In this exercise, you need to watch the short film “Adios mamá” and answer these questions.

1. Where are the characters?

You could answer:

*Los personajes están en el supermercado.*
The characters are in the supermarket.

2. What is the relationship between the man and the lady?

You could answer:

*Ninguna, son desconocidos.*
None, they are strangers.

3. Who does the man physically resemble?

You could answer:

*El hombre se parece físicamente al hijo de la señora.*
The man physically resembles the lady’s son.

4. Why couldn’t the lady say goodbye to her son?

You could answer:

*La señora no se pudo despedir de su hijo porque murió de repente.*
The lady couldn’t say goodbye to her son because he died suddenly.

5. What favor does the lady ask from the man?

You could answer:

*La señora le pide que le diga “adiós, mamá” al irse.*
The lady asks him to tell her “goodbye, mom” when she leaves.

6. How much shopping does the man have to pay for? Why?

You could answer:

*El hombre tiene que pagar más de dosmil pesos por sus compras y las de la señora, porque lo engañó.*
The man has to pay over two thousand pesos for his shopping and the lady’s, because she tricked him.

In this exercise, you need to answer these questions in pairs.

1. Did something like this ever happen to you or someone you know? Explain.

You could answer:

*Una vez quisieron engañar a mi abuela haciéndose pasar por su hijo para robarle, pero ella no les creyó.*
They tried to trick my grandmother once pretending they were her son to rob her, but she didn’t believe them.

2. What would you do if someone approached you at the supermarket and asked you this favor?

You could answer:

*Si alguien me pide este favor no le creería, porque seguro quiere robarme.*
If someone asks me this favor I wouldn’t believe them, because they probably want to steal from me.

3. What do you think actually happened at the end? Did the man have to pay for the whole bill? Did the police have to intervene?

You could answer:

*El hombre llamó a la policía y no tuvo que pagar la cuenta completa, pero no encontraron a la señora.*
The man called the police and didn’t have to pay the whole bill, but they didn’t find the lady.

4. After what happened, what advice can the man give his friends?

You could answer:

*El hombre puede aconsejarle a sus amigos que no le crean a extraños cuando les piden favores.*
The man can advise his friends not to believe strangers when they ask you a favor.

In this exercise, you need to imagine the son never died, and write ten lines about what his life was like.

You could write:

*El hijo de la señora llegó a salvo a su casa en lugar de chocar el auto. Luego de eso, se mudó cerca de su madre, para visitarla todos los días. Trabajaba en una oficina como asistente. Tenía treinta y dos años, y había terminado la universidad. Quería comprarse un auto. Necesitaba ahorrar dinero, porque tenía que pagar por la terapia de su madre, que era ladrona compulsiva. Su madre lo amaba, y él sólo quería cuidarla. Él tenía una esposa y un hijo. Ellos también ayudaban a cuidar a su abuela. Su abuela los quería mucho a todos.*

The lady’s son got home safe instead of crashing his car. After that, he moved close to his mother, to visit her every day. He worked in an office as an assistant. He was thirty-two years old, and had finished college. He wanted to buy a car. He needed to save money, because he had to pay for his mother’s therapy, who was a compulsive thief. His mother loved him, and he just wanted to care for her. He had a wife and a son. They helped care for the grandmother too. The grandmother loved them all very much.

In this exercise, you need to describe the life of one of the characters in the short film in five sentences, using these questions as a guide:

* What are they like?
Where do they live?
Who do they live with?
What do they like?
What do they dislike?
Do they have money?

If you chose the lady, you could write:

*La señora es anciana, y es muy inteligente. Vive en una casa en México. Ella vive sola. Le gusta cuidar sus plantas y su jardín. No le gusta no poder comprarse más plantas. No tiene dinero, entonces engaña a las personas para robar cosas del supermercado.*

The lady is old, and very smart. She lives in a house in México. She lives alone. She likes to care for her plants and her garden. She doesn’t like not being able to buy more plants. She doesn’t have any money, so she tricks people so she can steal things from the supermarket.

In this exercise, you need to write a dialogue between a detective and the man, in which the detective asks what happened in the supermarket. Then, you need to play it for the class.

You could write:

* **Detective**: *¿Quién era esa señora?*
**Hombre**: *No sé, no la conozco.*
**Detective**: *La cajera dijo que era su madre. ¿Es mentira eso?*
**Hombre**: *Sí, ella me engañó para que lo dijera.*
**Detective**: *¿Qué le dijo?*
**Hombre**: *Me dijo que era igual a su hijo que murió, y que quería que le dijera mamá para poder despedirse de él.*
**Detective**: *¿Cuántos años tenía su hijo?*
**Hombre**: *No lo sé, dijo que tenía mi edad. Yo no lo conozco.*
**Detective**: *Está bien, lo estaba probando. ¿Tiene algo más que decir?*
**Hombre**: *Sí, que no puedo pagar lo que robó esta señora.*

* **Detective**: Who was that lady?
**Man**: I don’t know, I don’t know her.
**Detective**: The cashier said she was your mother. Is this a lie?
**Man**: Yes, she tricked me so I would say so.
**Detective**: What did she tell you?
**Man**: She told me I looked like her son who died, and she wanted me to call her mom so she could say goodbye to him.
**Detective**: How old was her son?
**Man**: I don’t know, she said he would be my age. I don’t know him.
**Detective**: That’s okay, I was testing you. Do you have anything else to say?
**Man**: Yes, that I can’t pay for what this lady stole.

In this exercise, you need to imagine you are the detective, and write a full report of what happened. You can make up whatever information you want.

You could write:

*Sábado a la noche, nueve horas. Un hombre despidió a una señora en la caja del supermercado diciéndole mamá. Minutos antes, la señora le había dicho a la cajera que su hijo pagaría por sus compras. El hombre reclamó que esa señora no era su mamá de verdad. La señora se fue y nadie puede encontrarla. El hombre cargó sus compras en una camioneta verde y nos siguió a la estación de policía para el interrogatorio. Dijo que debía irse lo más rápido posible, porque había comprado manteca y no quería que se derritiera.*

Saturday night, nine o’clock. A man said goodbye to a woman at the supermarket cash register calling her mom. Minutes earlier, the lady had told the cashier that her son would be paying for her shopping. The man claimed that the lady wasn’t his real mother. The lady left and nobody can find her. The man loaded his shopping into a green van and followed us to the police station for questioning. He said he had to leave as fast as possible, because he had bought butter and he didn’t want it to melt.