Backyard El Traspatio Essay

967 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays about film sexism

The ambiguity of Heroes and Villains in Backyard: El Traspatio Each year, thousands of women disappear or are killed as a result of sexual violence. In the crime fiction Backyard: El Traspatio, director Carlos Carrera initially depicts femicide in Ciudad Juarez as a consequence of isolated gang violence, but gradually presents the crisis as a byproduct of transnational economic collusion, governmental inadequacy, and masculine aggression. Throughout the film, Carrera embeds jarring scenes of abuse in a narrative of amorphous crime to help the viewer experience a diluted version of the trauma. Instead of presenting facts describing the effects of violence in Ciudad Juarez, Carrera chooses to fictionalize the role of detective Blanca Bravo and …show more content…

After detective Blanca Bravo discovers a trend in the mutilation of female bodies, she concludes these killings are the act of an isolated murderer. Carrera deliberately establishes the depravity of El Sultan in the scene where he is captured at gunpoint by Bravo. This scene is filled with footsteps, heavy breathing, and intense downbeats, foreshadowing a confrontation. When Detective Bravo enters El Sultan's house, he is partially clothed, sexually assaulting a young woman, and slurring vulgarities in broken Spanish. The mise-en-scène of this scene justifies El Sultan's pedophilic accusations and hints at the foreign root of sexual violence. This scene is cross-cut edited to further emphasize El Sultan's sexist remarks on Bravo's attractiveness and to signify the confrontation between criminal and detective. Through this exchange, it becomes clear that El Sultan is proud of his sexual misconduct and doubts Bravo's authority due to her gender. In this scene, Carrera portrays an indisputably corrupt predator in order to provide a gateway to understanding the modes of greater villainization throughout the film. By presenting the audience with an archetypal criminal, Carrera can use the audience's perception of the rapist to introduce and further justify more unlikely contributors to sexual

Show More
Related

  • Alfredo Corchado's Midnight in Mexico

    1122 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alfredo Corchado — is the author of the book named " Midnight in Mexico:A Reporter's Journey through a Country's Descent into Darkness”. We are, probably, all interested in finding out the facts, news, and gossips about Mexico. This country was always associated with something mysterious. For me personally, the title of the book seemed to be very gripping, I was interested in revealing the secrets of life in Mexico, thus I decided to read this book. I was really curious, what can Alfredo Corchado tell me about the life in this country, the country, where the constant massacre is the picture, people used to see. In his book, the author tells the reader about the real situations, which took place in Mexico, reveals the secrets of the people’s lives and tells the story from the “inside”. He describes the way he lives his life, and does his work. The " Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter's Journey through a Country's Descent into Darkness” is a memoir. Author tries to transform his own experience into the story line. Corchado shows the reader the darkest episodes of Mexican society, while relying on his own experience.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Cantú's "Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera"

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    Norma Elia Cantu’s novel “Canícula: Imágenes de una Niñez Fronteriza” (“Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera”), which chronicles of the forthcoming of age of a chicana on the U.S.- Mexico border in the town of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo in the 1940s-60s. Norma Elia Cantú brings together narrative and the images from the family album to tell the story of her family. It blends authentic snapshots with recreated memoirs from 1880 to 1950 in the town between Monterrey, Mexico, and San Antonio, Texas. Narratives present ethnographic information concerning the nationally distributed mass media in the border region. Also they study controversial discourse that challenges the manner in which the border and its populations have been portrayed in the U.S. and Mexico. The canícula in the title symbolizes “The dog days of 1993,” an intense part of summer when the cotton is harvested in South Texas. The canícula also represents summer and fall; also important seasons and concepts of that bridge between child and adulthood. She describes imaginative autobioethnography life growing up on ...

    Read More

  • Abuse of Power in La Misma Luna, and Enrique’s Journey

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    In both the movie, La Misma Luna, and the newspaper series, Enrique’s Journey, migrants are faced with many issues. The most deadly and scarring issues all relate back to bandits, judicial police, and la migra or Mexican immigration officers. The problems that arise are serious to the point of rape, robbing, and beating. It is not easy crossing the border illegally and secretly, but the successful ones have an interesting or even traumatic story about how it worked for them.

