There are countless stories set in 1970s California from the perspective of the immigrant farm worker. Their terrain is massive as are there stories in the media. One of the most famous examples being Gregory Nava’s El Norte (Spanish for “The North”). But most of these stories are told with a dramatic lens. That is, until screenwriters Mario Miscione and Marcella Ocha teamed up with director Ryan Zaragoza to create his feature debut, Madres (Spanish for “Mothers”). Together they grabbed a time era and region and presented it through their horror lens, giving the genre a new story to tell.
Based on true events, Madres follows a migrant Mexican farmer named Beto (Tenoch Huerta) and his Mexican-American wife Diana (Arianna Guerra). They leave the big city of Los Angeles as Beto’s promotion to manager moved them to the rural side of California. Following typical ghost tropes, the pair move into a house haunted by the previous owner. Aside from the ghostly encounters, Diana feels the small town animosity against the big city pair. She soon recognizes there is a bigger mystery outside of the ghost’s encounters within her new-to-her household.
The entirety of Madres plays as a thriller/mystery film with the inclusion of the ghost to add tension on Diana as she attempts to unveil what is at hand. Although marketed as a ghost story akin to Insidious and The Conjuring series, Madres‘ approach to these spirit filled scenes are less suspenseful in comparison. But Madres doesn’t fail as a horror story. The director’s vision is more grounded, hence the film’s color palette infusion of rich chromatic colors. His focal point relies on the atrocity of man. The beginning quote of the film by novelist Joseph Conrad says it all, “The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.”
To keep the mystery until the end of the story, Zaragoza throws in various political issues and cultural elements into the air. One of the major agricultural issues the film covers is the introduction of pesticides to the farmers. While the men are free from harm, Diana believes the pesticides are the cause of the Mexican women’s inability to have children as their desire to have big families is strong. She throws lines throughout the film giving facts about the dangers of pesticides considering there is no scientific research on the effect on humans at that point in time. The addition of these agricultural issues not only keeps the film entertaining, but also keeps the audience guessing while still commenting on the problems within the California farmers.
Outside of the agricultural dilemma, Zaragoza brings in spiritual Mexican beliefs on top of the mystery. Upon arriving in the town, Diana starts to get a rash on her wrists. She then begins to wonder if another factor must be in play. The local witch Anita (Elpidia Carrillo) is adamant about Diana taking the red necklace for protection. Skeptical, Diana doesn’t take it as Anita consistently appears at the worst possible time adding to her sketchy demeanor.
The addition of Anita in the film reminds me of the local witch that lives down the street from my house in my predominantly Mexican neighborhood. Instead of giving out curses to people who have failed her like in typical Hollywood fashion, the local witch, as much as Anita, uses her powers for the locals. She’s seen as a healer, a fortune teller and provides protection when asked. But Madres doesn’t just stick to the evil spirit side of Mexican culture. It brings in other elements across the whole culture, some of which is still experienced today. For example, a custom that still runs in my family is that a pregnant woman should wear a red string around her belly to protect the baby. This is why Anita insists on Diana taking the necklace made of red yarn.
The film does seem skeptical about her powers because we are witnessing the story from Diana’s perspective. At a picnic held by Beto and his crew, Diana attempts to talk to the wives of the other workers. They try their best to speak English while Diana doesn’t reciprocate. She feels like an outsider because of the language barrier, a feeling Beto has had to live with for the past five years he’s been living in America. We are already told Diana feels like an outsider early on in the film, which furthers the examination from the outside looking in instead of the other way around like Beto.
Madres is a horror film, but not in the typical sense. The film follows the steps of Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak in that it’s a story featuring ghosts versus a story about a ghost. Zaragoza’s keen eye to social justice is justified through Madres. He uses the Mexican-American culture to speak upon the depravities that transpired in the 1970s and relates them to contemporary issues Mexican-American mothers face today.
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