Who said a movie from 2002 can’t still be relevant 16 years later? Even in 2018, we are still, in this country and throughout the world, grappling with a plethora of social and economic issues that you’d think would be close to solved in the 21st century. Real Women Have Curves is a movie that portrays many of those issues. Centered around high schooler Ana Garcia, it depicts her struggle to attend college in the face of family values and immigrant poverty. The movie also tackles a whole other slew of hot-button topics that we continue to debate today.
After watching the film for my Spanish class, I realized how timelessly relevant it is. Below are 5 reasons you need to watch the critically acclaimed movie ASAP if you haven’t already.
1. It gives you perspective
Any good work of art – whether it be a book, movie, song, sculpture – should make you think. It should make you realize something that you didn’t know before, or pay attention to something that you once overlooked. Real Women Have Curves provides some serious perspective to its viewers, one of the biggest regarding access to education. Ana has to walk and take two buses from her neighborhood to reach Beverley Hills High School in Los Angeles.
Seeing the scene of her traveling, I thought about my own relatively short commutes to elementary and middle school – the bus stop was in my neighborhood itself. I had never considered the fact that so many kids right here in the U.S. have commutes that are a serious impediment to their education. It felt like I was thinking about two completely different worlds – the disparity is that large.
2. When it comes to depicting immigrant life, it doesn’t pull its punches
The movie powerfully shows the tough conditions that Ana’s family faces. The dress factory that Estela (Ana’s sister) runs is literally a sweatshop, and the workers struggle to meet the vendor’s deadlines. One of the workers could not afford to take her sick father to the hospital, so he died. The conflict between Ana’s desire to attend college and her family’s values and ability to pay for it effectively shows an individual family’s struggle, clarifying my own vague image of a “tough” immigrant life.
3. It’s so relatable if you’re a first-generation American
First generation Americans like myself are stuck in that gray space between two cultures. Real Women Have Curves gracefully depicts this identity struggle and shows that getting an education involves a tangle of issues and questions – more than just “can we afford it?” When I hear stories in the news of immigrants’ children not being able to go to school, all I can wonder is “why?” What kind of family could let go of the opportunity to send their child to college? Why can’t they take loans? But the answer is that there is more to the equation than money.
Ana not only has to confront the cyclical poverty that many immigrant families find themselves in, but also her own family’s culture and image of an ideal Latina should be.
4. It promotes body positivity
Body image – one of those issues that we are unfortunately still struggling within 2018. Real Women Have Curves does a great job tackling this issue through its strong protagonist, who asserts that “a woman has thoughts, ideas, a mind of her own.” Constantly butting heads with her mother, who continuously criticizes her for being overweight, Ana isn’t ashamed of who she is or what she looks like. She is an important role model for viewers (and not just girls) who feel insecure.
5. It’s inspiring
(SPOILER ALERT) Ana ends up getting into Columbia and goes to New York to embark on a new journey, even without the explicit approval of her mother. With guidance from her English teacher, she works hard on the application and even gets a full scholarship. Seeing her achieve her dream in the face of so much opposition and odds stacked against her, you can’t help but think about the opportunities that so many of us just take for granted every day. Be grateful, and keep working hard.
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