Star Maps Essay, Research Paper

Throughout the movie, Star Maps, many ideas about family values, machismo

among the males, and patriarchy passed on through generations are easily observed.

They begin with simple, common, stereotypical ideologies such as having the family eat

dinner together, or by having the father stress the fact that he brings home the bacon .

These ideas later progress into more complicated, as well as disturbing matters. The

movie expresses these ideas by having the father hurt women physically or by

displaying violence and disrespect to those that you are supposed to love.

The first idea about family that I recognized was when the family sits down and

eats dinner together. This scene is towards the beginning which made me believe that

they were similar to other families and that there wasn t that much tension between

them. Another issue that kept constant throughout the movie was the strong bond

between Maria and Carlos. They always supported each others dreams, had good

communication and would try to give each other advice. A good example of this was

when Carlos got back from Mexico and Maria told him not to go to work with his dad.

Instead, she told him that he should pursue his acting career alone. The last family

value that was present was how Maria, the daughter took over her mothers role.

Because the mother was sick Maria became completely responsible for everyone else.

She had to put her life aside in order to cook dinner, clean the house, take care of her

mom, and try to keep the family together. It seemed as if Maria didn t do it no one else

would. Especially not her father, he was too busy being with his girlfriend and making

money.

This leads me to the ideas of machismo that are also present in the movie. The

father s character is the best example that displays these two ideas the best. He

always has to be in charge and he also sees women as property. He feels that

because he is a man that he can cheat on his wife and everything is fine. In one

scene, Maria invites a male friend for dinner. When her father gets there he tells her

friend that he s just her friend in order to get a piece of ass. He continues by saying

that if he wants her, he has to pay fifty dollars and that he should accept the offer

because it s pretty cheap. In another scene, the father s girlfriend finds out that his wife

is not dying so she slaps him for lying to her and he hits her back as if she was a man.

He puts her down by telling her she s a whore and displays machismo when he says,

Who do you think you are? The last form of machismo that is displayed is the fact

that the father keeps bringing up the whole idea that he gives his family a house and

food and that they are ungrateful because they don t even thank him, likes that s all a

father has to do. This brings me to the issue of patriarchy.

On numerous occasions the father mentions the fact that his dad put him on the

streets when he was young and that he taught him to be a man. His father taught him

that in order to be a man he had to give up his dreams and make money by selling his

body to strangers. It seemed that he idealized his father and for that reason he thinks

that what he does is what a man is supposed to do.

The movie Star Maps tried to display these ideas throughout the film. Although

the ideas were a bit extreme and exaggerated, it still let us see some of the problems a

Latino family goes through.