User:Migdiachinea
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Mig 03:52, 6 December 2006 (UTC)The user page of Migdia Chinea.
Migdia Chinea-Varela (aka Migdia Chinea) is a Cuban-American Screenwriter/Actress. The daughter of Cuban exiles, a prisoner of conscience father and a teacher mother, she was raised in South Florida. She was the first Latina to join the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW). She was also the founder of the WGAW Latino Writers Committee and was its chair for many years.
She is the writer of numerous screenplays for television and film in various genres, e.g., comedy, drama, action-adventure and science fiction. As a role model for disadvantaged children, she was involved for eleven years with The Litttle Girls of East Los Angeles and has taught creative writing. She has been a panelist in more than twenty entertainment-related seminars and has been a published essayist/journalist, (e.g., Newsweek, Daily News, Los Angeles Times).[1] In 1988, she received the 1988 City of Los Angeles Human Relations' Award for Volunteer Work.
Chinea is best known for being the moving complainant in a discrimination class-action lawsuit against the Writers Guild and CBS over a half-pay affirmative action program for professional Hispanic writers which contradicted the Guild's Minimum Basic Agreement (the MBA is the minimum wage contract between writers and producers)[2]. After 13 years, the case was dismissed without a trial.
Chinea's essays and public remarks about segregation in the entertainment industry are documented in articles and books, e.g., "there can be no affirmative action without segregation-nor any end to the segregation if our names must be kept on separate lists. I'd like to propose instead a simple scenario: a fair job market where employment is commensurate with ability regardless of gender, racial or ethnic background. I make a pitch, they like my story, I get the job. Why not?" Newsweek "My Turn." [3]
Referring to the Academy Awarded film "A Beautiful Mind," based on the life of schizophrenic mathematician John Forbes Nash and on the omission of the birth place of his wife Alicia Larde, whom Nash described as "an El Salvadorean princess with a sense of noblesse oblige." [1] Chinea remarked in a "Cafe California" TV Interview: "It is still relatively easier for Hollywood filmmakers to deal with schizophrenia, than to deal with someone 'suffering' for being Hispanic."[4] ____________________________________________________________________________________________
New York Times -- November 26, 2006
Volver a vivir, Reviewer: migdia
"Volver" is the masterful realism account of Raimunda (Cruz), her teen-aged daughter, and several other women, as they struggle to survive in a Spanish town of hot brown winds that sweep up from the Sahara desert and make nerves jump, skin itch--ignite blazes. Anything can happen. Surviving women. Raimunda's dark secret places an a wedge between her and her dead mother. Then, later, when her daughter goes through an eerily similar violation, Raimunda's maternal instincts take over. Their misfortune no doubt typical of many. As she sings, "Tengo miedo de las noches que pobladas de recuerdos encadenan mi sonar." Afraid of nights which filled with memories enslave dreams. The song "Volver" gives the film its title, and harks back to one's first love. Whether willing or unwilling, it is as if the god of love has become a demon. But even though forgetfulness and the passing of time erase old illusions, for Almodovar there will always remain a last glimmer of hope. Migdia Chinea
Artist: Carlos Gardel Song: Volver'''
Yo adivino el parpadeo de las luces que a lo lejos van marcando mi retorno.
Son las mismas que alumbraron con sus palidos reflejos hondas horas de dolor.
Y aunque no quise el regreso siempre se vuelve al primer amor.
La vieja calle donde me cobijo tuya es su vida tuyo es su querer.
Bajo el burlante mirar de las estrellas que con indiferencia hoy me ven volver.
Volver con la frente marchita las nieves del tiempo platearon mi sien.
Sentir que es un soplo la vida que veinte anos no es nada que febril la mirada errante en las sombras te busca y te nombra.
Vivir con el alma aferrada a un dulce recuerdo que lloro otra vez.
Tengo miedo del encuentro con el pasado que vuelve a enfrentarse con mi vida.
Tengo miedo de las noches que pobladas de recuerdos encadenen mi sonar. Pero el viajero que huye tarde o temprano detiene su andar.