    Read More

  • La Boca Del Lobo Essay

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through the study of the Peruvian society using articles like “The “Problem of the Indian...” and the Problem of the Land” by Jose Carlos Mariátegui and the Peruvian film La Boca del Lobo directed by Francisco Lombardi, it is learned that the identity of Peru is expressed through the Spanish descendants that live in cities or urban areas of Peru. In his essay, Mariátegui expresses that the creation of modern Peru was due to the tenure system in Peru and its Indigenous population. With the analyzation of La Boca del Lobo we will describe the native identity in Peru due to the Spanish treatment of Indians, power in the tenure system of Peru, the Indian Problem expressed by Mariátegui, and the implementation of Benedict Andersons “Imagined Communities”.

    Read More

  • Entrapment In The House On Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The House on Mango Street” emphasizes on this issue, even broadens to explain other controversial matters such as abuse, misogynistic views, and stereotypes. The protagonist, Esperanza Cordero moves to Mango Street where she must witness the abuse affecting her friends, neighbors, and family. Either Sally a close friend, Mamacita a neighbor, or her own mother handling 4 children. Over the course of the novel Esperanza changes physically and mentally. Through the use of imagery as well as complex, descriptive vignettes Cisneros epitomizes the misogynistic views within Esperanza’s

    Read More

  • Symbols In The House On Mango Street

    1385 Words  | 3 Pages

    Symbolism is the key to understanding Sandra Cisneros’ novel, “The House on Mango Street”. By unraveling the symbolism, the reader truly exposes the role of not only Latina women but women of any background. Esperanza, a girl from a Mexican background living in Chicago, writes down what she witnesses while growing up. As a result of her sheltered upbringing, Esperanza hardly comprehends the actions that take place around her, but what she did understand she wrote in her journal. Cisneros used this technique of the point of view of a child, to her advantage by giving the readers enough information of what is taking place on Mango Street so that they can gather the pieces of the puzzle a get the big picture.

    Read More

  • Desert Blood

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    Desert Blood, a book by Alicia Gaspar De Alba, is considered to be a mystery novel that covers a seventeen year crime wave. Specifically, the author has focused on the Juarez femicides issue whereby femicide is defined as the murder of females just because they are women. However, in this case, the Juarez victims are the poor and young Mexican females that were murdered because they were poor. The protagonist of this story is Ivon Villa, a professor that focuses on women studies while the antagonists are Silvia Pasquel, Natalia Stregnard and Zabaleta. This paper will therefore focus on the plot summary and analysis of the novelwhile pinpointing the main parts of the story.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

    2349 Words  | 5 Pages

    By examining the narrative voice as well as the cultural restraints placed on them, readers can see the sexist culture in the novel and that the novel itself does not necessarily advocate this misogyny. Yunior, a Dominican man, is the overall narrator of the novel, so readers essentially see everything through his masculine eye. When discussing a brief fling with Lola, Oscar’s sister, Yunior says, “Even those nights after I got jumped she wouldn’t let me steal on her ass for nothing. So you can sleep in my bed but you can’t sleep with me?” (Diaz 169) His question suggests that it is his right to sleep with her, and his discussion of Lola herself objectifies her by noting only her body and her refusal to use it. This objectification is clearly sexist, but it is a reflection of the narrative voice, Yunior, not of Lola. Yunior will casually refer to a woman as “a bitch” (Diaz 183), which is clearly demeaning, but it is a man’s view and does not reflect on the substance of the women. It shows readers the culture he was raised in, not an actual portrayal of the women, illustrating a misogynist society but not a misogynistic novel. In the Dominican Republic, gender-based violence is the fourth leading cause of death, hinting at the overall problems caused by the hyper-sexualized nature of the country. Sociologist Denise Paiewonsky

    Read More

  • I Am Joaquin

    682 Words  | 2 Pages

    Femicide is violence and hate towards women due to the extreme aggressive machismo, gender inequalities and discrimination, and economic disempowerment embedded in Latino culture (Prieto-Carron, 26). To put differently, femicide is an epidemic that has occurred for years in Latino countries, but is more prevalent today due to the systematic corruption in society and media coverage. For instance, in the poem this issue is expressed when I assert “I watch for my sisters. I grieve for those who have been raped and killed, only to be forgotten and marginalized” (Line 15-16). To clarify, many women in Central America are killed due to this gender-based violence that is historically linked to the colonial period, when the Europeans categorized women inferior to men. This patriarchal mentality is instituted to many systems that it becomes normalize and ignored. According Mariana Prieto-Carron, who analyzes femicide in Central American countries, states, “those in power, both in the household and in state institutions, can exert greater control over women’s behavior and mobility” (Prieto-Carron, 30). In other words, this is a form of social-control from the elite in order to regulate women and keep them from going against hegemonic patriarchal society. These social constructs are restraining women from social mobility and freedom. Correspondingly, when I

