Bread and Roses

Rating:
Summary: A film about socioeconomic injustice...
Review: Maya, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, arrives to Los Angles in hope of a better life with her sister Rosa who helps her get a job as a janitor at a big company. Happily Maya works as a janitor until she finds out that she and all others at her company are being unjustly treated, which leads her to invite Sam Shapiro (Adrien Brody) who comes to help them unionize against the bullying company. This leads to difficult times for the employees as they are living under the threat of being fired, which would remove their sole source of income. Bread and Roses is a strong political film about socioeconomic injustice and how it affects families and friends, which offers a terrific cinematic experience.

Rating:
Summary: Not a Victim
Review: The movie was a delight to watch, about a young woman who thinks quickly, who has high spirits, who refuses to be a victim. She realizes that you can't wait for good things to happen; you have to make them happen. (I suppose this is a characteristic of many immigrants.) The setting is well done, the photography excellent, and the ending both bittersweet and a triumph. And the movie makes you think, what steps you would take to survive, to help others, to better your condition in life. I'm also glad that I have always made a point of speaking to the woman who cleans in my area of my office building!

Rating:
Summary: Si se puede!
Review: This film is a must-see for anyone with an interest in how life can be lived in the United States in this new era of globalization. I am a sociologist with a professional interest in undocumented Mexican immigrants who was also a long-time resident of Los Angeles during the period, 1999-2000, in which the events of this film take place. Accordingly, I am well familiar with the Justice for Janitors campaign with its powerful slogan, Si se puede! Maya, the heroine of the film, is young, beautiful, and determined, if not unscrupulous. At the film's beginning, we see her entering the United States from Mexico in a group guided by two coyotes. Upon arrival in Los Angeles, she is expecting her sister Rosa to have the money to pay for her clandestine passage. However, her sister, because her husband is very sick with diabetes, does not have the money to pay the coyotes. The two toss a coin to decide which of them will spend the night with her so that she can repay her financial debt in kind. The winner takes her to his apartment. While taking a shower, he anticipates her seduction. However, she robs him of all his money, steals his fancy cowboy boots and escapes. She obtains a job as a janitor in the large downtown office building where her sister also works. Because she is undocumented she has to pay her supervisor, Freddie Perez, her first month's salary, divisible in two parts during her first two months of work. Unknown to Maya at the time, her sister only got the job for Maya after Rosa had agreed to sleep with Perez. Working in the office building, Maya soon meets the two men who provide the romantic action for the film: Sam Schapiro, the young and intellectual union organizer, and Ruben, a fellow Mexican immigrant janitor, who has hopes of attending the University of Southern California on a scholarship. The contrast between Maya's status and that of Sam is extreme. In one of the most poignant moments of the film, Maya asks Sam, "What do you have to lose?" The bitter-sweet ending left me in tears.

Rating:
Summary: Si se puede!
Review: This film is a must-see for anyone with an interest in how life can be lived in the United States in this new era of globalization. I am a sociologist with a professional interest in undocumented Mexican immigrants who was also a long-time resident of Los Angeles during the period, 1999-2000, in which the events of this film take place. Accordingly, I am well familiar with the Justice for Janitors campaign with its powerful slogan, Si se puede! Maya, the heroine of the film, is young, beautiful, and determined, if not unscrupulous. At the film's beginning, we see her entering the United States from Mexico in a group guided by two coyotes. Upon arrival in Los Angeles, she is expecting her sister Rosa to have the money to pay for her clandestine passage. However, her sister, because her husband is very sick with diabetes, does not have the money to pay the coyotes. The two toss a coin to decide which of them will spend the night with her so that she can repay her financial debt in kind. The winner takes her to his apartment. While taking a shower, he anticipates her seduction. However, she robs him of all his money, steals his fancy cowboy boots and escapes. She obtains a job as a janitor in the large downtown office building where her sister also works. Because she is undocumented she has to pay her supervisor, Freddie Perez, her first month's salary, divisible in two parts during her first two months of work. Unknown to Maya at the time, her sister only got the job for Maya after Rosa had agreed to sleep with Perez. Working in the office building, Maya soon meets the two men who provide the romantic action for the film: Sam Schapiro, the young and intellectual union organizer, and Ruben, a fellow Mexican immigrant janitor, who has hopes of attending the University of Southern California on a scholarship. The contrast between Maya's status and that of Sam is extreme. In one of the most poignant moments of the film, Maya asks Sam, "What do you have to lose?" The bitter-sweet ending left me in tears.