Y aunque el olvido que todo destruye haya matado mi vieja ilusion, guardo escondida una esperanza humilde que es toda la fortuna de mi corazon.
Volver con la frente marchita las nieves del tiempo platearon mi sien.
Sentir que es un soplo la vida que veinte anos no es nada que febril la mirada errante en las sombras te busca y te nombra.
Vivir con el alma aferrada a un dulce recuerdo que lloro otra vez. Lyrics - C - Carlos Gardel Lyrics - Volver Song Lyrics
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In the making of "Apocalypto" Gibson did not use local Mexican or Guatemalan experts -- his advisors are not local experts, whereas there are literally dozens of Mexican and Guatemalan archeologists with the right classical civilization pedigree who could have adviced him on his massacre-replete movie. For example, Federico Fahsen, a Guatemalan expert on Maya glyphs, headed a team that traveled to Dos Pilas, Tikal, in Guatemala, last year to excavate the steps and document inscriptions. "The hundreds of new glyphs fill in a vital 60-year gap of unknown Maya history and clarify many of the political and military relationships of this critical period," said Fahsen, an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt.
I have been bothered and offended by comments and reviews that appear to me to be condescending to Guatemalan, Belizian and Mexican people in their depiction of Gibson's film. There's also some confusion as to whether Gibson used local Guatemalan, Mexican or Belize actors, or real people. In an interview, he first said they were professional actors, then he reversed himself and claimed they were locals that he "instructed how to act." Incidentally, his co-screenwriter (a former personal assistant), and not Hispanic himself, is said to have attended Cambridge. Are we supposed to be impressed by this bit of British colonialistic snobbery? Why is it that the people who speak, write and produce film projects about Hispanic culture and history are NEVER Hispanic themselves?
Some Maya are excited at the prospect of the first feature film made in their native tongue, Yucatec Maya. But others among the 800,000 surviving Maya are worried that Gibson's hyper-violent, apocalyptic film could be just the latest misreading of their culture by outsiders.
"There has been a lot of concern among Mayan groups from Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, because we don't know what his treatment or take on this is going to be," said Amadeo Cool May of the Indian defense group "Mayaon," or "We are Maya."
"This could be an attempt to merchandize or sell the image of a culture, or its people, that often differs from what that people needs, or wants," Cool May said.
The film has been screened for some U.S. Native Americans, who praised the use of Maya actors. The Maya haven't seen it yet, but like Native Americans north of the border, they have seen others co-opt their culture, as in high-class Caribbean resorts like the Maya Coast and the Maya Riviera. But the Maya are largely absent from those beach resorts, where vacationers tour mock Maya Villages or watch culturally inaccurate mishmashes with "Mayan Dancers" performing in feather headdresses and face paint.
"The owners are often foreigners who buy up the land at ridiculously low prices, build tourism resorts and the Maya in reality are often just the construction workers for the hotels or, at best, are employed as chamber maids," said Cool May.
"Apocalypto" also portrays Mayan civilization at a low moment, just before the Spaniards arrived, when declining, quarreling Mayan groups were focused more on war and human sacrifice than on the calendars and writing system of the civilization's bloody but brilliant classical period.
Warrior-kings and priests directed periodic wars among the ancient Maya aimed at capturing slaves or prisoners for labor or human sacrifice. Entire cities were destroyed by the wars, and whole forests cut down to build the temples.
Mauricio Amuy, a non-Maya actor who participated in the filming of Apocalypto, says the production staff also discussed Maya prophesy on the set.
"We know the Bible talks about prophecies, and that the Mayas spoke of a change of energy on Dec. 22, 2012, and it (the movie) is somewhat focused on that," Amuy said. "People should perhaps take that theory and reflect, and not do these things that are destroying humanity."
While they resisted the Spanish conquest longer than most Indians (and won for e brief period) — the Maya' last rebellion, the War of the Castes, lasted until 1901 — many were virtually enslaved until the early 1900s on plantations growing sisal, used for rope-making, or in the jungle, tapping gum trees. Discrimination and poverty are probably their greatest enemies today.
