SUGGESTED TITLES:
Students should be able to find the following titles at their local public library or their local video store. You might also try utilizing OhioLINK through the library to gain access to some of these titles. The following is a list of recommended movies to review, and students may have other titles approved by me. You can also consult video guides for other possibilities.

CENTRAL AMERICA:
El Norte (1983). David Villalpando, Zai de Silvia Gutierrez. Gripping account of a Guatemalan brother and sister, persecuted in their homeland, who make an arduous journey north to America.

Hombres Armados {Men with guns} (1997). Federico Luppi, Damian Delgado. Set in a fictional Latin American country, based on the 36 year civil war in Guatemala, the movie follows a wealthy physician who trains doctors to work in the countryside among the local Mayan Indians. He doesn't realize that a civil war is raging, the Indians are practically enslaved, and his students have been murdered by the government that trained them.

Salvador (1986). James Woods, James Belushi. Oliver Stone directs this film about photo journalist Richard Boyle's adventures in war-torn El Salvador.

Romero (1989). Raul Julia. Julia plays Archbishop Oscar Cesar Romero who championed his destitute congregation against social injustice despite considerable political opposition in El Salvador.

Under Fire (1997). Gene Hackman, Nick Nolte. Three foreign correspondents find themselves in Managua witnessing the 1979 Nicaraguan revolution. In a job requiring objectivity, but a situation requiring taking sides, they battle with their ethics to do the job right.

LATINOS:
The Mambo Kings (1992). Armand Assante, Antonio Banderas. Two brothers, Cesar and Nestor Castillo, flee Cuba for New York City with dreams of hitting it big with their mambo music.

Mi Vida Loca (1994). Angel Avites, Jacob Vargas. Looks at the lives of Latina gang members from Los Angeles' Echo Park.

My Family, Mi Familia (1994). Jimmy Smits, Esai Morales. Patriarch Jose Sanchez comes to America in the early 1900s from Mexico and finds that the grass is not always greener on the other side. Thus begins the multigenerational saga of the Sanchez family in Los Angeles which chronicles their struggles and hopes over a time span of 60 years.

Stand and Deliver (1988). Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips. A tough teacher inspires students in an East Los Angeles barrio to take the Advanced Placement Test in calculus.

MEXICO:
Danzon (1991). Maria Rojo, Carmen Salinas. Julia, a single, working-class mom, escapes the drudgery of her existence by going to a dance hall every Wednesday. There she loses herself to the danzon, a dance with Haitian roots, popular in Mexico for over 100 years. When her dance partner does not show up one evening, she begins a quest for him and a personal search for herself.

Viva Zapata (1952). Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn. Academy award winning picture chronicles the life of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata.

SOUTH AMERICA:
The Burning Season (1994). Raul Julia, Edward James Olmos. Julia plays Chico Mendes, a socialist union leader, who fought to protect the homes and land of Brazilian peasants in the western Amazon rain forest.

The Hour of the Star {A Hora da Estrela} (1985). Marcelia Cartaxo. Story of an innocent young woman moving to the city of Sao Paolo from the impoverished countryside of Brazil and finding happiness despite her socioeconomic failures.

The House of the Spirits (1993). Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons. Adaptation of the novel by Isabel Allende that follows the multi-generational saga of the Trueba family.

The Mission (1986). Robert DeNiro, Jeremy Irons. Historical drama about the eighteenth century Jesuit mission in the Brazilian jungle. The missionaries struggle against the legalized slave trade of Portugal and political factions within the church.