SPAN 305 Spanish Oral Expression and Culture : Finding Videos

Cristina's life is thrown into turmoil when she is suddenly escorted from her strict Catholic school and told that she is really Sofía Lombardi, the daughter of activists who disappeared in the '70s. Questioning everything she once thought true, Cristina embarks on a journey to find her true identity. Meeting others like herself, the young girl soon discovers the real-life horrors of Argentina's relatively recent past and the nightmare that claimed tens of thousands of lives during the country's 'Dirty War.'

In this film-within-a-film, director Sebastián heads to Cochabamba, Bolivia, to shoot a film about Christopher Columbus's trespasses in the New World, only to find the locals protesting present-day exploitation of the poor. Sebastián is sympathetic to the cause, but realities collide when lead actor Daniel, cast as a rebel against the Spanish, becomes a key figure in the current demonstrations.

Maya is an illegal alien who has crossed the U.S. border from Mexico to search for her sister Rosa, and to begin a new life. After being reunited, Rosa gets Maya a job with a janitorial service in a large office building. While working, Maya happens upon Sam Shapiro, a muckraking lawyer and union agitator whom the service-workers' union has assigned to bring its "justice for janitors" campaign to the building. Appalled at the work conditions and unfair labor practices, Maya and Sam team up to fight her employer.

This program traces the harsh life of indigenous women from several tribes, including the Otavalan, Puruha, and Quechua of Ecuador, from pre-Columbian times to the present. Topics discussed include rape as an ongoing practice; labor exploitation; the effects of acculturation; and racial and sexual discrimination.

The Mapuche defeated the Spanish Crown invaders, and do not recognize the border that Chile and Argentina have tried to impose. Presently, the struggle is focused on maintaining the identity as a people, and stopping the encroachment of multinational corporations in Mapuche ancestral territory. In an effort to increase profits, logging, hydroelectric, oil, mining, and tourist companies- among others- cause destruction and pollution on both sides of the Andes Mountains. The legal, political, and military structures of Chile and Argentina favor the interests of big business. The rights of a people whose spirituality is directly linked to Nature are constantly violated. The search for living in harmony with the environment, a horizontal way of organizing, and a resilience that has never been broken, have allowed the Mapuche to resist for over five centuries and assert: We still exist. In a journey through different communities of Puelmapu (the land where the Sun rises) and Gulumapu (the land where the Sun sets), the documentary takes the viewer across rivers, lakes, forests, and mountains. It registers the words and wisdom of Mapuche women, men, children, youth, and elders. The film breaks through the official news blackout, when it enters the prisons where the defenders of Mapuche rights are serving their sentences. Additionally, it covers a hunger strike that went on for over 100 days and gave rise to a wave of demonstrations.