    Read More

  • Tricked Essay

    1298 Words  | 3 Pages

    This seemed to follow a pattern. Rain, who was recruited into sex trafficking at age 11, claimed her pimp only had minors in his “stable”. To keep control of his victims he threatened them by threatening their families. Finally yet importantly is Cindy who, along with other women, were intimidated and trapped within a home to insure their obedience. Their stories depict a world dominated by shame, regret, and fear.

    Read More

  • Literary Criticism In Woman Hollering Creek By Sandra Cisneros

    2485 Words  | 5 Pages

    Intertwined in allusions to women of Mexican history and folklore, making it clear that women across the centuries have suffered the same alienation and victimization, Cisneros presents a woman who struggles to prevail over romantic notions of domestic bliss by leaving her husband. In the story Woman Hollering Creek, Sandra Cisneros discusses the issues of living life as a married woman through a character named Cleófilas; a character who is married to a man who abuses her physically and mentally. Cisneros reveals the way the culture puts a difference between a male and a female, men above women. In Woman Hollering Creek, we see a young Mexican woman, who suddenly moves across the border and gets married. The protagonist, Cleófilas’ character is based on a family of a six brothers and a dad and without a mom, and the story reveals around her inner feelings and secrets.

    Read More

  • Mexican American Essay

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mexican Americans have quickly risen to become the majority population in the United States. The Mexican American population has grown so much due to the mass migrations they make from Mexico into the U.S. About 33.7 million Hispanics of Mexican origin reside in the U.S. as of 2012 (Pew Hispanic Center, 2013). Mexican Americans are considered the largest Hispanic origin population, making up two thirds of the whole Hispanic population to reside in the United States. As of 2010, 32 million Hispanics are Mexican American, with 11.7 million immigrants born in Mexico and 22.3 million being born in the U.S. (Pew Hispanic Center, 2013). Today, there are about 52% of Hispanics born in the U.S that have a least

    Read More

  • And Discrimination In Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands, La Frontera

    821 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the opening of the book Borderlands, La Frontera, Gloria Anzaldua conceptualizes the borderlands as being a burden and a cause of her pain and hopelessness. Anzaldua expresses her feelings towards the boarder using physical traits, but also using non-material descriptions. Anzaldua then goes on to talk about the experiences of oppression and, violence and discrimination of those queer folks of color and how her metaphors used in this book help understand better the meaning of such experiences. She also examines how the queer bodies are marked as locations for all kinds of violence through the power of gender binaries. In the first chapter of her book, Anzaldua explores many aspects of the borderline, and she portrays strong feelings about this matter.

    Read More

  • Hispanic Culture Essay

    1544 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Culture is a cluster of intangibles and tangible aspects of life passed down from generation to generation.”(cite) More importantly, culture is define as the way of life of a group of people who share these same values and beliefs, therefore, we will check the Hispanic culture. The U.S. Census Bureau defines Hispanic or Latino as mutual inhabitants in the United States who are of Latin American or Spanish origin. Latinos has become a larger proportion of the U.S. population, there is a greater need for social work education to offer culturally sensitive training to social work students (Furman, Bender, Lewis, & Shears, 2006; Iglehart & Becerra, 1995). A Hispanic woman, Marcela Hede voices that, “Being Hispanic is mainly defined by my language

    Read More

  • Mexican Culture Essay

    594 Words  | 2 Pages

    What is culture? Many people ask themselves this question every day. The more you think about it the more confusing it is. Sometimes you start leaning to a culture and then people tell you you’re wrong or they make you feel like a different person because of your culture. I go through this almost every day. Because of the way I was raised I love Mexican rodeo but I was born and raised in Joliet. This can be very difficult trying to understand culture. I live in this huge mix of culture. Culture is personal. People can have many cultures especially in America and because of globalization. Cultural identity is not one or the other, it is not Mexican or American. Cultural identity is an individual relevant thing.

    Read More

More about Backyard El Traspatio Essay

Open Document