The Cine Latino Blog

Making my way through Latin American one film at a time

Hey, I’m Sofia!

I love traveling, learning new languages, watching movies or soccer, and for now, I am a post-grad with a lot of free time on my hands…

My whole life, I’ve lived between two cultures: the US where I’ve grown up and gone to school, and Uruguay where all of my family lives. Most people know about where I grew up but when it comes to where I’m from, they haven’t got the first clue.

My parents always showed me that through movies, I could get to know other parts of the country and the world. I remember when I was 8 years old and they sat me down to watch The Motorcycle Diaries and I immediately fell in love with all of the other Latin American countries I had never seen on screen before… as well as Gael Garcia Bernal.

Since then, I have learned so much about Latin America, not so much through books and articles, but my first love: movies. Through high school, I would stay up late to watch Y Tu Mama Tambien or Strawberries and Chocolate and when I got to college, I chose to study Latin American studies and film. (Extremely lucrative choices, I know)

But now that I’ve graduated, I find myself still unfulfilled with what I have learned, so I have decided to create my own curriculum to traverse every single Latin American country.

A New Challenge: Take on the Latin American Goya Winners

After watching the films that have been nominated for Academy Awards, I want to look to another international award show: the Goyas or the Spanish Oscars. Starting in the 1980s, the Goyas have included a category to honor the work of Iberoamerican filmmakers and the list of winners is as illustrious as it is diverse.

For this challenge I also have a few ground rules.

  1. I can’t include any movies I’ve already seen. That means unfortunately movies like Water for Chocolate or The Official Story are going out with the bathwater.
  2. I am going in chronological order so be patient with the old-fashioned movies at the beginning
  3. There will be one analysis (and translation) a week

It’s going to be a big undertaking but I’m ready for the challenge. If anybody has any suggestions or actually ends up reading this blog, I’d be happy to hear them. Hopefully, by the time I finish this, I will have learned a lot about Latin America and connected with new people.

Sofia