The Film Roma: A Discussion

Main Plot of the Film 

The film Roma has several plots with the main one revolving around Cleodegaria "Cleo" Gutiérrez. Cleo is a young, attractive indigenous Mexican girl who works as a housemaid in the middle-class family inside Mexico City. To cement her identity as an indigenous Mexican, Cleo only speaks Mixtec language. Cleo is good at her work, which results in adoration by the Grediagas, including their children whom she treats with motherly affection. However, the said family is in the middle of a crisis and will eventually crumble by the end of the film. Due to her friendship with fellow maid Adela, Cleo samples the Mexican nightlife where she ends up as Fermín’s girlfriend. A supposed film-watching night out between Cleo and Fermín ends up in a motel room where the two make love resulting in Cleo’s pregnancy. Upon learning that Cleo is pregnant, Fermín is indifferent the outright hostile towards her. Fermín threatens to beat up both Cleo and her child if they ever trace him again (Cuarón, 2018). 

In the second part of the narrative, Cleo struggles physically and psychologically with her pregnancy after Fermín’s rejection. The city is also in turmoil due to clamor for social justice by university students. The students face deadly opposition from both the policy and hired goons. The police use clubs to attack, demonstrating students with lethal force. Further, hired goons armed with guns begin attacking the demonstrators and eventually end up shooting indiscriminately at everyone on the streets. In an interesting twist, the now heavily pregnant Cleo is caught up in the melee caused by the demonstrators, armed thugs. The armed thugs pursue a couple into a furniture shop where Cleo and her boss have come to buy a crib for her unborn child. One of the armed thugs who are indiscriminately shooting people on the streets is Fermín. Just as he is about to shoot Cleo, he recognizes her, but instead of helping her out of the predicament, he makes faces at her and leaves. The near-death experience causes Cleo’s water to break, necessitating immediate medical attention to facilitate her delivery. However, due to the chaos, Cleo does not get to the hospital in time, and her child is stillborn (Cuarón, 2018). 

In the third part of the narrative, the marriage between Cleo’s bosses Sofia and Antonio has finally fallen apart as the lather is cheating blatantly. The two are officially separated. Thus Sofia takes the family on vacation to enable Antonio move his things from the matrimonial home. In the course of the vacation, two of Sofia’s children nearly drown due to a strong current. Cleo cannot swim, yet she bravely jumps into the water and at great risk to her life, manages to save the two children. Cleo’s courage endears her further to Sofia and her children, who now treat her as part of their family. In one of the iconic moments in the film, Cleo breaks down and confesses to the family that she did not want her child to be born due to Fermín’s rejection. In essence, Cleo blames herself for the child’s stillbirth. The family consoles and comforts her. They all return to Mexico City, to find that Antonio had removed his things and rearranged their house (Cuarón, 2018). 

How the Film Racial/gender Stereotypes 

The film Roma engenders the concept of intersectionality, is an important social issue in the modern world whose negative impact is also prevalent in Hollywood. For example, a woman who is black will receive extra condemnation for the role she plays in films as happened to Diahann Carroll who said: “ In the black community, it caused a great deal of anger that said ‘She’s a sellout, she’s an Oreo cookie. Why doesn’t this show represent the street, where I spend my life, I spend my time?’ ” (00:40:36–00:40:48). The film embraces racial and gender-based stereotypes then works to overcome them through the eventual outcome of the narratives. Indeed, for most of the films, racial and gender-based stereotypes are highly prevalent. First, Cleo plays the stereotypical role of the indigenous Mexican girl, who is illiterate, only converses in the Mixtec language, and works as a housemaid. Secondly, in a gender-based stereotype, Cleo meets and falls in love with an all-city boy Fermín who proceeds to take advantage of her. As commonly happens to village girls in the city, Fermín rapidly rejects Cleo and her baby. When Cleo pursues Fermín, he threatens violence to scare her away. Once again, Cleo plays the stereotype of the foolish village girls whom city boys take advantage of, then dump. As argued by Yuen, “ Actors of color can internalize the burden of representation, feeling personally responsible for the images they embody on screen ” (Yuen 79). This is the position Yalitza Aparicio repeatedly finds herself in as she plays the role of Cleo. 

Another important stereotype involves Sofia, the dutiful wife commonly associated with Latina women. Sofia remains at home, faithful to her husband and raising their kids and Antonio philanders around. True to the dutiful wide stereotype, Sofia tries to prevent her children from learning about their father’s wickedness. When Sofia and her children chance upon Antonio in Mexico City, yet he is supposed to be outside the country, Sofia tries to shield her children from finding out the truth. To its credit, however, the film overcomes production stereotyping by focusing mainly on Latino actors including main characters. Normally, films showcase white actors due to pecuniary considerations. As indicated in Netflix show “Master of None”, film executives avoid putting minority actors in leading roles as they “ wouldn’t be as, you know, relatable to a large mainstream audience ” (00:17:30-00:18:20. However, the film Roma seeks out a minority among minorities, a Latino Woman to be its main character and hero. In this way, the film effectively broke a common stereotype. 

Further, the film uses the latter part of the narrative to turn around the stereotypes. Normally, Latina actors play minor roles, as stated in Dr. Yuen who said “ I’m only going for these parts that are just Latinas and I always kind of wanted to say, ‘Well I’m an American too’ or ‘I’m just like everybody else. ” (Yuen, p.83). However, in two prominent examples, Cleo changes from the hapless, abused and oppressed village girl into the hero who saves two children from drowning. Similarly, Sofia changes from the dutiful wife who supports her husband at all costs. She stands up to her cheating husband resulting in a separation. Further, it is her cheating husband, not Sofia, who has to leave. 

Reflection: Interesting, Surprising, and disturbing Aspects of the Film 

Among the most interesting and surprising aspect of the film is how it transformed the victim, Cleo, into the hero. Most importantly, Cleo becomes a hero in the middle of her crisis and continues to struggle with the issues in her life. In most films, the hero is mostly a member of the dominant social group who comes to the rescue of the group facing discrimination. However, in a monumental twist, in Roma, a member of the social group facing discrimination rises to save the children of member of the dominant community. A critique joins issue with the argument above in Romero (2018), which reflects the movie as having broken stereotypes. According to the article, rising to become the hero in the narrative negates the common stereotypes of Mexican Indigenous women. 

I also found Sofia’s mother, Teresa, a hero in the movie and a reflection of how women can overcome intersectionality. Teresa’s daughter Sofia is in a crisis, as her family is falling apart. However, Teresa pushes her family’s issues aside and takes the time to assist Cleo find a crib for her unborn child. The surprising part is that Teresa does not seek a cheaper crib for Cleo because she is a servant. Instead, Teresa takes Cleo to the same store that she had bought furniture for her grandchildren. Unfortunately, the kind mission becomes part of a disturbing scene as civilian militias mercilessly attack demonstrators. The running battles and violence in the streets are disturbing. However, the most disturbing scene is the cold-blooded murder of a hapless demonstrator by the militia member who turns out to be Fermín. Cleo suddenly finds out that she is about the deliver a child fathered by a monster! 

References 

Cuarón, A. (2018). 'Roma'. Espectáculos Fílmicos El Coyúl 

Romero, M. E. (2018). Yalitza Aparicio challenges stereotypes in debut role in 'Roma'. Retrieved from https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-12-21/yalitza-aparicio-challenges-stereotypes-debut-role-roma .