The movie I picked was called Roma. Roma took place in Mexico City and was set in the early 1970s. The film depicts 2 classes of characters. One class was wealthy and lived in Mexico City in a huge, protected apartment building with nice furnishing. The father was a doctor, the mother didn’t work, and they both were dressed in very nice clothing throughout the movie. They had 4 children who went to private school. The family owned new cars, went on vacations, and often traveled by taxis. 2 live-in servants worked for them. The children had lots of toys and free time to play. Their lifestyle was almost identical to an affluent middle-class American family. The family were light-skinned descendants of Spaniard colonizers.

The other class portrayed in Roma were indigenous Mexicans who lived in poverty. The 2 servants and their friends were members of this impoverished class. In one scene Cleo (the main character) visited a friend’s community which was in a huge, run-down dirt field with tiny wood shack homes. This class of characters traveled by foot, bike, and bus, car ownership for this class seemed to be very rare. One of the sub-stories of the movie concerned protests against the Mexican government because it was taking over land owned by indigenous communities. In one scene, a violent mass protest broke out while Cleo was on a shopping trip with her employer. People were being shot to death in the streets by police and military. Armed indigenous protestors were shooting affluent shoppers in department stores.

How the affluent Spaniards lived was a lot like middle-class America. For fun, they watched tv, went to movie theaters, played sports, played with toys that appeared to be the same as in America, listened to both Spanish and English music, took vacations, and went to the beach. The poor indigenous class didn’t live as well as the Spaniards but they did enjoy movies and large social gatherings where they played music and drank. The film did not show homelessness like we have in America. I think this is because the film seemed to show a stronger sense of community among the poor than there is in America. Christmas for the affluent families held a festive celebration with parties, decorations, and gifts from Santa for the children, while the indigenous characters celebrated Christmas at a party in a crowded tavern.

The movie seemed to take place in a more temperate climate similar to southwestern states like Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. Outside of the city were rural areas. The locations visited by the affluent characters were wooded lakes and forests, while the poor characters visited dry, dusty, desert plains. At one point there was a hail storm and later a large earthquake in Mexico City. Mexico City looked a lot like any newer city in America. At points in the movie, the activity on the city streets reminded me of New York City. They were crowded and there were a bunch of street vendors. The only difference was that most of the vendors sold more than just food. The buildings appeared to be plain cement walls without much detail like cities built after the 1950s in America. There were student protests and riots in the city over the government taking indigenous-owned land. The riots resulted in many deaths.