Maria Full of Gave-Reflection Paper on Movie Essay Example
Maria Full of Gave-Reflection Paper on Movie Essay Example

Maria Full of Gave-Reflection Paper on Movie Essay Example

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Reflection Paper: Maria Full of Grace Washington Irving said once, “There is in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity”[1] which I feel describes the main character of Maria in the movie Maria Full of Grace (MFG); Maria lives in Columbia and due to her financial situation becomes a drug mule for money all the while pregnant at the age of seventeen.

In the movie, Maria struggles with the rationale of staying true to herself of being good person and doing the right thing while still wanting to make money for her strains to survive day to day. Maria also fights with the notion of wanting a better life for her unborn child and how to achieve t

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hat. Her struggles are similar to many immigrant individuals and families who come to America for a better life but are faced with many issues like language, education, and learning to cope in this foreign land without any support around them.

As social workers our job will not only be to help integrate immigrants into American society but see that their basic needs are met like housing, health care and employment. Also, as social workers our jobs will closely be linked on how these immigrant population is adjusting to their new life here and their emotions. The movie Maria Full of Grace showed a spectrum of problems and issues that adolescents are faced with in the country of Columbia.

One being breadwinners in their families from a young age; at the age of seventeen Maria ha

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been working at the local flower factory in order to support her family which consisted of her grandmother, mother, sister, and her nephew. Maria was forced into working in order to keep things afloat in her family because her sister wasn’t working, which caused a lot of tension between them. We also see Juan, Maria’s baby’s father working in a local garage, who is about the same age as Maria, while supporting ten people at home.

I feel this puts a lot of pressure on teenagers to make sure they consistently have employment, which if they end up losing it can cause even more stress on finding decent work, earning money for their families and supporting the needs of their households. Secondly, the film always depicts the marginalized roles of women in society. In country where the women are working minimal jobs like in factories, selling food in stalls on the side of the road or being someone’s maids they are just trying to earn an income any way they can. My ational is these women don’t get decent jobs due to partly to quitting school early to start working or can’t afford to pay for further education. In the movie, Lucy’s sister was impressed when she heard Lucy (who was a mule too) became a secretary in an office; I feel those type of careers are a rare comity to woman in Columbia because they go to really educated or talented women when so few in the country get a further education. Lastly, because these essentially teenagers have to grow up and be adults so early in life they engage in behaviors that they might

not know how to handle.

In the movie, we see Maria and her friends drinking and engaging in sexual activity. Maria found out she was pregnant with Juan’s child whom she didn’t love or want to marry but Juan felt the need to “step up” and take care of his responsibility, which is admirable at being seventeen but a part of me wonders if they should be engaging in these sexual behavior without the right education on prevention or knowing all the information on what to do in the event of a pregnancy if they weren’t so young.

Due to the nature in which Maria and other woman from Columbia are raised: normally with a mother working a minimal job with no education and has kids at a younger age, I feel this cycle is then continued in the newer generation and then repeated again because there is a lack of education and knowledge on how to break the cycle of poverty from reoccurring. In Maria’s case she decides to break the cycle by staying in America and not return to Columbia for her a better life for her child but that this decision, as we seen in many immigrant families in America causes other problems.

In the movie MFG, the audience is shown that Maria knew she was pregnant prior to becoming a drug mule, some say that this illustrates her lack of maturity, lack of judgment and lack of responsibility by risking the health of her unborn child; however, others view it as part of her survival and resiliency managing her personal and family issues problems first over her own well-being. In my opinion I feel

that she is a little bit of both: reckless and responsible at the same time.

Reckless in the sense that she knew she was pregnant, didn’t think about her own health, the idea that she may die from doing this if he crack packet opens in her stomach or the idea of killing or harming her unborn child. On the flip side, she was thinking about her mother working tirelessly long hours, her sister needing money for her son who was sick and her grandmothers needs and she wasn’t thinking about herself which shows she’s ery responsible and cares about her family situation. Like many people Maria’s life is complicated with thoughts about her family’s well being first and her life and needs second. A term coined by Bacallao & Smokowski (2007) called “familism [which] involves a deeply ingrained sense of the individual being inextricably rooted in the family.

The term encompasses attitudes, behaviors, and family structures within an extended family system…” I feel applies to immigrant families quite well and explains a lot of why they are so connected because comparatively, America is believed to be more “individualist [and the] the self is defined by the individual’s pursuit to become independent of others via attending to his private thoughts, desires and feelings, as well as expressing and actualizing these inner attributes that distinguish him from others” (Kitayama, Markus, & Kurokawa, 2000 as cited in Chung, 2006).

I feel the idea of putting family first is a common thread that runs in all immigrant families so I feel that Maria’s actions however dangerous are justifiable. Given Maria’s economic situation in the movie, many young women like her are

forced to find dangerous jobs that places them at greater risk for exploitation, physical, sexual, and emotional violence. As social workers, it is our job to try and address this issue of gender exploitation at the community level to in order to protect against abuse and oppression, which I feel needs to come in some form of psychosocial support.

