I think that non-latinos have a hard time understanding how important the family is to traditional latino families. Watching this movie may assist anglos in better understanding cultural differences in our society.

This movie made me feel really empowered. Which, I guess, is what it’s supposed to do. Some of the dialogue seemed awkward or forced or something, but overall I really enjoyed it. It made me want to run around in my underwear and celebrate women’s bodies of all shapes and sizes. While I didn’t end up doing that, I did go straight home and sign up to pose for a nude calendar, which turned out to be a fantastic experience. Thank you, America Ferrera!

As I read the previous entry, i did realize how annoying it may be for a non-Spanish speaker to understand parts of the movie. However, my version does contain subtitles, but i think that the fact that they purposely did not include them is an act of solidarity between the movie and other Latinos. Code switching is a regular part of Mexican-American (Chicano/a) culture and the fact that the movie contained a lot of it really made me (a Chicano) feel for the protagonist more.

On another note, this movie is great for self esteem and just overall body image. I think the quote from the movie, “Pretty dresses are just for skinny girls” really captures the essence of the movie. This movie has feminism, defies social norms, challenges political problems, culture, etc. It is definitively worth seeing.

I liked this a lot, very compelling protagonist. However, it was a little annoying that a lot of the dialogue was in Spanish with no subtitles. Sometimes no subtitles are needed in movies like this—the language is there for effect and you can pretty much guess what they’re saying by the tone and expression, but there were long stretches where there was no English at all, which hurt the film overall I think. Luckily for me, those 4 years of high school Spanish, paired with 2 years living in Upper Manhattan, were enough enough for me to be able to pick up most of what they were saying. My girlfriend, however, fell asleep.