Monday, January 12, 2009

Made in L.A.


When I first saw Made in L.A. I reframed from making any reservations or opinions about the movie, never judge a book by it's cover right ? But after fiding out what it was about it touched a nerve in me. When my father first came to the U.S. back in the 1990s, he worked in the garnment factories swewing clothes for little pay. 

The work is extremely tiring, repetative and he never recieved fair treatment or decent wages. But he needed money to not only support himself, but to support his family back in Mexico and at the same time saving up so we would make the trek across the border. (My story about how I got here in the first place is in the works) He was able to get that job thanks to his cousin who was already working there with other friends who were doing the samething. Eventually we made it to L.A. and we lived in an apartment that was just one big living room with my dads cousing(who's my uncle),another of his cousins, and two friends. In total there was nine of us living in that cramped apartment. 

He still worked at that job for a while and on occassions brought my mom things from work. After a while, they all pooled their resources together and opened their own tailor shop, which is still open and my uncle has opened two more. My other uncle does the same thing and opened two more of his own as well, sorry if it's confusing. I still see them but not as much. I only go to take them food and to get things fixed. 

Even though my uncles found success in their endevours, other's aren't as lucky and that's what the documentry highlights. I'm not going to give it away, more like entise you to go look for it and see it for yourself. 

The movie pretty much chronicles three woman over three years as they struggle to balance their lives and continue the fight for thier rights in the garnment factories. It's powerful what they all go through, the lives they live, families they support. I got teary eyed whenever they would focus on their families because they reminded me so much of my own family. The struggles we went through may not be the same as their's, but it certainly mirrors them. 

This really is an amazing documentry that opens more windows and shows the struggles undocumented immigrants face and can over come when they know they have rights, unite and fight the powers that be. That's what I loved most about the documentry. In fact in won an emmy last year so I'm not alone in that view. Any Dreamie can realate to their struggle and like me see some of themselves and their families in the people in the documentry. 

However it doesn't end with the movie. If you go to their wed site you can host a community screening where ever it is you might live. My school held a screening of it and students loved it. Some even took the knowledge back home because she told me her mom worked in one of those garnmet factories and she wanted to make sure she was being treated right.