"I think it is a good chance to integrate the Maya language ... for people to hear it in movies, on television, everywhere," said Hilaria Maas, a Maya who teaches the language at Yucatan's state university.
Maas, 65, recalls that children were once prohibited from speaking Maya in school. There is still little bilingual education, and many of those who speak Maya can't read it.
One sign of progress is Yucatan radio station XEPET, "The Voice of the Mayas," which began broadcasting in the Indian language in 1982. While it began with a mixed Spanish-Maya patois, it now broadcasts in 90 percent pure Maya.
The station is trying to purge words borrowed from Spanish and revive a purer form of Maya. It broadcasts all sorts of music — from rock to rap to reggae — with Mayan lyrics.
Still, the percentage of Maya speakers in Yucatan state fell from 37 percent in 2000 to 33.9 percent by 2005. Paradoxically, for a state that advertises the glories of the Mayan culture for tourists, it is having a hard time keeping the present-day Maya there; many are migrating to the United States.
"For tourists that's what sells ... what catches their attention are the archaeological sites," said Diana Canto, director of the Yucatan Institute for the Development of Maya Culture. "We are trying to sell them on the living Mayas too, so that people get to know their cultural richness."
Today's Maya are known mainly for their elaborate rhyming jokes, a cuisine based on pumpkin and achiote seeds, and loose embroidered white clothing. They're largely peaceful farmers and masons who carry their goods on ubiquitous three-wheeled bicycles over table-flat Yucatan.
"Our culture hasn't been destroyed, because the family is the base of it," says Maas. "Perhaps some material things have been destroyed, but the real basis of the culture is what a family teaches their children, and that survives, and has survived."
New York Times -
A blood bath, December 3, 2006
Reviewer: migdia
''Apocalypto'' left me with no words, no tears and no prayers. This is one gory movie, seeming to keep its iron heart close to its bloody purpose -- namely to expose the more sanguinary aspects of Maya civilization, rather than tell any semblance of a human story. Deliberately concentrating on explicit carnage in its portrayal of blood and guts, the film displays an overt disinterest in the vulnerability of the mortal soul and dispenses with a compelling approach to history. This film--it seems to me--is Gibson's explanation for his recent anti-Semitic comments in that he simply doesn't give a hoot about anyone who isn't Mel Gibson. This lack of compassion from a man who has managed to amass--despite his apparent ethnocentrism--billions of dollars in a predominantly Jewish business. Rationalizing the Spanish conquista of the Maya as an alternative lifestyle, ''Apocalypto'' is also not a movie for a Hispanic audience either. Way to go, Mel. You obviously already have an empty space where your heart ought to be. Say, is that blood trickling from your lips? Migdia Chinea ________________________________________________________________________________________
This piece by a professor at Miami university:
No one really expects historical dramas to be accurate, so I was not so much concerned with whether or not the film would accurately represent what we know of Classic period Maya history as I was concerned about the message Mel Gibson wanted to convey through the film. After Jared Diamond's Collapse, it has become fashionable to use the so called Maya "collapse" as a metaphor for Western society's environmental and political excesses. Setting aside the fact that the Maya lived for over 1000 years in a fragile tropical environment before their cities were abandoned, while here in the U.S, we have polluted our urban environments in less than 200-I anticipated a heavy handed cautionary tale wrapped up in Native American costume. What I saw was much worse than this.
The thrill of hearing melodic Yucatec Maya spoken by familiar faces (although the five lead actors are NOT Yucatec Maya but other well known and fantastic Native American actors) during the first ten minutes of the movie is swiftly and brutally replaced with stomach churning panic at the graphic Maya on Maya violence depicted in a village raid scene of nearly 15 minutes. From then on the entire movie never ceases to utilize every possible excuse to depict more violence-it is unrelenting. Our hero, Jaguar Paw, the charismatic Cree actor Rudy Youngblood has one hellavuh bad couple of days. Captured for sacrifice, forced to march to the putrid city nearby, he endures every tropical jungle attack conceivable and that is AFTER he escapes the relentless brutality of the elites. I am told this part of the movie is completely derivative of the 1966 film The Naked Prey. Pure action flick, with one ridiculous encounter after another, filmed beautifully in the way that only Hollywood blockbusters can afford, this is the part of the movie that will draw in audiences and demonstrates Gibson's skill as a cinematic storyteller.