One way to address this issue is to provide woman education on what are the risks factors are while engaging in this behavior. Woman need to meet other woman that have been in these positions of being exploited and to listen to their stories to get a sense of the life they’ve led. Learning about warning signs, typical behavior associated with this kind of treatment and ways they changed their life around; I feel that after these woman hear some of the horror associated of being in this kind of lifestyle and came out alive (while many didn’t) they would think twice before engaging in this risky behavior.

Secondly, in countries where economically people aren’t doing well woman need education; education through either learning a marketable/selling skills like sewing, weaving, repairing clothes, etc or by getting formal education though vocational or college courses. By getting an education, women are able to change the course their life takes by opening up a whole new arena of employment. For example, a great example of this work can be seen at UNICEF’S work in India, which deals with sexual exploitation.

For seventeen-year-old Bhargavi will never forget the day she went visiting Rajini’s house and learnt that the girls’ sister, Anamika, had been lured to Pune in search of a job as a

domestic maid, instead she landed in a brothel where she contracted HIV/AIDS and died. Her story is one of many that Bhargavi has had to deal with. Bhargavi is a ‘change agent’ counseling adolescent girls in the Balika Sangha (an adolescent girl’s club) in the district headquarters, Andhra Pradesh.

In the Sangha, she discusses issues like marriage, domestic violence, health, education, and gender discrimination and provides advises girls on problems faced by them. Having learned about the dangers of exploitation of children and young people, she visits families at risk and ensures the safety of children through periodic checks at the family and community levels. Having spent three years in the girls collective, she is more confident now, has information on nutrition, health and gender discrimination and feel empowered.

She knows how to protect herself and has the phone numbers of persons who can help if she needs help. “This program [has] motivated me to resume my education. I have learnt the importance of education for girls” she says. Once a grade ten dropout, she is now in grade twelve and wants to be a nurse so she can serve the poor where she lives. Bhargavi has been trained in drama and is part of the group that regularly highlights social issues affecting children. The perils of trafficking, hazards of child marriage and need for girls to be educated are all part of the popular campaign.

She performs in a street theatre group, which has given more than 80 performances in villages, schools, bus stations and other crowded locations. Through drama and songs based on local real-life stories that touch the hearts of the community these performances are

creating awareness. “Gradually there is a change taking place in the community mind-set,” says Sridevi, a supervisor in the program since its inception. “I am proud that I am able to stop young girls from being misled to leave the village,” Bhargavi says confidently. I also feel good that I motivate girl drop-outs to go back to school”. Adolescent girls in 51 villages of Kadapa district have been organized into 42 Balika Sanghas set up for the school dropouts. Like Bhargavi, these girls have learned about health, nutrition and prevention of HIV/AIDS and how to fight exploitation. They also get vocational training in sewing and garment manufacture to enable them to get jobs. This is making the adolescent girls more confident and many are taking an active role to prevent exploitation of minors and women.

The young girls are proving that given the right opportunity they can be part of the solution. Child Protection Committees in all 52 junior high schools for girls have been established in the district in the economically deprived areas. Games, dialogue and other informal methods are used to make children understand the dangers of trafficking and early marriage in communities where traditionally these are accepted norms. The objective is to ensure that teachers and girls in schools are aware and able to protect themselves.

The Anti Trafficking Network with its community based preventive approach is active in 151 vulnerable villages of three districts of Andhra Pradesh and is promoting protection of children against commercial and sexual exploitation. UNICEF Hyderabad is providing technical assistance, guidance, monitoring support and a common platform for all network partners. "The most exciting part of the program has

been to see young people vulnerable due to gender, caste or tradition be part of an empowering process, gain confidence and take control of their lives through the Girls Collectives and campaigns on child protection.

Here we see communities empowered and convinced that prevention is possible and they are being given a helping hand by the government (Bishnoi, 2011). I feel that programs like these make huge differences in the lives of woman around the world where girls and woman are provided education and information on the issue, ways to prevent it and shown life on the other side and why its important to have all the information. They also assist girls and women to make better choices and change the course of their lives by emphasizing the importance of an education.

It has been said that “unprecedented numbers of immigrants have arrived in the United States during the past two decades, creating a wave of immigration not unlike the first wave at the turn of the 20th century more than 100 years ago” (Pine & Drachman 2005). The proportion of economic immigrants from non-western countries arriving in New York city will continue to rise; clinical social workers must be prepared to work with individual, families and groups whose culture, social and political values are different from their own.

Then as now, social workers were in the forefront, advocating for and providing services to new arrivals. As Giovannoni (2004) noted, “American social work developed largely around the provision of services to immigrants” (p. xi). During the 1990s, nearly one million legal immigrants arrived in the United States, as well as an estimated 300,000-500,000 undocumented immigrants”. In the movie

we are introduced to the character of Don Fernando, who is a local “social worker” and helps people newly arrived from Columbia find housing, under the table jobs for people without documents or who don’t know English.

By most account, Don Fernando’s connection with businesses hiring illegal immigrants is against federal law, but as social workers we are faced with many ethical dilemmas in order to assist our clients try to meet their needs. The biggest dilemma is the notion of upholding human rights; its up to social workers to make sure those basic rights are given to everyone undocumented immigrants. “Today the ways in which the human rights of undocumented immigrants are being undermined and the extent to which their human needs are being denied should be a matter of great importance to the social work profession.

