Presencia

Latina Por : Michael

Besson Ed DePaola

David Ehrenthal Kyle Hanna

Kelly Magrino Nick Stone

Por Michael Besson

What this Unit is all About

This unit includes the study of movies that showed the struggle of families who immigrated to America. The films Mi Familia and El Norte shows what the “American Dream” is to immigrants coming to the country. Along with studying movies, we also studied the process of immigration and how people can qualify for green cards and visas. By studying famous latin movies like El Norte, you learn the struggles many immigrants faced and still face today. In Mi Familia, you learn what a lifestyle is like for new immigrants coming into a brand new country. Francis Coppola was the director of both Mi Familia and the American classic, The Godfather. Both movies are influential to each specific culture. The questions that will be introduced and thought about during this unit are..

-­ Why did people choose to come to America?

-­ What problems can occur for migrating people?

-­ How do Latinos adapt to the culture of the United States?

POR KELLY MAGRINO

El Norte The movie El Norte tells the story of the immigration process for siblings Enrique and Rosa as they move from Guatemala to the United States in the late 1900s. Enrique and Rosa leave Guatemala because of massive attacks occurring in their village by soldiers due to money issues and the goal of keeping the poor poor and the rich rich.The siblings had heard that in America even if people are poor they still are able to own things that the rich also own, such as cars, and they decide that moving to America would be their best option. The movie displays the hardships of crossing the Mexican-­American border and later displays that although life in America does have some better aspects than Guatemala did, there are still many issues to face when people are living in the country illegally. El Norte helps with the immigration unit because not only does the movie explain the issues people face when trying to illegally cross borders and move within countries, but it displays the hardships after the immigrants are in their destination country. El Norte displayed that due to immigration laws illegal immigrants can have trouble with housing, jobs, and medical issues because of their lack of money, insurance and legal citizenship.

After the movie students will complete a project on the process of becoming a US citizen

Por Nick Stone

Vocab Mi Familia Slang El Norte Vato El ahijado Pinche La comadre Simon El compadre Carnal El coyote Pachuco La gente Mota La madrina El mano Immigration Unit El novio Suecos El padrino Holandeses El soldado Alemanes Acordarse Irlandeses Ayudar Escandinavos Componerse Colonia Conseguir Peregrinos El drenaje Establecimiento La lana Estar de acuerdo Limpiar Gobernarse El pisto Hacer leyes La suerte Bien común Volverse loco Embarcar El abuso Discriminar El campesino Cosechas Escaparse Marchar El indio Enriquecer Irse Luchar Mi Familia Matar El respeto Morir La verguenza Peligroso La dignidad El pobre La conciencia Quedarse El trabajo duro El rico La honra Seguro La familia Sentir La identidad Tener miedo La confrontación La tierra La delincuencia La vida La ganga La tradición La placa La pinta La inmigración mejicana La religión católica

Por: David Ehrenthal

Mi Familia: The 1995 film Mi Familia shows three generations of the Sánchez family, through immigration to America, death, marriage, and family strength. Each generation overcomes economic and social hardships relating to deportations, racial tension, and gang fights throughout several decades. The film starts out with Jose and Maria, who meet and marry in Los Angeles. There, the two face deportation but end up starting a family with their Children, Chucho, Memo, Irene, Pace, and Jimmy. The children face discrimination and with a violent death in the family, as time goes on and one sibling grows up trying to make amends for his mistakes. As years pass, one child quits her job, another marries outside of his beliefs, and one deals with the death of a spouse. Mi Familia Questions: How many decades pass throughout the movie? Which sibling is killed by the police? Who witnesses it? How is this movie similar to The Godfather? What does Toni do that goes against her parent's beliefs? Why is Memo ashamed of his family traditions? Do Jimmy and his wife raise their child happily together? Does the movie come with a happy ending? Family Tree Project: • Option 1: the characters in the movie (pictures from the movie). explain if they were able to reach “the American Dream”. Base your opinion on what they did in the movie, who they became, and your own perception of what is the American dream. • Option 2: the real actors in the movie (pictures of who they are in real life). Explain how they have contributed to the film industry in the United States by exploring their careers. Mention important work and a salient description about their lives.

Por Ed DePaola

Immigration: In this subunit of Presencia Latina, we learned about the history of immigration to the United States, and the legal ramifications that go along with it. After watching El Norte, we studied the process of legal immigration to the United States. The class completed an activity packet, with a research portion about the processes of obtaining a green card or a visa. The packet also included a reflection portion about the main character of the movie. The final part of the packet included a practice Citizenship test. Could you pass the test? Answer the questions below and see. (Answers on Last Page)

1. How many branches of government are there and what are they?

2. What did the emancipation proclamation do? 3. In what year was the constitution written? 4. What type of government does the U.S have? 5. For how long do we elect each Representative?

Answers:

1. Three Branches;; The Executive, Judicial and Legislative Branches

2. The emancipation proclamation freed all slaves 3. The constitution was written in 1776 4. The United States has a democratic government 5. A Representative is elected for 2 years

Por: Ed DePaola

To the right are some pictures of the activity packet about immigration. The packet was mostly focused on the movie El Norte, but there were aspects from every unit. The picture to the right is of the cover. The picture on the bottom right is of the research portion, and the picture directly below is the analysis of the majors characters in El Norte and the major decisions they had to make.

El Norte vs. Mi familia

What do you take away from this unit?

These movies are intended to be studied together. Ultimately these two movies share the same central themes.

These include violence, immigration, and assimilation. Ultimately the events that occurred in both films show the gang and police violence that occur in latin america as well as the struggles and dangers. They also exemplify the assimilation process that symbolizes loss of tradition (with characters like Memo in Mi familia). When a

student is watching these movies they should ask themselves questions like Why did the characters decide to immigrate? How did that impact them?

Why did the violence occur? and How did assimilation both negatively and positively affect

the families?