Mester

In the twenty-first century, Latina/o visual culture has taken a refreshing turn in the representation of Latina desire, sexuality, and freedom as a new generation of actresses and directors contributes to this medium in cultural and film studies. In particular, film directors have created alternative models for Latinas who migrate within cities in the U.S. and across transnational borders signifying a domestic and global expansion of Latinidad. This study focuses on Chicanas’ and Latinas’ journeys to control their bodies and minds in the context of urban migrations between the cultures of Latin America and the United States in two cinematic narratives. In the post-2000 decade, two critically acclaimed independent films, Real Women Have Curves (2002) and María Full of Grace (2004), have depicted Latina adolescents coming of age in transnational cities, Bogotá, Los Angeles, and New York, to demonstrate how the politics of the body and mind can affect the dynamics of family relationships and the division of labor within the larger scheme of globalization.