Some of the rights of undocumented immigrants are protected under the Constitution and U. S. law but are frequently violated such as the denial of workers’ compensation for the treatment of job related injuries and lost wages due to injury. (Hancock 2007). Social workers want our clients have not only employment but also one that meets fair wages, but for immigrant workers especially undocumented ones that’s not always the case. Many of them are paid below minimum wages due to the nature of their citizen status and are treated to harsh working conditions that aren’t conducive.

As social workers how can we advocate for better wages and conditions when the person isn’t supposed to be working in the United States in the first place. Proposed federal laws that would make illegal status a felony as well as turn social workers

and other service delivery professionals into “immigration police” are frightening prospects (Hancock 2007) and make undocumented immigrant less likely to seek help. Another issue is that many undocumented parents are being deported leaving their US born children alone with no support. Immigrant children born in the U. S. should have the assurance that an undocumented parent will be available to care for them. Undocumented immigrants should be able to approach hospitals, schools, alcohol treatment programs and other public services without fear of recrimination”. Social workers need to uphold the human rights of illegal immigrants by advocating for laws and policies that support their position as human beings who are contributing value and worth to their families, our economy and to our society.

We should view the protection of the human rights of undocumented immigrants as synonymous with enhancing their well being and increasing their adaptive capacities (Hancock 2007). In the movie, Don Fernando is the local “social worker” who helps find people jobs, housing and immigration information but isn’t trained on how to handle clients emotions and helping them cope better. If Maria was my client and as her social worker the first thing I would do is start getting her enrolled in English classes.

Segal and Mayadas (2005) believe that, resources for social, economic, and cultural integration are all closely tied to the English language facility, literacy, socioeconomic status and extent of exposure to Western social and cultural patterns. The greatest to integration is low English proficiency. For Maria learning English will help her navigate this new world, get services and be able to feel more comfortable with those around her that aren’t Spanish speaking to

ask for help. Adaptability and adequate functioning in one’s homeland may be good predictors of adjustment in a new environment.

Problem-solving abilities, strong and health family relationships and adequate support networks in the immigrant community may increase adaptation (Segal and Mayadas, 2005). Another way to help Maria is to also discuss her feelings and how she is coping after the loss of her friend Lucy. In the movie, the death of Lucy leaves Maria quite shaken about the experience of it all and the idea of being a drug mule. I think the idea of expressing her feeling over her death and being able to come to terms with it is a good way for her to move on. I would encourage her to think of the positives that Lucy’s death has done for Maria.

If Lucy hadn’t died, Maria probably would have still continued to mule drugs from Columbia to the United States, she would still be endangering her and her baby’s life and she would still be living in Columbia where there little for her to do but continue to struggle. Lastly, in order for Maria to feel settled in America she’ll want to create a social support here. Trying to establish in a new place without any friends or family is really hard so trying to find people who she has things in common with either through her church, a local Columbian community or even a pre-natal women’s group would provide her with some support, love and uidance when she doesn’t have anyone else around. The movie, Maria Full of Grace, shows not only how a woman from a marginalized part of the world

struggles to survive but shows good examples of issues young adults are faced with in order to do economically better like start working at an early age, the lack of education these women have, that result in engaging in behaviors that they don’t know how to handle later in life like getting pregnant in Maria’s case.

Through the movie we are also shown array of problems that immigrant families face in the United States like the issue of finding housing, employment, coping with living this new lifestyle, or lack of a social support. As future social workers our role will not only to see that immigrants integrate into society but also to make sure that their basic needs are being met like: housing, employment and access to health care. It is only with learning about the population and the issues can improvements be made into their lives and I think watching Maria Full of Grace provides us that opportunity. Citations: Bacallao, M. L. , & Smokowski, P. R. 2007). The Cost of Getting Ahead: Mexican Family System Changes After Immigration. Family Relation, 56, 52-66. Bishnoi, K. (2011). UNICEF India - Child protection - Informed adolescents prevent exploitation. UNICEF - UNICEF Home. Retrieved November 11, 2011, from http://www. unicef. org/india/child_protection_4701. htm Chung, I. W. (2006). A Cultural Perspective on Emotions and Behaviors: An Empathic Pathway to Examine Intergenerational Conflicts in Chinese Immigrant Families. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services, 87(3), 367-376. Hancock, T. (2007). Social Work's Ethical Obligation to Undocumented Immigrants.

BPD Update Online. Retrieved November 12, 2011, from http://bpdupdateonline. bizland. com/winter2007/id113. html Mezey, P. S. (Producer), & Marston, J. (Director). (2004). Maria Full of

Grace (Motion picture). United States: HBO and Fine Line Features. Pine, B. A. , & Drachman, D. (2005). Effective Child Welfare Practice and Immigrant and Refugee Children and their Families. Child Welfare, 84(5), 537-562. Segal, U. A. , & Mayadas, N. S. (2005). Assessment of Issues Facing Immigrant and Refugee Families. Child Welfare, 84(5), 563-583. ----------------------- [1] Writer of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and other short stories.

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