For a while, I was homeless and lived in a camper at a gas station.” “My father was an alcoholic and my parents finally divorced,” she told me last week. That was 20 years ago, but she remembered her suffering like it was yesterday.Ģ022 Update: Freedom Writers publish international sequel to famous book Cultural Dynamics, 85-102.Sue Ellen Alpizar wiped away tears as she talked about the darkest days of her teenage years in Long Beach. Excess spaces: Movement and ethnospaces in Brian De Palma’s Scarface and Edward James Olmos’ American Me. Minneapolis & London: University of Minnesota Press. The Bronze Screen: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture. Directed by Richard LaGravenese, Performances by Hilary Swank, April Lee Hernandez, Patrick Dempsey, MTV Films, 2007.įregoso, R. Gruwell’s class all graduated from high school and the majority went to on to attend college.įreedom Writers. Eva’s story is only one of many in the film that is part of the Freedom Writers Diaries that was published on September 1, 1999. The film depicts the gang lives in a realistic way. She was told she was not killed because of who her father was, but that she was dead them (the gang) and that one day she would see what happens to traitors ( Freedom Writers). Paco killed the guy.” After, she was faced retaliation from her gang members because of her betrayal and was followed and threatened. Eva hesitates and then says, “Paco did it. She becomes the prime witness and is conflicted between her “loyalty” to her own people and “doing the right thing” when testifying in court. Gruwell’s class, she slowly changes, softens, and becomes more open to relationships with her other classmates that she once hated. However, as the school year continues and she spends more time in Ms. “The Latino gangster, in sum, performs a threatening ethos of wild and uncharted ‘minor’ groups running amok in an always vaguely defined US mainstream society” (Hernandez, p. Eva Benitez from the filmĮva is depicted as a loyal Latina gang member. Paco and Eva fled the scene and Rice was apprehended and falsely charged for the murder. Later in the film, Eva’s loyalty is tested when she witnesses her boyfriend Paco, shoot Rice, but misses and shoots an Asian teenager who was standing nearby instead. Eva follows suit and starts fighting with another girl, soon the school campus becomes a melee. Soon after a fight between Paco and Grant Rice, an African-American student ensues. In one scene Eva sneaks out of class and opens up the campus gate for her gangster boyfriend Paco and his friends. “One of the major ways Chicanos become visible in public discourse is as “social problems” (Fregoso, p. Tensions run high in the city and the school. They are depicted as being angry and revengeful. They stick together and fight over territory and for respect. The Latinos in the film are depicted as belonging to a gang and being violent. Eva’s father taught her how to fight when she was young, always spoke of loyalty and told her to always “Take care of your own.” She was “third-generation.” Having had trouble with the law, she was forced to wear an ankle bracelet and given a choice by her parole officer of attending school or going to boot camp. Gruwell’s class, Eva Benitez was the toughest Latina gang member. Gruwell was able to connect with her students and taught them tolerance and acceptance and helped them to seek a future outside of the gang life and inspired them to continue with education after high school.Īmong the Latino students in Ms. However, in the end, with perseverance and dedication, Ms. The classroom was divided by race and the hatred they had between the other races- the African-Americans, the Asians, and the Latinos. The racially mixed 9 th grade English class students at Woodrow Wilson High School in the city of Long Beach, were belligerent and disrespectful and deemed “unteachable” by the faculty. The film, Freedom Writers (2007) directed by Richard LaGravenese, is based on the actual diary entries written by the students of first-time teacher, Erin Gruwell, played by Hillary Swank. Grunwell in Freedom Writers The REAL Erin Grunwell
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