Talk:Quinceañera (film)

Ending
Doesn't the film actually ends with Magdalena's quinceanera party instead of Tomas' funeral? 71.222.157.9 15:11, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

You're right; I'm changing it. AniBunny 21:52, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

But is it really Magdalena's quinceañera ? I rather saw it as her wedding with Carlos : an even happier end ...Arapaima (talk) 08:48, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

After the erasing of 8000 bytes by "Shiver of recognition" (a "red link")
"Shiver..." you came coldly out of your den where you were resting since 2009, January 8th (after your night raid on "Bacon") to brutally and solidly erase 8000 bytes out of my text. I should like you to know that I have nothing against teenager pregants, male or female homo. alone or in couples (I count several of them among my friends),, Mexicans, Latinos in general (does'nt my text show that I know & love their culture ? Did YOU know what they are celebrating on Cinco de Mayo ?) , quite on the contrary. Do you think unfit for people to know that a 1958 mexican rose-water film had described the topic ?. I hereby restaure my text, which seems to me fully objective and tolerant, and by the way thank you for making me think of a new chapter to deposit it in : "Detailed analysis of the plot". Goosefleshly yours,Arapaima (talk) 16:49, 19 August 2009 (UTC)


 * So the chapter has been erased again, and by "Scott Cameron" this time. Mr Cameron, what is the magazine where you'll be able to find (as you deigned say) this kind of text ? . "Too long" : that's a purely subjective assertion, and by the way are we entering into WP only to get the links towards IMDb ? I wrote a warning at the beginning of the chapter, did'nt you read it ? Here it is, and by the way the whole chapter too, since I think it may be useful to those who are interested in (among other topics) cultural and sociological issues in a megalopolis like LA Arapaima (talk) 15:25, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

