Spanglish

Shizelbs

If this thread has already been started, sorry. I looked for it and didn't find it.

Anyways. I really enjoyed this movie. Its very simple and incredibly well done. Phenomenal character development and tremendous use of literary elements. This is not one to half-watch. You'll miss all of the great stuff unless you are paying attention.

The actress who played the white mother did a great job of portraying a ****.

Enjoy!

dorokusai

Jane Fonda reportedly does a great job in her role as a traitor **** in Monster-in-Law.

I pretty much wrote this movie off, but as always will end up buying it for the library.

I think the "white Mom" is Cloris Leachman.

gregure

Actually, I think by "white mom" and "****" he meant Adam Sandler's wife, as opposed to the Spanish maid and mother. In that case, it would be Tea Leoni.
Haven't seen the film, but I get the impression Clorish Leechman's character is more a drunkard than a ****.

Shizelbs

I did in fact mean Tea Leoni. I should be less lazy in the future and get the name right in the first place.

Early B.

Yeah, I was surprised -- it was a good movie. I enjoyed the acting by the leading lady. It's a nice chick flick.

dorokusai

Why not say Adam Sandlers' "wife" instead of "white Mom"?? Who cares, I'll check it out anyways.

Sami

I hate Sandler, I don't think much of Leoni but I could not go on without seeing this for Vega alone. I know I have said I will not watch anything with Sandler on it but how could I miss Paz Vega? To be honest he wasn't that bad in this one but he wasn't very good either, Leoni was blah and Vega was wonderful, again.

It's funny how she is playing a hispanic woman around "white people". She herself couldn't be more white but I could see how the mainstream audience could picture her as hispanic.

Early B.

To add to what Sami said, be careful about confusing nationality with race. "Hispanics" can be categorized in several races depending on who you're talking about. (Categorizing races, however, is fraught with a host of difficulties, so no need to go down that road.)

BTW -- it's now becoming more politically correct to use the term, "Latino."

bobman1235

Originally posted by Sami
It's funny how she is playing a hispanic woman around "white people". She herself couldn't be more white but I could see how the mainstream audience could picture her as hispanic.

Are you trying to make some sort of racial commentary here?

Paz Vega was born Paz Campos Trigo on January 21976, in Seville, Andalusia in southern Spain.

She went to school in madrid. Every one of her movies prior to Spanglish was a complete spanish language production.

Now, if Hispanic is defined as "A person, regardless of race, who is of Spanish culture or origin", how is she NOT hispanic?

Skynut

Originally posted by dorokusai
Jane Fonda reportedly does a great job in her role as a traitor **** in Monster-in-Law.

I pretty much wrote this movie off, but as always will end up buying it for the library.

I think the "white Mom" is Cloris Leachman.

Is this **** in a movie again?
If so I would like to know before I accidentally purchase it.
She gets none of my hard earned money.

Shizelbs

Originally posted by dorokusai
Why not say Adam Sandlers' "wife" instead of "white Mom"??

Because I didn't have that much brain power last night.

Sami

Originally posted by bobman1235
Are you trying to make some sort of racial commentary here?

And what would you mean by that? I just thought it was funny as she is a white woman.

'Hispanic' is Spanish for 'Spain' but is more commonly used for Latin Americans, just like 'Latino' is 'Latin' which includes Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French but is more commonly used for Latinoamericanos.

Either way, if you want to call her Hispanic it still doesn't change the fact that she is a white woman too. Hispanic white woman.

http://www.answers.com/topic/hispanic

""Hispanic" should not be confused with "Spanish", for a Hispanic is like-Spanish, but not Spanish. "Spanish" refers only to from Spain and actually possessing the quality of being from Spain, and not "like-from Spain". Thus, Spaniards are not Hispanic in this sense of the word, nor are Hispanics Spanish. The only exception refers to the time in history when "Hispania" existed as a word and "Spain" did not exist as a word that referred to the Iberian peninsula, so thus a native of Hispania would have been "Hispanic"."

bobman1235

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound accusatory, it just sounded like you were trying to make some kind of comment about people calling everyone who looks Spanish "hispanic", when in fact that is a valid definition of the word. The very link you sent me to says as its PRIMARY DEFINITION :
1. A Spanish-speaking person.
2. A U.S. citizen or resident of Latin-American or Spanish descent.

