Seeking Happiness in an Unjust Society: Roma A featured film analysis of Roma (2018) Written by Freya Abbas1,2,3,4 1 Department of Linguistics, 2Literature and Critical Theory, 3Semiotics and Communication Studies, University of Toronto 4 Second-year undergraduate of Innis College, University of Toronto Content Warning: Mentions of abuse, gun violence, and explicit language.
The Intersection of Race, Gender and Class in 1970s Mexico From the opening scene of director Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, the historical setting is revealed to be one of political turmoil in the era that would be known as the Mexican Dirty War (1964-1982). During this time, the Institutional Revolutionary Party used a combination of electoral fraud and violence to remain in power. Indeed, it appears that state-lead violence was so regular during this time that it is one of the features that the characters of the film are all accustomed to and is a key element in characterizing the setting. While sitting around the breakfast table, Paco, a young boy, recounts an incident where a child throws water balloons at an army jeep and then “The soldier gets mad, he gets out, and shoots him,” (Roma 0:9:15-0:9:33). Paco is not disturbed by the story, and the incident exemplifies that even children are not ignorant about the chaos and violence of the time. Women, despite winning their right to vote nearly twenty years earlier, are still not seen as equal and are often the victims of state-lead violence and oppression during this period. At the same time, the government regularly seizes land from Indigenous peoples such as the Mixtec, many of whom decide to flee rural areas and seek employment in cities which are perceived as safer. The protagonist, Cleodegaria “Cleo” Gutiérrez, embodies the political strife of her time through her intersecting identities of being a lower-class maid, Mixtec, and a woman. Through concealing her emotions, adopting a stoic outlook on life, and committing herself to absolute servitude to a middle-class household; Cleo eventually reinvents her own identity. She devises a way to attain happiness without having to engage in the dangerous confrontation of the race, class and gender hierarchies of her time.
Screenwriters’ Perspectives Vol. 2 No. 1 2021
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