| Sweet 15 | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Victoria Hochberg |
| Produced by | Richard Soto Sharon Weil |
| Written by | Sharon Weil |
| Screenplay by | Sharon Weil |
| Starring | Emily Rios Jesse Garcia David W. Ross |
| Music by | Michael Aarvold |
| Distributed by | Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) |
| Release date(s) | 1990 |
| Running time | 120 min. |
| Language | English/Spanish |
| Budget | Unknown |
Sweet 15 is a 1990 American made-for-television family drama film about a fourteen year old girl whose dreams of having a perfect quinceanera are suddenly halted when she realizes that her family is not in the United States legally.
A WonderWorks film, it is commonly shown in Spanish classes all over the country to teach about Mexican culture.
Contents |
Marta de la Cruz is the daughter of two hardworking Mexican immigrants. She and her two siblings were born in the United States and are living in Los Angeles. They are a working class family, and their hardworking father, Samuel, is the manager of a steel mill that makes chain link fences. He has been working hard for much of his life, and the work finally paid off when they became legal citizens. Marta is seen as spoiled, immature, and somewhat naive, but she wants to have an amazing quinceanera, as her friends are all having one. Her parents tell her that she may have to postpone it, because of financial problems, when in reality, they are not legal citizens, and they need to save money in case Samuel's manager, Mr. Waterman (Jerry Stiller) finds out and he is left jobless. Marta does not understand the situation and is very angry and upset. Her jealousy only increases when she is forced to get a job in the immigration department of their church to volunteer in the community.
She continues to plan, however, determined to have her "quince". Also, her friends are busy hitting on her handsome, distant cousin Ramón from New York who just arrived in California. They are pressuring Marta to dance with him at her quince, but she is too shy, and Ramon is struggling with his inability to read or write. Samuel knows that he has earned his citizenship, as he has worked hard and lived in America for over a decade, but as he has no papers, there is no way that anybody can know that. While working at the church one day, Marta discovers that Samuel is an illegal, and begins getting very worried and touchy about the subject.
Samuel does not want Marta dating Ramón, but she goes behind his back and enlists him for help in getting all of Samuel's previous employer's signatures, so he can get his papers. Meanwhile, Jorge, Samuel's best friend and a close acquaintance of the family is deported to Mexico when he fails to present his papers, which he does not have. Also, at Samuel's plant, more and more employees are being fired or deported, and Samuel fears he may be next, so he is hard at work trying to find a second job, one that does not require papers. She gets all but one signature, and goes to an auto salvage yard for the last one, but the manager is rude and stubbornly refuses to sign the papers. Marta is persistant, and the manager has a change of heart and manages to sign the papers. Also, Ramón learns how to read and surprises Marta with it.
She presents her father with his signatures, and he sends them in for their papers. Soon after, he is given his temporary papers to show at his job, as it will be a while before their permanent papers arrive. Samuel thanks his daughter and they embrace. However, Marta is soon told that they found that she had been tampering with the files and she has to go inside. As she goes in, expecting the worst, she discovers that it was all part of her surprise quince. She dances with Ramón, whom her father now respects. Marta, having grown up and changed considerably from spoiled to respectful during the journey, she embraces her newlyfound womanhood.
The film received positive reviews because of its realistic and non-biased depiction on the touchy subject of illegal immigration, but negative ones due to the acting. It has become somewhat of a classic and is commonly shown in Spanish classes because of its clean, family-friendly depiction of Mexican culture. [1]