She fits both of those definitions, yet you think it is not a valid description, and that she apparently "could not be more white".

I'm not sure what the hangup with her being "white" is. What is "white" to you? Light-skinned? I would say she's pretty dark-skinned. By your definition, it seems that all hispanics are also white, so why did you make the distinction? Would a Mexico native be white? Would a Cuban native?

Not trying to start an argument or "accuse", I'm just curious about the whole thing.

Sami

Originally posted by bobman1235

I'm not sure what the hangup with her being "white" is. What is "white" to you? Light-skinned? I would say she's pretty dark-skinned. By your definition, it seems that all hispanics are also white, so why did you make the distinction?

She is European, a caucasian. In the movie she is Mexican (IIRC) working for "white people". I hate racism and it just gave a little reminder of perception. I myself am a sub-group of the caucasian race (Finno-Ugrian), different from the germanic and latin races. Non-europeans have hard time understanding how it is different, seems like the same caucasian race to them.

Kinda like when in SNL (I believe) they asked (as part of the humour act) Penelope Cruz which actress is more popular in their home country, Salma Hayek or her.

Originally posted by bobman1235
Would a Mexico native be white? Would a Cuban native?

Not necessarily. Could but not necessarily would. Spanish might be a sub-group of Hispanic but Hispanic is not a group of Spanish. Spanish is caucasian, Hispanic could be a lot of different races or mixes; creole, mestizo, mulatto etc.

The paragraph "Difficulties and criticisms on the U.S. application of Hispanic" describes it pretty well.

bobman1235

I gocha. Thanks for explaining.

Obviously most everyone "hates racism". However, I'm weary of people who make something a racist issue when there is none, or get offended by something which is harmless.

Certainly for the purposes of hte movie, she would LOOK and SOUND "Hispanic" in any way you want to define it, which is pretty much the only criteria when you should care about when it comes to defining a role. And when people are referring to the role, they would obviously refer to her as "the Hispanic mother" or even "the Mexican mother" because that was her role. Much as I would refer to Al Pacino as "the devil" when referring to The Devil's Advocate, but do not believe he is in fact Satan in real life.

Certainly being Mexican should not be an insult to someone, and while they are distinct cultures, obviously Latinos and Spanish people share many traits, physical and cultural. Any confusion between the two would be hard to classify as racism, but just a lack of knowledge of the specific person.

Sami

Originally posted by bobman1235
Obviously most everyone "hates racism". However, I'm weary of people who make something a racist issue when there is none, or get offended by something which is harmless.

I wasn't offfended and I never thought it was racist, just funny. There were a lot of race issues in the movie and I thought it added a twist when a European was playing a minority.

I do hate racism, maybe it is because I have faced it many times. I have dated and continue to date women in all of the major race groups and that exposes you to a lot of racism.

Early B.

I'll say it again ---

(Categorizing races, however, is fraught with a host of difficulties, so no need to go down that road.)

Now, getting back to the topic -- it was a good movie with good acting, in general, esp. Ms. Vega. Adam Sandler was tolerable in this one. My wife liked it.

brettw22

Originally posted by Skynut
Is this **** in a movie again?
If so I would like to know before I accidentally purchase it.
She gets none of my hard earned money.

I heard she was hilarious in it and I'm going to see Monster in Law.

I'm all for having a problem with someone for something they've done, but when apologies have been made and so much time has passed, let it go.

PhantomOG

Originally posted by brettw22
I heard she was hilarious in it and I'm going to see Monster in Law.

