with a long history and connection to Apartado. Both are in Spanish. I will, as I’ve said, try to produce something in english soon.
Dear Justin – it is a common
Dear Justin – it is a common truth that you should never judge on hearsay..
I was also reluctant to see that movie, but a Colombian friend (ex-fiscal de derechos humanos, now a law student in Switzerland) told me I should, and I’m glad I did. It is a sad but not hopeless story, actually, all the Colombian characters were pretty true to life, even the drug dealers, I met some of their kind as an interpreter for the police. The ‘sympathetic’ American agents probably were the customs people who did not X-ray Maria because she was pregnant (which is the regulation, and they did not seem overly concerned about her), and there are NO American youth in that picture, not that I noticed, anyway. Perhaps the end is a bit too soft on the US, when Maria decides to stay in the States to have her baby there. Go and see the movie if you have a chance!
As someone who has been
As someone who has been studying the situation in Colombia for the past few years (but who has never been there), I really disagreed with that review of Maria Full of Grace. I think the movie should be taken at face value: this is the story about a Colombian girl who is poor and desperate. Some Colombians who are poor and desperate become drug mules. If the point of this movie was to reveal the cause and history of Colombia’s conflict, it would have been 7 hours long (at least). I did not at all get the impression, as the reviewer suggested, that this movie was out to villanise Colombians or highlight the innocence of Americans in the conflict. I also came out of this movie thinking what a great young actress Catalina Sandino was. Maybe I most liked this movie because it begins a dialogue on Colombia, which is important considering so few people know anything about the conflict at all.
I thought that review was a
I thought that review was a bit off too. Although he made some good points: 1) the unlikely behavior of the customs agents 2) Columbia as a place with little hope compared to America the land of potential and freedom 3) the lack of Americans involved in the drug trade. These are all important criticisms. That said, he goes overboard. All the Columbian characters are hardly unsympathetic, if anything one of the big messages of the movie is the strong social network between Columbian immigrants in the US. The young Colubian family that takes her in, the Colubian community guy who helps her track down what happened to her friend. This is a portrait of a solidaristic community. The real problem with this movie is the same problem that you identified with Hotel Rwanda(although I havent seen it yet so I might be not be interpreting you correctly), that it gives the audiance a moving story without making them aware of the wider political context (ie. the war in the Congo or in this case the relationship between the US and its relationship with the drug trade and Columbia.) Does just making the audience care about an individual character without hinting at any of the background or politics begin to motivate people to find out more? Maybe sometimes it is done better than others. I would agree that this movie didnt do a great job of it, but it didnt completely whitewash what is going on either and maybe some people might use it as an entry point to find out more. I tried to think of movies which tell a story while including hints about the political context and ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’ came to mind as a movie that tried in some way to do this.
Well, I am Colombian and I
Well, I am Colombian and I think that this movie is not intended for a worldwive audience. It is indeed a movie just with the purpose to narrate and illustrate some of the misfortunes that happen in my country. I also think that since it is not for a worldwive audience and more for a Latin American audience, the movie didn’t need so much “background” since the viewers should be/must be/can be more familiarized with what is happening in Colombia
Well, I am Colombian and I
Well, I am Colombian and I think that this movie is not intended for a worldwive audience. It is indeed a movie just with the purpose to narrate and illustrate some of the misfortunes that happen in my country. I also think that since it is not for a worldwive audience and more for a Latin American audience, the movie didn’t need so much “background” since the viewers should be/must be/can be more familiarized with what is happening in Colombia
Hi Justin,
Speaking of
Hi Justin,
Speaking of Colombia, what do you make of Uribe’s visit to China? Lot of links and deals being made by the China govt in Latin America… there have been some fairly high level deals involving Venezuela including a state visit by Chavez, for example, and closer links with Brazil. Esp. regarding oil. To me the visit of Uribe seemed a bit abrupt and not met with so much fanfare, but came on the heels of all these other developments… hmmm. Did you follow anything in the Colombian press about this?
best
Pranjal
MFoG is worth seeing if you
MFoG is worth seeing if you can take it at face value–I think it portrays the brutality of the drug trade as experienced by an exploited individual and it stays out of politics for that reason. While this may be a regrettably missed opportunity to educate the public about Columbia/US hegemony, ask: would the title character have concerned herself with wider political questions given her situation? As someone not entirely ignorant of the US war on Colombia, the film did not offend my sensibilities, nor did it attempt to contradict a negative view of US hegemony. You just have to try to appreciate the film within its narrow (but relevant) context. The flower factory scenes in any case don’t exactly praise the triumphs of the global economy for the Colombian worker.