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I spoke a lot of spanish when I when I was three years old I spoke a lot of Spanish, and also now that I am 30, but in the in-between time I spoke English only. Now, since I live in Downtown San Jose, my neighborhood is primarily Latino, I am immersed in the language, and this allows me to enjoy much more art Ð like the new movie Pan's Labyrinth . The movie is set in Fascist Spain, Ofelia, a girl who is around 11, dealing with not only her tyrannical stepfather, (himself a captain in Franco's Army) but the three trials set to her by the goat/humanoid/faun know as Pan. The genre of fantasy has been good to me, I love stories of young people, and since corporate rule continues to be an issue in the United States that too, is a concern of mine. But this movie would be shut off to me if it were not for me living where I do. My comprehension and pronunciation of Espanol has tripled since I moved here. Every building on my block has Spanish-speakers living there. I can order anything I want at any taqueria, make small talk at Mi Pueblo Market around the corner from my house, and ask for necessary information on the street if I need to. Where is the bathroom? When the movie Innocent Voices came out (in Spanish with English subtitles) that was probably when I realized things had changed. Watching it, I cried, I laughed; I laughed while crying. It became my new favorite movie. Pan's Labyrinth is also one of my new favorite movies. When the realities of a woman's existence in a male-dominated, totalitarian country played out, it was tragic. A pregnant woman is pressured into a wheelchair when she can walk perfectly well by herself. The dynamic all but traps Ofelia, her mother, and the head cook who is also a woman, is secretly part of the resistance. If the cook and the girl were older, with the mother they would make up the classical understanding of woman: maiden, mother, elderess. The rest of the movie is quite classical in its unfolding - it is a fairy tale, as dark and light as those of the Brothers Grimm. People forget how the ancients paid respect to what we now call gothic, but this movie hasn't. Ofelia is promised a magic kingdom away from mortals and pain. In order to enter the portal, though, she must slay a monstrous toad, which vomits out all his internal organs upon dying. The next trial is worse, and in a significant way, she fails it. The third trial is perhaps the worst, because it seems to make a monster out of her savior. This is one of the ways the movie can be taken seriously Ð it is not an unrealistic story just because there happens to be more intelligent creatures than humans on Earth. In addition, the main villain is a terrible man, but not because he is an insincere and cowardly hypocrite; he is a tough, disciplined, fanatic. After one of his torture victims turns on him, he performs surgery on himself without anesthetic; he is brave and valiant in battle. He dies for his cause -- but his cause is extremism. (Note: This character's brutality earned the movie an R rating. It is not for children.) My Grandfather Humberto Paredes came here in the 50's when assimilation was king and had his name officially changed to Bert. Spanish language and culture didn't really exist in my house when I grew up. I am glad of my new understanding of it, because when this film came to its beautiful, horrible, sweet-and-bitter conclusion, I broke down and cried. Without familiarity with Spanish, I would not have had that experience.
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