Quinceañera: Just Dishonest Propaganda.
Less than one year ago
two white, gay entrepreneurial film writers, Richard Glatzer
and Wash Westmoreland, got a brainstorm.
They would write and direct a film titled Quinceañera
to cash in on the Hispanic market for movies targeted at Latino
audiences— and Hollywood`s appetite for the politically
congenial.
A fly on the wall might have overheard this fictionalized
exchange between Glatzer and Westmoreland as they scratched out
their Quinceañera concepts:
Glatzer: "I have an idea.
Let`s do a film about a Mexican family in transition. We`ll set
it in the multicultural Echo Park section of Los Angeles. To
give it additional appeal for the diverse audience, we`ll title
it Quinceañera. We`ll reference lots of traditional
values. And for good measure, let`s cast a
couple of gay guys."
Westmoreland: "They`ll
love it at Sundance. And
can you imagine the reviews we`ll get at the
New York Times?"
Glatzer and Westmoreland, whose film background includes
directing pornographic features like The Hole and
Toolbox, got lucky beyond their wildest dreams. [The
XXX Factor, John Horn, Los Angeles Times, July 1,
2006]
First, Quinceañera did indeed win the top two 2006 Sundance
Film Festival Awards in drama, the Grand Jury prize and the
Audience Award.
Then Sony Pictures
Classics picked up the movie for mass distribution. And
recently Quinceañera, cited for "its enlightened view of
living in a multicultural world" won the
Humanitas Prize
given to films that demonstrate "positive" values.
The Movie Establishment, in short, leapt at the chance to
promote a piece of pro-immigration propaganda.
Sony`s definition of "classic" is different than mine.
Quinceañera, according to Glatzer and Westmorland, was "thought
of in January, written in February, cast in March and shot in
April."
And in most circles, "enlightened" is not a word to be
used about a film that includes a
pregnant
but virgin 14-year-old. But we are, after all, in Hollywood.
The movie, enthusiastic reviewers tell us, celebrates the
emergence of a young Mexican girl into womanhood. Her 15th
birthday, la quinceañera, and the elaborate ceremonies
including a Mass that surround it, symbolize
Latin traditional values.
For a more intelligent and accurate analysis of the film, see
Brenda Walker`s
VDARE.COM blog,
Quinceañera Quackiness. And read
Steve Sailer`s
forthcoming review in the September 12th edition of
American Conservative.
When I first saw the movie trailers, it took me back
to days of long ago when, living in
Puerto Rico,
my three sisters had quinceañeras. And as someone who
observed the phenomenon up close, I have a perspective quite
different than Glatzer and Westmoreland.
Before the writers get misty-eyed about the female passage
from girl to woman, they should consider that a Quinceañera
is nothing more than a
party…often ostentatious, usually great fun but just a
bash. One young Hispanic woman`s opinion of quinceañeras
is
here.
For the birthday girl, her 15th is a cash cow.
She`ll get two new dresses, one for the Mass and one for the
revelry and much pricier, upscale gifts than she got when she
turned 14.
My clearest recollection of my sisters` quinceañeras—
and all the others I attended as a guest—is not the Mass or the
family gathering but the ungodly amount of alcohol that was
consumed well into the wee hours.
Adults got plastered on
Planters Punches. And when they were too blitzed to notice
or care, the teenagers got smashed.
Passed out parents and crushing hangovers, while reality, is
not the stuff of "enlightenment" or "values" in
celebration of diversity movies.
If it is so trivial, why am I writing about Quinceañera?
Made on the fly by a couple of guys who smelled a buck and an
easy way to
praise
and fame, this silly movie will be gone from theaters by
Labor Day.
The problem is that while Quinceañera is around, it
establishes a forum for more immigration romanticizing. The
movie gets good ink, some of the politically correct will think
its cool to cancel
Sweet
Sixteen parties and replace them with quinceañeras.
In short, Quinceañera is just one more thing for us to
cope with. We have to fight the immigration reform war on every
level…against the
White House,
the
ethnic identity lobby, the
corporations, the
churches
and now the
Saturday matinee.
Two years ago, I wrote about a dreadful, dopey, racist movie
A Day
Without A Mexican that its writers, agenda-driven
Mexicans Sergio Arau and his wife Yareli Arizmendi, touted as a
film that would awaken and enlighten America about immigrant
contributions.
You`ve heard their tale before: without illegal alien labor,
the country would
collapse,
etc., etc.
But, as I predicted, A Day Without A Mexican bombed.
Domestically, the film grossed $4 million;
worldwide, $10 million.
No one wants to see a stinker. And except for Sailer`s
American Conservative review, no critic pointed out the
film`s obvious flaws: "Latino audiences hoping to see a movie
starring people like themselves will be stymied by the
unavoidable problem that `A Day Without a Mexican` is, as
promised, frequently a movie without a Mexican."
The irony is that since the 2004 release of A Day Without
A Mexican, Americans have seen the immigration light…but not
in the way hoped for by Arau and Arizmendi.
Every
major opinion poll solidly supports VDARE.COM`s position
that mass immigration— legal and illegal— must end.
VDARE.COM never gets tired of being right, of course, but we
wish we didn`t have extend the battle all the way from the White
House to the theaters.
Some places should be out of bounds
for immigration pandering.
Joe
Guzzardi [email
him], an instructor in English at the Lodi Adult School, has
been writing a weekly newspaper column since 1988. This column
is exclusive to VDARE.COM.


