La Mission Movie Analysis

Chicanos and Chicanas are often stereotyped by people based on crude and unfair assumptions but at the same time, these stereotypes are often based on the truth. Movie directors are no exception as they attempt to understand and give representation to entire Chicano/a and Latino/a culture in society. The trailer of the film, La Mission, Che seems to be happy with his life until he realizes his son, Jes, is gay. Che then finds himself in a struggle to accept the homosexuality of his son while at the same time, Jes is struggling to find his own identity and to fit into society. The trailer has distinct ways in how it represents and shows the intersection and issues of gender and sexuality, race and ethics, as well as class. The trailer represents

Che’s rejection shows how important masculinity and heterosexuality is to Chicanos and their society. This is also exemplified by the week 6 readings of “Queer in Aztlan” where the author Mario Martinez is also rejected by his parents for being gay. “As soon as the word gay came out of my mouth, my mom started crying and my dad stood up quickly, very upset, and almost turned abusive” (Martinez 234). The parents of Martinez have the same reaction as Che when he finds out Jes being homosexual. Interestingly, both the fathers of Jes and Mario have violent reactions towards the discovery which represents how much homosexuality is rejected in masculine societies. Furthermore, Mario’s father goes on to question what he did wrong as a father and then says he can’t have a homosexual child in his family (Martinez 234). This shows that Che’s reaction to Jes being homosexual is not out of the ordinary as Mario’s father in the readings does the same. Although the trailer of La Mission shows that Che’s reaction is not unordinary, as Mario’s parents reacts the same way, it is also not how all parents react. Mario’s partner, Marco, had parents who were Catholic, like Che is, as seen from Che and Jes praying at the table and the cross in one scene, and yet, his parents

In Chicano society, being masculine was extremely important. The trailer shows stereotypical representations of what is supposed to make a masculine man. The trailer of La Mission represents the “masculine” man through the violence and aggression as well as the slang and way these “masculine” men speak. Che is one of the main embodiments of masculinity in this movie with how he dresses, behaves, and speaks. As said in “Golden But Not Brown: Oscar De La Hoya and the Complications of Culture, Manhood, and Boxing”, being masculine was “grounded in bravery, risk taking, violence, bodily strength, and heterosexuality (Delgado 275). Che, after discovering his son’s heterosexuality reacts violently. He physically throws his son out of the house and then the two start to fight almost. “I want you out of my house! From now on you’re dead to me!” is what Che shouts at Jes upon discovering his sexuality. Che violently explodes and disowns his son simply due to the fact that heterosexuality is the norm and being homosexual is not masculine. Later on in the trailer, he also grabs Jes’s partner, Jordan, by the neck and holds him against the wall. His disapproval of his son’s homosexuality shows his value in heterosexuality which is one of the major representations of masculinity. His quick resort to violence is another representation of Che’s masculinity. Another article, “What It Means to be a Man?: