Cinco de Mayo is a celebration that began in the American West for the purpose of commemorating the fight for freedom and democracy achieved during the civil war. It is celebrated in the United States on May 5 as a way of showing pride in the Mexican heritage. Here are a few movie favorites that relate to Cinco de Mayo and what it represents.
Selena
“Selena” is a movie that surrounds the life of Selena Quintanilla, an up and coming Mexican-American singing sensation whose life was tragically cut short as she was murdered just before she was able to complete her very first album. Abraham Quintanilla (Edward James Olmos) is a musician who is given the opportunity to put together a singing group, which he calls The Dinos, comprised of his very own family members. It doesn’t take him very long at all to realize that his daughter Selena (played by Becky Lee Meza as a child) is a very talented girl and she quickly takes center stage as the singing voice behind the Dinos. As Selena (played by Jennifer Lopez as an adult) grows older, she expresses a strong desire to begin her own group centered around her as the lead singer. Her popularity in the states grows to the point where she is able to record her very first album, but she is murdered just before its completion. “Selena” is the sad story of a life with limitless potential lost in its prime.
La Bamba
“La Bamba” is the story of Ritchie Valens (Lou Diamond Phillips), a rock star singing, and musical, legend from the 1950s whose life was cut short as the result of an unfortunate plane crash. Valens came to the states with his mother Connie (Rosana De Soto), and his half brother Bob Morales (Esai Morales) when he was only 15 years old. He would frequently work with his mother although she constantly encouraged his musical talents from a very young age. Valens manages to land himself an audition with Bob Keane (Joe Pantoliano), a famous record producer, and soon finds himself in an Alan Freed film on teenage rock n’ roll, lip-syncing his very own recorded version of “Ooh, My Head”. It isn’t long before he is singing with greats like Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper (aka J.P. Richardson) who he unfortunately died with in the fatal plane crash on February 3rd, 1959. Ritchie Valens is famous for songs including “La Bamba”, “Donna”, and “C’mon Let’s Go”.
-El Narco
El Narco is a story of just how quickly everything that you spend your life working for can be stripped away leaving you with nothing. It is the reality of just how easy it is to go from one extreme to another for the purpose of survival. Benny Garcia (Damian Alcazar) left his mother and brother twenty years ago to emigrate to the U.S. and finds himself right where he began as he is being deported back to Mexico. Only now things are much different than when he left. His younger brother, who married a stripper, had a son, and began dealing drugs (earning him the name El Diablo) to make a living, is now dead. Benny does what he feels is the right thing and begins taking care of his brother’s wife and son quickly realizing that he is going to need a way to earn a living. Left with nothing else to do, Benny begins dealing drugs for Don Jose Reyes and quickly works his way to the top becoming a threat to the Don. Things quickly spiral out of control leading to an all out war that will leave one man in charge and the other dead.
-Black Wind
Black Wind surrounds the lives of a group of railroad workers and the daily challenges that they must face to simply make it through each day (and night). In this Mexican western, it is the elements that threaten the lives of these railroad workers. The heat is excruciatingly hot and the cold is absolutely bone chilling, but it is the surprise storms called “black wind” that are the biggest threat. Black Wind shows the life of the Mexican railroad worker in a way never shown before.
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