Reviews - Trinity University

Huaco-Nuzum
motif of a white owl functions in the film as a touch of magical
realism, highlighting the Mexican and Latin American folklore
that believes in the power of animals to represent omens
of life and death. The first sighting of a white owl occurs early
in the film as the young Maria crosses a river in Mexico with
the infant Chucho, whom she almost loses when her craft is
overturned. This cultural marker prepares the audience for
tragic events to come in the life of Chucho. Prior to being mortally
wounded by the police, he sights a white owl perched on
a beam of his hiding place.
Female characters enter and leave the narrative as guests
and, in the case of Isabel, Jimmy’s wife, briefly. Isabel remains
in the film only long enough to socialize Jimmy and provide
him with a son, Carlitos, before she is removed from the narrative
to redirect focus to Jimmy. Even the dialogue of the film
helps to proliferate male, sexist positions of power. Early in
the film, when the young Maria informs Juan that she is pregnant,
he responds, “I knew it, I knew it, it’s going to be a boy,
this one is going to be a special boy.” Mi Familia emphasizes
doting on male children, featuring women as boys’ conspirators.
The spectator is never shown any interaction between
parents and female children. l4
As I wrote in my article on American Me, Chicana, Latina
representation in Chicano cinema continues to be problematically
portrayed.15 From IAm Joaquin to Fools Rush In, female
subjectivity remains biologically inscribed in the Madonna/
whore dichotomy. Although the Chicana, Latina is often the
transmitter of knowledge, she is also made responsible for the
socialization of the male. Once again, we see this problem surface
in Mi Familia, where Maria, Toni, and Isabel have no
agency, no standing within the social order, but nevertheless
are held responsible for socializing all the males in the family.
Returning to the theme of remembrance in Mi Familia
brings to mind the following statement by Bhabha:
It is within . . . this division, of national identification,
articulated in the staggered interstitial temporalities
that exist between the disjunct moment of
the present and the fictitious space of the future,
that we must try to understand our contemporary
reality, recalled in the echoes of the past.16
For Juan, his transaction with the past is fixed in time and
space and the means by which he validates his national iden-
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