The Films That Make Us: Cantinflas
Interviewer: Judith Rojas
Interviewee: Lucina Rojas
We all have a movie that changed our lives growing up or impacted us in a big way but not everyone had that opportunity. In the case of this interview with my mom, a 49-year-old Mexican born woman who now lives in North Chicago, Illinois, she didn’t have big movie going experiences growing up. The questions I asked her were when she had seen her first movie, when she saw her first US movie and which it was, the first movie she saw herself represented in, whether she prefers US films to Mexican films, and if she thinks my siblings and I would've benefitted from watching more Mexican cinema growing up. I chose my mom and these questions because I knew she came from a small village in Mexico and didn’t have many opportunities to move forward in life which led her and my dad to immigrate to the US without knowing anything of being here aside from what movies had taught them. The interview ended up being cut down to 17 minutes and it’s fully in Spanish so I will be transcribing below the parts in our conversation from the questions that stood out to me the most. It’s also important to note that while this interview started out about finding what movie my mom holds dear to her, I quickly found out she doesn’t have a favorite movie at all.
Mom: One by Cantinflas
Me: Who is Cantinflas?
Mom: A Mexican actor, very famous.
Me: What kind of movies did he do?
Mom: Comedies
Me: Why didn’t you watch your first movie until you were 8?
Mom: Because we didn’t have TVs. At that time they weren’t used.
Me: But- but it was the 80s, what do you mean they weren’t used?
Mom: Because we were a small village very abandoned by civilization, and there were only two TVs in the village at that time. We’d go to those houses to watch TV.
Me: Oh wow, so there were only two TVs
Mom: Mhm and they were in black and white
Me: Mm- Still?
Mom: It was black and white because we still didn’t have color
A Still from a Cantinflas Film
Me: When did you get them in color?
Mom: Ooh not until we were much older.
Me: When was the first time you saw a movie that you felt represented in?
Mom: Um, it was the movies from the 70s where they would go dancing and wore short skirts with the little squares and stripes [plaid skirts]
Me: [laughs] And which of those was the first one you saw?
Mom: Um, I don’t remember mija, it’s been so many years.
From the question of Mexican heartthrobs, I knew an actor had lived in her town but found out it went deeper than that:
Me: Who was the one that you said lived in your town?
Mom: Oh, his name was- his was Miguel Angel, I think. His last name was.... Estrella
Me: Angel Estrella?
Mom: I think that’s his name Miguel Angel Estrella [His name is Alberto Estrella; she mixed his name up with Miguel Angel Rodriguez but corrected herself after the interview]. He was always the villain in his movies he was in- he was in so many movies, but he was always the villain.
Me: But he was from your town?
Mom: Yes, from my village.
Me: OH! He was from there from where you lived.
Mom: Yeah, you know where your Aunt Lucia lives?
Me: Uh huh.
Mom: They lived along there.
Alberto Estrella
Me: And he made a lot of movies so was he famous then?
Mom: He was famous but he went to go live around Acapulco, but he lived in (muttered)
Me: Mm and did he talk about his village in his interviews or no?
Mom: I don’t think so, well it was a village that was very small, I think he was embarrassed.
Me: Mm
Mom: He still makes movies, he’s still alive.
Me: He still makes movies?
Mom: Yes he still makes movies
Me: And does he still have family in your village or no?
Mom: There’s only one aunt, her name is Alejandra Estrella
Me: Is she still alive?
Mom: She is
Me: Oh wow. Did you know him or was it before you were born?
Mom: No, I knew him but he was still a young man when I knew him
Me: You knew him?
Mom: Yes but they came over- they went to go live in Acapulco
Me: Mhm
Mom: But from there they would come back to visit his grandparents. They always arrived on a bus
Me: Oh wow
Mom: And they would come to visit his grandparents. It wasn’t until a while after that we knew he was- until my mom told me I didn’t know, my mom told me he had become an actor and made a lot of movies. And after we would watch him [in movies] but I didn’t know that was him.
Me: So were you friends with him or not?
Mom: Just friendly. But his aunt lived with us for a while in your grandparents’ house
Me: Oh wow!
Mom: Because after the parents of- after his grandparents died, the parents of Ms. Alejandra
Me: Uh huh
Mom: They sold the homes and she stayed alone with nowhere to live because, well there was only one brother, and he went to go live in-
Me: In Acapulco
Mom: -In Acapulco, uh huh. So she didn’t have anywhere to live so my dad gave her a small room and she came to live with us. She spent many years living with us.
Me: And did she finally move when she had enough to buy her own house or did she get married, or what happened?
Mom: Um she went with another friend [female] because she was always single, she never got married.
Me: Mami...
Mom: What?
Me: Um... was she a little bit like me [gay] or... ?
Mom: No. I don’t know she never got married.
Me: Well, I’m just saying if she never got married and lived with a ‘friend’
Mom: Yes but she- but she was a single woman and- well I don’t know, she liked working in the fields. She did the same jobs that the men did
Me: And you don’t think she was like me? [gay]
Mom: I don’t think so, I don’t know! We never asked about things like that. I always hung out with her she would take me to buy watermelons at the market in Celaya. I went with her, it was the same to me whoever she was with.
Me: So, there is an aunt of a famous Mexican actor who lives in your village, who never married, worked the same jobs as the men, and lived with a woman?
Mom: Yes the young woman did.
Me: And it never crossed your mind that she might’ve been a lesbian.
Mom: No.
Me: Well, mami, not to tell you you’re a bit slow on that topic but in that time we [gays] couldn’t get married so we lived with our ‘friends’ we always said they were ‘friends’-
Mom: Mm
Me: -But you know.
Promotional Image for Anaconda (1997)
Me: When did you watch your first US film?
Mom: When I first moved here
Me: And how old where you?
Mom: 22
Me: 22?
Mom: Yeah
Me: And what movie was it?
Mom: I don’t remember
Me: What year did it come out?
Mom: At 23 I went to the theater, and I watched the movie Anaconda [laughs]
Me: That was the first movie you saw in theaters?
Mom: Yeah
Me: Did you like it?
Mom: Yeah, I took Cynthia [my older sister] while she was very little
Me: So it was ’94?
Mom: Yeah
Me: So you arrived in the US in ‘93?
Mom: Mhm
[Anaconda was released in 1997 so she might’ve confused how old she really was when she saw her first movie in theaters]
Me: Do you think raising us here and having us watch US films has changed us compared to you and dad?
Mom: No I don’t think so, but perhaps you would’ve benefitted to watch some more movies from Mexico because some of them have more of our roots and that would’ve helped you more. Because a lot of the time- because we didn’t show you a lot about our ancestors or roots and all of that you guys sometimes end up between cultures because you don’t know anything from there [Mexico], just what you learn here [US].
Me: Do you think if you could’ve changed anything from how you watched movies in the US, it would’ve been having us watch more movies from Mexico?
Mom: Yes, at the very least so you wouldn’t forget anything about our culture and our roots. Because it’s beautiful to have roots from Mexico, even if you live your whole life in the US. I feel proud! [Being Mexican]
Me: Me too!