News
Under the Same Moon: Humanizing illegal immigration, or illegal immigration as entertainment?
July 1, 2008
By Gustavo Geirola, Jordan Chair in the Humanities and professor of Spanish
Made in true "Hollywood style," with the intelligent selection of (and investment by) the best Latino and Mexican actors, the spring-released Under the Same Moon is a Mexican-U.S. production conceived as a "road picture."
The film tells the story of Carlitos, an intelligent and educated Mexican boy, who—in the modern landscape characterized by the absence of a father—crosses the U.S./Mexico border in search of his mother, Rosario, an illegal immigrant working in Los Angeles.
From the very beginning, this narrative tackles serious challenges. On the one hand, it tries to give a positive version of illegal immigration. On the other hand, it provides a dose of realism from the idealized migratory epic by denouncing abuses of all type that affect the undocumented immigrants who daily cross the U.S. border from the South and, once having survived the trip, start their martyrdom in the labor and cultural market. And the filmmakers prove adept at manipulating the American spectator's feelings and promoting solidarity towards the suffering.
However, the power of this film comes more from what is left unsaid, rather than the straight narrative.
Standing halfway between Hollywood's traditional epic style seen in the movie My Family (1995), and attempting to spark cultural debate usually seen in independent films, such as the discussion on sexuality and masculinity in Quinceañera (2006), Under the Same Moon's more negotiated aspect is its use of dual languages: English and Spanish.
In this film, characters do not seem to confront social conflict at the linguistic level, typical in other Latino films. Some are monolingual, wary of linguistic and cultural differences; others are bilingual, able to cross the linguistic border within appropriate circumstances. Spanish, at least, is not used decoratively. To some extent, most of the film's believability depends on this linguistic negotiation at the narrative level. Undoubtedly, Carlitos' story, and the candor with which his story is related, would be very different if he were only a Spanish-speaker.
The movie does take certain risks to ensure its credibility and its "realism." For example, Carlitos is an intelligent boy who has learned English. But to what extent is the story plausible, thanks to the boy-hero's English skills? No need to say that this education is not massively available to all children in Mexico and the so-called Third World. Carlitos' possibilities for success seem to depend on his education and his ability to save money, provided by his mother's monthly money orders and his own job. Obviously, it is not the same case for Carlitos' poor Mexican friend, a boy who sells gum on the streets. His history, if it were told, would undoubtedly promote another agenda of socio-political commentaries, far from the film's sweetened and melodramatic Hollywood style. Arguably, we do not see too many like Carlitos in Los Angeles.
Interestingly, Carlitos' journey is made possible by two U.S.-born Chicanos visiting Mexico and looking to make easy money to help finance their college education. Deficient in Spanish, they cannot communicate well in Mexico. In fact, it is Carlitos who has to help translate for them with Carmen "La Coyota" (the smuggler). While Carmen speaks English, she refuses to speak to the Chicanos in English as a point of honor. Juxtaposed with this pair are two Mexican-Indians who speak no Spanish and are negotiating with Carmen for passage to the U.S. (The movie later insinuates that the two Chicanos, with more than sufficient English, have trouble negotiating in the Anglo world, as well.)
Other monolinguals central to the film are Rosario's employers, two white housewives presented in a very schematic and stereotyped way. In politically correct fashion, we are shown both the tolerable and intolerable sides of their own Anglo culture. Nevertheless, both these women are devoid of much depth and even unable to communicate with "the help." It is Rosario and her coworkers—fellow illegal immigrants—who are capable of learning another language to survive in two worlds.
The title of the film is in itself ambiguous. While it seems to mean that the moon can be shared by mother and son wherever they are [geographically or linguistically], we have to question to what extent that moon could appear the same during the entire week in which this story develops. How is it possible that this full moon is always successfully framed by those small windows usually seen in poor neighborhoods? Is that an invitation to a symbolic reading of the film? Perhaps.
In the end, though, the film's realism is so exquisitely manipulated that it runs the risk of jeopardizing the fragile pact of verisimilitude with the spectator, who, as soon as s/he leaves the theater, confronts the streets and realizes to what extent s/he has been exposed to simply an interesting fairy tale.
Under the Same Moon, PG-13. Now out in DVD.
