I liked Quinceanera a lot.
In the movie, Emily Rios is a 14 year old who is about to enjoy the party that marks her passage into womanhood, a Quinceanera (think of a 'sweet fifteen' with lots of drama and intense Latin spice). She finds out she is pregnant and her father, who runs a little church, throws her out of the house.
Emily's nice, nonjudgmental, octogenarian uncle takes her in. The uncle is played by Chalo Gonzalez.
At Chalo's house, Emily joins Jesse Garcia, who plays her cousin -- he is living 
there because he was thrown out of his house for being gay.
Quinceanera portrays various generations of Mexican-Americans living the American dream, on a budget. Immigration is not an issue here.
There was a lot of gay content, but not all positive.
The gay content was brought to us via hottie Jesse Garcia's character, by a yuppie gay couple who rented their back house to Chalo, and by a lesbian couple.
As is the case for most movies with a heavy load of gay content, the discussion of the portrayal of us gays will ruin the plot a bit too much. So, read on, or go see Quinceanera!
[SPOILER AHEAD]
Jesse is a small time crook, pothead, confused. Granted, he finds himself dealing with his homosexuality and extreme parental rejection. Is that tough or what? Although it would have been nicer to see a strong gay who can remain balanced even in the face of adversity, I can easily understand why someone in that situation could resort to drugs (and it's just pot anyway), and become all rebellious -- there's a little stealing involved too.
Before you can say I-Love-a-Latin-Guy-in-a-Wife-Beater, Jesse becomes sexually involved with the gay couple who owns the property he lives in. The couple is played by David W. Ross (in the pic below with Jesse), and Jason L. Wood. David and Jason are a couple with an open relationship. Very modern. They have Jesse as their boy-toy but Jesse gets closer to David and the two love birds get it on behind Jason's back, violating their menage-a-trois agreement.
Jason finds out about their ongoing encounters behind his back, he gets mad, and we are lead to believe that Chalo (the uncle renting the back house) is evicted out of jealousy. Jason wants Jesse far way. So, that all doesn't play so well for us gays, but nothing terrible really.
As they are about to get evicted, Emily starts to look for a new house, and she finds that with new landlords, played by a lesbian couple who finally agree to rent a house to the three of them. Well, at least most gays in Quinceanera are real estate owners who like to have people around. Cute. It was really nice of the lesbians because we see Emily has a hard time finding a place, every other potential landlord were quick to reject her.
Aside from the slightly less than perfect light for us gays, you ultimately leave the theater feeling revolted with the Latin parents. We see a younger generation who appear to deal better with homosexuality, and an older generation (Chalo) who is not judgmental. Cramped in between we two sets of hateful middle aged parents (the parents of Emily and Jesse). I was livid with their behavior in the movie. They were the ones afflicting all the pain on their sons, on Emily for not accepting her pregnancy, and on Jesse Garcia for not accepting his sexual orientation.
Things get a little better for Emily at the end. Her stupid bigot father starts to believe she got pregnant out of a miracle (immaculate conception type of crap). So, even her relief comes out of a crazy belief in a miracle by her father, not acceptance. Not even close. And, Jesse, poor Jesse. He doesn't get anything from his parents. That made me mad. He does grow on his own. He wants to find a nicer job, and help Emily take care of her baby. Go Jesse!
Hmmm sounds intersting!
Posted by: Marcus | Aug 23, 2006 at 11:42 PM