But I find the visual appeal of the film one of the most disturbing aspects of Apocalypto. The jungles of Veracruz and Costa Rica have never looked better, the masked priests on the temple jump right off a Classic Maya vase, the people are gorgeous. The fact that this film was made in Mexico and filmed in the Yucatec Maya language coupled with its visual appeal makes it all the more dangerous-it looks authentic, viewers will be captivated by the crazy exotic mess of the urban city and the howler monkeys in the jungle. And who really cares that the Maya were not living in cities when the Spanish arrived? Yes, Gibson includes the arrival of clearly Christian missionaries (these guys are too clean to be conquistadors) in the last 5 minutes of the story (in the real world the Spanish arrived 300 years after the last Maya city was abandoned). It is one of the few calm moments in an otherwise aggressively paced film. The message-the end is near and the savior has come.
Gibson's efforts at authenticity of location and language might for some viewers, mask his blatantly Colonial message that the Maya needed saving because they were rotten at the core. Using the decline of Classic urbanism as his backdrop, Gibson communicates that there was absolutely nothing redeemable about Maya culture, especially elite culture which is depicted as a disgusting feast of blood and excess. No mention is made of the achievements in science and art, the profound spirituality and connection to agricultural cycles, or the engineering feats of Maya cities.
Instead, Gibson replays, in glorious big budget technicolor, an offensive and racist notion that Maya people were brutal to one another long before the arrival of Europeans and thus they deserve, in fact they needed, rescue. This same idea was used for 500 years to justify the subjugation of Maya people and it has been thoroughly deconstructed and rejected by Maya intellectuals and community leaders throughout the Maya area today. Pan-Maya intellectuals have demonstrated convincingly that such ideas were manipulated by the Guatemalan army to justify the genocidal civil war of the 1970-90's. To see this same trope, this clearly Western fantasy about who indigenous people were (and are today?) used as the basis for entertainment (and I use the term loosely) is truly embarrassing. I am embarrassed for my race that we continue to produce such one sided and clearly exploitative messages about the indigenous people of the New World.
Before anyone thinks I have forgotten my Metamusel this morning, I am not a compulsively politically correct type who sees our little brown brothers as the epitome of goodness and light. I know the Maya practiced brutal violence upon one another-I have studied child sacrifice during the Classic period, etc. And I loved Braveheart, I really did. But there is something very different about portraying a group of people who are recovering from 500 years of colonization as violent and brutal. These are not Romans killing Celts. These are people who are living with the very real effects of persistent racism which at its heart sees them as less than human. To think that a movie about the 1000 ways a Maya can kill a Maya when only 10 years ago Maya people were systematically being exterminated in Guatemala just for being Maya-- is in any way okay or entertaining or gods forbid, helpful-is the epitome of a Western fantasy of white supremacy that I find sad and ultimately pornographic. Ultimately it is best to conclude (and this is surely no surprise to most of us) that Apolcalypto has very little to do with Maya culture and instead is Gibson's comment on the excesses he perceives in modern Western society. I just wish he had been honest enough to say this. Instead he has created a beautiful and disturbing portrait that satisfies his need for comment but does violence to one of the most impressive of Native American cultures.
I agree -- Mig 20:16, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Background
Chinea graduated Cum Laude from UCLA in 1999 with BA in Political Science/Pre-Law and Classical Civilization.</ref> She has been choreographed in jazz and ballet by Doug Rivera since she was a teenager and continues to dance weekly.</ref>
On October 21, 1997 she testified before a Congressional Committee in Washington on the subject of Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity -- Equal Pay for Equal Work in Hollywood </ref> . Chinea lives in a Historically-designated and registered Spanish Colonial Revival House in </ref> .
