Movies to watch: celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
Coco
Young Miguel is in love with music, and anything involving music. However, his family has completely banned music within their home, and won’t tolerate anyone breaking this rule. Despite his circumstances, he makes it his goal to showcase his musical ability in front of everyone. In doing this, he ends up in the colorful land of the dead, where he discovers many new things about his family, and even eventually helps share with his family the power of music.
Roma
Roma follows one of the full-time caretakers of an elite family in Mexico City during the 70’s. As tribulations arise, Sofía, the mother, decides to take the caregiver, Cleo, along with her four kids on a vacation in order to bond and forget the hardships caused by her unfaithful husband.
Cesar Chavez
In 1965, Cesar Chavez led a movement which redefined farm labor activism and helped create a new era of social justice in the United States. This movie follows his life and highlights the complications that come with being so outspoken. As Chavez emphasizes nonviolent protests and commits to bringing justice to others, he becomes torn between continuing this work and his own responsibilities as a father and husband. Overall, it shows the victorious journey he took to fight for change.
McFarland
When a new white PE teacher comes to a predominantly Latino high school, it is hard for him to relate and bond with the students. However, he quickly realizes that they have incredible potential and athletic ability. Coach White decides he wants to assemble a cross country team with some of the boys from his class. He knows this will be a challenge, but realizes that this will help the boys in so many more ways than physical. The team takes their hard lives and considerable work ethic and uses it as fuel for the races. Although it was a difficult journey, the hard work brings everyone closer together in the end and shows the boys that there is life beyond farming in the small town of McFarland.
Selena
Following the Biography of the famous singer, Selena, this movie focuses on the conflicts between her career, love life, family, and critics. It also tells the story of her murder following her unfinished english album and contributions to the music industry.
Pelo Malo
A Venezuelan boy struggles with his cultural identity, especially as school picture day quickly approaches. He is Afro-latino, leaving him with wild curls that neither him nor his mother know how to take care of. His mother looks at him with disgust in her eyes, but looks at her second child (who has long straight hair) with love and affection. This leads Pelo to an obsession with trying to straighten his hair. Overall the movie relays a great journey through cultural identity and expression, especially within the Venezuelan culture.
Under the same moon
This movie follows the story of a young boy and his mom as amidst their fight for a better life in America. Rosario, a single mother, decides the best option is to leave her son in Mexico with his grandmother so that she can cross the border to the U.S.. She works tirelessly as a maid while maintaining contact with her source of inspiration, her son, Carlitos. After an unfortunate turn of events, Carlitos must also make a journey across the border to find his mother. This difficult and life changing journey emphasizes the struggle of being an immigrant and demonstrates the importance of a mother and son bond.
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Victoria Bartels is a senior at Notre Dame Belmont and has been a staff writer since 2018. Victoria is an avid reader and writer outside of her 3 school...
