WUNRN
LATINA/CHICANA WOMEN - FILM -
BALANCING LIFE ISSUES & ACTIVISM
Direct Link to Film Segment:
Women Make Movies Website Link:
A
CRUSHING LOVE - Movie
Chicanas, Motherhood and Activism
A
film by Sylvia
Morales
2009,
58 minutes, Color, DVD
Order No. W10977
A
CRUSHING LOVE, Sylvia Morales’ sequel to her groundbreaking history of Chicana
women, CHICANA (1979), honors the achievements of five activist Latinas—labor
organizer/farm worker leader Dolores Huerta, author/educator Elizabeth “Betita”
Martinez, writer/playwright/educator Cherrie Moraga, civil rights advocate
Alicia Escalante, and historian/writer Martha Cotera—and considers how these
single mothers managed to be parents and effect broad-based social change at
the same time.
Questions about reconciling competing demands are ones that highly acclaimed
filmmaker Sylvia Morales, a working mother of two herself, pondered aloud as
she prepared this documentary. Historical footage and recent interviews with
each woman reveal their contributions to key struggles for Latino empowerment
and other major movements of our time. Both they and their grown children
thoughtfully explore the challenges, adaptations, rewards, and missteps
involved in juggling dual roles. Scenes of Morales at work and at home, often
humorously overlaid with her teenage daughter’s commentary, bring the dilemma
up to date. Chicana continues to be used in classrooms more than thirty years
after it was made; A CRUSHING LOVE is a memorable sequel which offers us
indelible portraits of unforgettable women, including one of Morales herself.
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