I'm all for having a problem with someone for something they've done, but when apologies have been made and so much time has passed, let it go.

i have no problem with celebrities who choose to make their personal political views known through their easy access to mass media.

but I also think that every person who then hears this in the media is completely free to make whatever decisions they want about that celebrity. they don't have to "let it go" if they don't want to. no one asked these celebrities to get on their soapboxes and we shouldn't feel sorry for them for any negativity that comes from their choice in doing so.

dorokusai

Brett - Ask your local Vietnam vet about Jane Fonda....and tell them to "let it go". Do you even know the many things that she has done just in regards to the Vietnam War? If so, then just laugh it up while watching the movie....then spit in someones face on the way out the door.

For the record, she has NEVER apologized....to include any and all comments in her new book.

Article - Jane Fonda in Wonderland - D. Lehtinen

brettw22

When it gets to the point of just holding a grudge, I'd say it's time to grow up and stop acting like little kids.

For the mere mention of someone's name to result in the type of post above IMO is less about the actor being commented on than it is about the person making the post. (sorry to single your post out Sky)

If people have a hard time hearing "I'm sorry" that's not on the (in this case) actors shoulders, it's on the one that can't let it go.

If everyone walked around hating everyone for what they said in the past, we'd all be dead I bet.

Skynut

Originally posted by brettw22
When it gets to the point of just holding a grudge, I'd say it's time to grow up and stop acting like little kids.

For the mere mention of someone's name to result in the type of post above IMO is less about the actor being commented on than it is about the person making the post. (sorry to single your post out Sky)

If people have a hard time hearing "I'm sorry" that's not on the (in this case) actors shoulders, it's on the one that can't let it go.

If everyone walked around hating everyone for what they said in the past, we'd all be dead I bet.

My understanding is that American soldiers were tortured to death due to her actions. I feel that I, as an American, owe them the courtesy to not let it go. To each their own. I expect that everyone is capable of making their own decisions as to who they want to support and who they will not. If you choose to watch her movies that is fine with me, I choose to not watch the movies and not let it go.

Skynut

Originally posted by PhantomOG
i have no problem with celebrities who choose to make their personal political views known through their easy access to mass media.

but I also think that every person who then hears this in the media is completely free to make whatever decisions they want about that celebrity. they don't have to "let it go" if they don't want to. no one asked these celebrities to get on their soapboxes and we shouldn't feel sorry for them for any negativity that comes from their choice in doing so.

I agree totally, they think they have the right to shove their views into our faces and we will follow them like sheep.
They want the free publicity good or bad.
We have the right to support or reject them based on their views.

Skynut

P.S. Sorry to get so far off topic.:(

brettw22

I understand the sentiment Doro, but since when did the entire Vietnam war fall on Fonda's shoulders. I'm not going to pretend to know everything that she did, but have read a bit about her involvement. It's my interpretation that her problem wasn't with the soldiers, but the administration and that sounds extremely familiar as of late.

Last I can remember, we've been in the middle of a war in which THOUSANDS of people have vilified our country, many of which reside here as well. Are we holding them to the same platform in which Fonda has been placed for speaking out against something they don't believe in? I can't think of the one person that every American is looking at as traitorous with all that's gone on post 2001.

brettw22

Originally posted by Skynut
I agree totally, they think they have the right to shove their views into our faces and we will follow them like sheep.
They want the free publicity good or bad.
We have the right to support or reject them based on their views.

Since when is someone expressing their views equated to mandating that you follow them. I don't understand the mentality that says "when I disagree with someone's opinions, they must die" which is really what it sounds like people wanna do with this.

To each their own...........i just don't understand the thought process.

brettw22

Agreed, sorry for the detour.....

Early B.

My understanding is that American soldiers were tortured to death due to her actions.

Is this a fact-based statement?

I heard her on TV saying it was the dumbest thing she ever did and she clearly felt remorse for doing it, so what else do you want?

I ain't defending the lady 'cause I don't know her personally, but you also gotta look at the positive things she's done for Americans since then. She is a great philanthropist and along with Ted, has contributed millions over the years, esp. to health care for children.