Mi Vida Loca
Mi Vida Loca means "my crazy life (as a girl)." The movie documents the phenomenon of female gangs in the early nineties in Los Angeles. It is written and directed by Allison Anders, who grew up in Los Angeles and went to UCLA. She uses personal experiences to help influence her story writing. In Echo Park, a group of young Mexican-Americans show what it means to live in the inner city. The film looks at gang lifestyle from a woman's point of view to uncover relationships, conflicts, gang loyalty, and identity. The "homegirls" portray their female friendships through their daily lives of survival in Echo Park. It is a rough life with almost every "homegirl" having a baby by the time they are twenty-one and almost every "homeboy" being handicapped, killed, or in jail by the time they reach their early twenties. The girls try to become autonomous from the men in their lives by forming their own female gang. The gang culture of Mi Vida Loca reflects and constructs culturally understood gender roles.The basic plot is based around two Chicano girls and their childhood lives. The movie is split up into three episodes. Maribel "Mousie" and Mona "Sad Girl" were childhood best friends that become enemies over a b
The female gender role of being independent to a man is shown many times. After Ernesto's death, the girls complain about not ever having money. In one instance, neither mother could afford a juice for their kids. Whisper then gives them money, but it is actually Shadow's drug money. This points out that the role that men take care of their women. Whisper, who is a better drug dealer than Shadow, assumes that she cannot start her own business because of the role that she sees herself in. She sees the "glass ceiling" because she can be Shadow's partner, but not work on her own. At the end of the movie, she finally realizes that gender roles aren't set in stone and the female gang start to deal drugs themselves. Ernesto has both Mousie and Sad Girl under his control and trust at the same time. He reflects the gender role of defining masculinity through controlling women. French reasons why men feel the need to control women: La Blue Eyes constructs a gender role. She is the day dreaming girl that yearns for a prince charming. Her prison pen pal is the man of her dreams, except that is just on paper and in her mind. He wins her heart, but then crushes it by never writing to her once released from prison. El Duran is a romantic man that just plays with her feelings. Those were not his true feelings in his letters because "real" men do not have soft, intimate thoughts, like that. One night when walking home, Shadow finds his inherited car missing and immediately assumes that El Duran stole it. His gang drives to a rival gang party to execute El Duran. Little Sleepy fires the deadly shot. At this same party, La Blue Eyes realizes that El Duran is Juan, who was just a sweet talker the whole time. The next day, a young boy in the neighborhood admits that he "borrowed" the car and crashed it on the steep streets of Echo Park during a joy ride. In retaliation, El Duran's followers the little girl standing by Little Sleepy on the sidewalk the next day, thinking she's his. But that little girl was actually Big Sleepy's daughter. The movie ends with the females becoming independent and starting their own operations. Sad Girl says, "Women don't use weapons to prove a point. Women use weapons for love." The male gangsters agree on selling Suavecito without ever consulting the females. They don't feel the need for any input from the "weaker" gender. This machismo attitude reflects the gender role of the powerful male. Decisions on the car are made swiftly in the gangster lair one afternoon. The girls wouldn't even have known this happened if it wasn't for Giggles hearing it from
Some common words found in the essay are:
Sad Girl, Girl Women, Anhenica Giggles, Sleepy Sleepy, El Duran, Loca Growing, Blue Eyes, Vida Loca, Echo Park, Little Sleepy, gender role, el duran, gender roles, sad girl, vida loca, mi vida loca, mi vida, la blue eyes, reflects gender, little sleepy, la blue, blue eyes, reflects gender role, mousie sad girl, female gender role,
Approximate Word count = 1766
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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