My Family is a 1995 American drama film directed by Gregory Nava, written by Nava and Anna Thomas, and starring Jimmy Smits, Edward James Olmos, and Esai Morales. The film depicts three generations of a Mexican-American family who emigrated from Mexico and settled in East Los Angeles.[2]
Plot[]
The story is narrated by the family's oldest son Paco. The film begins with José Sanchez, the father of the family, making a journey that lasts one year on foot from Mexico to Los Angeles. He travels to Los Angeles to meet a distant relative known as El Californio, who was born in the city when it was still part of Mexico. They become fast friends and grow a corn farm together. However, after several years, El Californio nears death. Shortly before dying, El Californio says he wants the following written on his tombstone:
- When I was born here, this was Mexico, and where my body lies, this is still Mexico.
José meets and marries the love of his life, María, an American citizen. After María is illegally deported to Mexico by the U.S. federal government in a mass roundup, she makes it back to Los Angeles via a long and arduous trip two years later, where she returns home with their new son Chucho.
Twenty years later in 1958 or 1959, eldest daughter Irene is getting married. Chucho and Paco have grown up. New additions to the family include Toni, Guillermo "Memo", and brother Jimmy.
The film begins to gain momentum after the wedding, when a series of events seal Chucho's fate. One night at a dance hall, Chucho is dancing with his girlfriend, when his rival Butch Mejia starts to bother him. This results in a bloody knife fight between the two, and Chucho accidentally kills him. After this event, Chucho becomes a fugitive of the police. One night when Jimmy is playing ball with his friends, Chucho is shot dead by the Los Angeles Police Department right in front of Jimmy. Other members of the family learn of Chucho's death when they hear gunshots and rush to a nearby street. As an ambulance arrives to take Chucho's lifeless body away, Paco narrates how Chucho's whole life had been on borrowed time.
The third generation, which takes place another twenty years later in the 1970s and 1980s, faces situations such as acculturation, assimilation, and past problems of the family.
Jimmy completes a stint in prison and returns home. It is revealed that after Chucho's death 20 years back, Jimmy became an angry man following in his footsteps, becoming a fugitive like him. One day, Toni visits the Sanchez home and stuns her parents with the news that she is no longer a nun and has married a priest named David Ronconi. Toni and David become involved in helping political refugees. When they find out that a Salvadoran refugee, Isabel, has become a target for murder and is being held for deportation back to El Salvador, Toni convinces Jimmy to marry her so that she is able to stay in the U.S.
Jimmy is resistant to the idea of being a married man; however, Isabel slowly makes herself at home and Jimmy has no choice but to let her stay with him. As Jimmy works on his car listening to "I'm Your Puppet", Isabel comes up to him and changes the music in the cassette-player. She tries to get him to dance with her on the street. At first he doesn't want to, but she finally succeeds in teaching him some steps. He asks her at the end of the song, "Will you teach me how to salsa?" It is here that Jimmy finally lets Isabel into his heart and where they both understand that although other people don't understand them, they know now who they really are together and they finally consummate their marriage.
Isabel becomes pregnant shortly thereafter but unfortunately dies after giving birth to their son, Carlitos. Enraged, Jimmy attacks the doctor whom he blames for her death, burglarizes a store, and is jailed, leaving his son to be raised by his parents. When Jimmy gets out of prison 4 years later, he initially doesn't want anything to do with his son, who is a spirited, but trouble-making child. When Jimmy finally sees his son, he is filled with joy and immediately wants to care for him. However, his son hates him, who thinks his real father is a cattle rancher who lives in Texas. After Jimmy decides to change his life around for the good of his son, Carlitos accepts him and moves with him to Texas where Jimmy has secured a good-paying manufacturing job in San Antonio.
The film concludes with Jose and Maria reminiscing about their past as Jose says "God has been good to us, we've been very lucky, and our life it has been very...very good", and the camera pans to a shot of Los Angeles.
Cast[]
- Jimmy Smits as Santiago “Jimmy” Sánchez
- Jonathan Hernandez as Young Jimmy Sánchez
- Edward James Olmos as Francisco “Paco” Sánchez
- Benito Martinez as Young Paco Sánchez
- Esai Morales as Jesus "Chucho" Sánchez
- Elpidia Carrillo as Isabel Magaña Sánchez
- Enrique Castillo as Guillermo "Memo" Sánchez
- Greg Albert as Young Memo Sánchez
- Rafael Cortés as Roberto Sánchez
- Michael DeLorenzo as Butch Mejia
- Constance Marie as Antonia “Toni” Sánchez
- Scott Bakula as David Ronconi
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- Lupe Ontiveros as Irene Sánchez
- Maria Canals as Young Irene Sánchez
- León Singer as El Californio
- Mary Steenburgen as Gloria
- Dedee Pfeiffer as Karen Gillespie
- Bibi Besch as Mrs. Gillespie
- Bruce Gray as Mr. Gillespie
- Eduardo Lopez Rojas as Jose Sánchez
- Jacob Vargas as Young Jose Sánchez
- Jenny Gago as Maria Sánchez
- Jennifer Lopez as Young Maria Sánchez
References[]
External links[]
My Family at the American Film Institute CatalogScript error: No such module "EditAtWikidata".
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