- ' Warning : the frequent tongue switching during the dialogues, and the nippy setting of the film may make it difficult for the spectator to follow thoroughly its thread. Here is a detailed analysis which may help him (but which unveils the end). ' - The beginning of the movie, set in the LA district of Echo Park (where chicanos now dwell along with bohemian non-conformist artists), shows Magdalena performing her duties as part of her cousin Eileen (Alicia Sixtos) (daughter of a well-to-do caballero) quinceañera retinue. At midnight, while the showy and starched religious ceremony becomes a hot dancing familial party with merengué music stirring people up, Carlos (Jesse Garcia), Eileen's brother, arrives at Eileen's quinceañera uninvited, in very casual wear, and drunk. He simply wanted to give Eileen a rose, but his parents decide that he came only to cause trouble and let the rest of the family know that he is a homosexual, something that they suspect but do not want to believe. Two tough among the men kick him out of the party, Carlos' father even punches him hard in the face...  - - In the following days, Magdalena (Emily Rios), Eileen's poor cousin, a sullen 15 years old buxom brunette, ought to be thinking only of her upcoming quinceañera, of her boyfriend Herman (JR Cruz), and of the Hummer limo she really wants to ride on for the ceremony. But her family is poor : her father works as security agent and is the clergyman of a frontstore church (« Iglesia de Dios, Camino de Santidad » : « God's Church, Path to Holiness » says the poster), while her mother cooks and sells « the best tamales of the district », and they cannot afford such a social flounting feast as Eileen's parents did. By the way, says the father, his daughter Magdalena, who sings hymns at church with a white veil on her head, is not interested in such a materialistic showing off...   - - But the women of the family soon discover that Magdalena is pregnant when she tryes on her hand-me-down dress from Eileen's quinceañera, and two pregancy-tests confirm it. At first, her boyfriend doesn't believe it, because they only had non-penetrative sex, and he « only came on her leg »...Magdalena's mother confesses their daughter's predicament to her husband, who, infuriated and refusing to believe she is still a virgin , banishes her from their home. Furthermore, her boy-friend's mother tells Magdalena coldly that Herman by any means never get laid with her, so they do not want anybody's baby in their family, that she is to let him alone, and furthermore that they have sent him abroad, where he will be going to university. At school, the girls sneer at Magdalena : what on earth is the idea to get pregnant at I5 ? Are not condoms easily available ? ...   -    - Abandoned by her family and her boy-friend, Magdalena erases Herman photos and useless phone-number out from her cell-phone, takes her little suit-case, and crosses the speedway bridge to move in with her elderly great-uncle, Tomàs, a sweet old bachelor, who believes her when she tells him that she is still a virgin though pregnant, and he goes and kneel in front of Santa Maria's altar with a knowing and indulgent grin. He has built this shrine in the middle of a fresh and shady tropical garden, trees and flower bushes he has planted around his shack, following the patio concept, along the 28 past years. On the frail walls of the chabola are pasted the photos of the family, their history since they came north to work in the States. Tomàs is more than 80 years old, and goes on touring the neighbourhood, selling champurrado, a chocolate beverage he cooks at home, and carries along in a supermarket caddy...He has been giving shelter to Carlos since the boy was expelled from his family, and shows a lot of tolerance : when late at night the young man comes back from « seing his friend » , the old man hands him a cup of cocoa and states casually that he is is glad to see him having « a special friend ». And when the softening young cholo asks him why he never married, the old man tells him how he was in love, a long time ago, with a sweet latino girl, but stopped to see her because he had to leave the USA to go back to Tepatitlàn, in the state of Jalisco , for many years : his father had died, and he, N° 13 and weakest of a family of 22 children , had to till the land again and take care of his old mother...   - - Magdalena and Carlos, old Tio Tomàs' nephews, are now living with him, and they have first some difficulties to get along. Carlos and Magdalena sometimes make this kind of dashes one at another, she begins with : - - « And so what do you do with your male friends ? » - - »Just what you did with your chum Herman, you see what ?... » - - »well, you know, I am a virgin, so I actually don't know... ». -   - But after some time the latin cariño prevails, they stop quarrelling about who is going to tidy up the house or to walk the dogs, and they listen to Tio Tomàs conjuring up his past of chicano immigrant worker in front of old crumpled black-and-white photos : how young he was when he crossed over to begin toiling hard in the USA, how he had wanted to die at 9 because life was too hard, and how he was born again to life in 1930, after he let himself volontarily be crushed down by a car and was kept for many months in hospital...On the night of the « Cinco de Mayo », in the garden overhanging the expressway leading to Alvarado, the now cohesive family celebrates the mexican victory of Puebla (1862, May the 5th), shouts «  A bajo los Franceses ! (« Down with the French! ») and delights in cracking fireworks, along with all the chicano neigbours...    - -   -    - But Carlos (Jesse Garcia, whose stamina seems to make his character erupt from the 1994 movie Mi Vida Loca ...) arouse the libido of Tomas' new landlords, a caucasian affluent (and crass) gay couple. They invite him to their housewarming party (only male guests) and subsequently, after a lot of tequila drinks, in a strong scene where we see Carlos abandon all his taboos (the gay couple strips up his abdomen where the word « TRAVIESO », bad-guy, is tattoed and unbuckle his belt...) , seduce him. Those wealthy gay bohemians, new owners of the lot where Tomàs's shack and garden are situated, about ten and twenty years older than Carlos, objectify Carlos as a Mexican macho, a sexual bomb with 'gangster' baggy clothing and tattoos. Later, during another only male dinner party, they brag about their new cholo conquest : hasn't he got mojo (punchy charm), a lot of taboos to overwhelm, and an "eight inches, uncut" dick ? But Carlos begins a hidden exclusive affair with the younger one of the gay couple; and when the older discovers it, he forces his mate to abandon Tomas, who reacts by vandalizing the other's sport car. Then Tomàs and his young charges, out of rancour and jealousy, are evicted from their home, and the reconciled gays visit the garden, marvelling at the potentialities of the spot, and gaping in front of the naive shrine. -   - Magdalena and Carlos with youthfull energy try to save their little family each in their own way. Magdalena succeeds in finding them all a flat and Carlos resolves to find a better job than his car-washing, so that he can support them while Magdalena finishes school. However, overcome with grief at losing his home, Tomàs suffers from a heart attack and dies. This results in a reunion between Magdalena and her mother, who came to pack up Tomas poor belongings. She takes Magdalena to a medical dispensary. There, the doctor, an African lady, confirms that Magdalena's hymen is intact, and that pregnancy without sexual intercourse is quite possible. Magdalena reconciles with her father at Tomas' funeral : he had been prompt to adopt a biblical patriarch attitude in casting her away, he is keen now in believing in a miracle...  - - Magdalena brings Carlos back into the fold of the family. And at the end of the film they are all seen coming out of a Hummer limo ; and then Carlos (clad and very manly in a white chambelàn suit) and Magdalena in a long silver gown, her little belly discreetly showing, march forward arm in arm into the Iglesia de Dios and are wellcomed by a smiling Magdalena's father, while the trumpets of Giuseppe Verdis Aïda play : wedding rather quinceañera ? Anyway, the future is bright...


 * Hello Arapaima. I have to chime in with Shiver and Cameron's assessment here (even if Shiver didn't explain, which they should have): the "detailed plot analysis" (the term is suggestive already) reads like an essay, and that makes it original research. Such an edit has nothing to do with who has or doesn't have gay friends, or who does or doesn't approve of gay fiction or movies. Your "warning" at the beginning of the section says it all: this is not how encyclopedias ought to be written, and Cameron could have placed a Template:Talkinarticle on your talk page. Now, what magazine might have such an analysis, that's another question, but Cameron does not have to provide an answer for that: if no reliable sources produces such information, then it's not encyclopedic material. Thanks, Drmies (talk) 19:03, 26 August 2009 (UTC)