MovieChat Forums > La misma luna (2008) Discussion > So why did she come to the US?

So why did she come to the US?

posted 17 years ago by haydeecm
6 replies | jump to latest

As a mother myself, I cant imagine ever leaving my son for four years and going to another country to live without him. I am sure lots of people do this, the part I don't understand is why. I definitely wouldn't do this just to have more money or a "better life", I would've smuggled him into the country sooner. What is it with them making the coyote lady promise to NEVER smuggle him in.

I definitely understood Carlitos, where he didnt understand why she had to leave him. He kept asking that in the movie, and Derbez answered "no one lives like this (like immigrants) if they dont have to", and "she is there because she loves you". I still didn't get it. Maybe they should've actually answered that question better, I wished she had addressed that in her calls, he seemed to have a legitimate beef there, and she just brushed him off.

Please don't misunderstand I am not criticizing immigrants, far from it. But I think they missed an opportunity to present the reasoning why someone would leave behind a kid.

[–] DexterRS 17 years ago

Like what PACO said to the Carlos' mother in the movie

"We do what people do here" (To have a better life)

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] tampaMr 17 years ago

I didn't understand it either. My mom was baffled by it, and she escaped from Cuba in 66 with her parents and sister (they waited like a year while her cousins, aunts, and grandfather were exiled and in hiding in Spain before they came to the U.S., but they eventually came).
We still have family there because obviously it's difficult to get in now, but it was either risk their lives together, or split the kids from the parents and place the in foster home-like programs.

Perhaps she was waiting to get enough money for him to be taken care of.
I don't know, they should have went more in depth there.

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] mermaid1111 17 years ago

They made it really clear in the movie that she came to the U.S. to give her son a better life. She didn't want him to be poverty stricken with holes in his sneakers and lousy food, so she came here to earn money to give him what she thought was a good life for him.
She didn't marry Paco because she didn't love him. That was also clear. The film portrayed her as a woman of integrity who would not marry someone she wasn't in love with. She sacrificed the chance to be legal because she didn't want to marry for the wrong reasons, as far as what a true marriage is supposed to be.

[–] 17 years ago

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