For science…
Apparently my director went to see a production of West Side Story a few years ago, and the guy playing Chino forgot his gun before coming out for his final scene. Once it got to the big scene where he is supposed to shoot Tony, he screeched “Poison Boots” and kicked the actor playing Tony until he went down. The girl playing Maria then had to jerk the shoe off of Chino’s foot, and had to do the gunshot scene asking “How many kicks Chino? How many kicks, and one kick left for me”.
“You could save the world.”
“I could,” said the villain, “if I wanted to.” Behind them. the city burned.
“But you won’t.” The hero’s voice was hoarse with defeat, blood trickling from their lips. “You won’t.”
The villain’s shrug was silhouetted by the flames. “Convince me.”
What are they playing?
Commission for boojangs on twitter
Encanto's indigenous identity and why it is so important; thread
First of all, I will make it clear that I am a latino indigenous person. Afro-native brazilian tupinambá with also unknown indigenous descent on the mother's side.
And everything from this thread was used movie sources, links at the end of it.
Whenever I say that Encanto and the Madrigals are indigenous, someone always comes to say: "But it's in Colombia, they're not really indigenous, they're "mestizos".
well, yes, so what?
mixed indigenous people exists and that does not make them any less indigenous.
Or say: "oh, it's just Bruno", "it's just Alma y Pedro", "it's just Isabela" - No. It's the whole family AND the whole village.
The only ones that probably not indigenous is Agustín y Félix, and any person who came to live in Encanto, and didn't born there.
Starting with many Zenús crafts in the film, not only that, but with a Zenú artisans person himself participating and guiding designers every step of the way to create an authentic representation of Zenú crafts:
Also, the film's producers works with six different Indigenous communities across Colombia to promote the vitality of Indigenous arts including woven bags, hats, and ceramic.
And speak of bags and clothes, there all was inspired by Wayúu crafts:
Now, about the plot of the movie, the miracle has a sacred meaning. But the concept of the miracle does not come from something christian or from fairy tales.
"Magical realism does not consist of taking gratuitous magic and putting it in the context of a jungle" - Espinosa
“I don’t invent anything, I’ve seen it all or I’ve been told about it.” - also said señora Espinosa
The miracles it's not an imagined idea, it's a belief.
It came from earth, it can be given by God or Gods, but it's a natural sacred.
Also, the miracle canonically come from the river:
Now
We gonna talk about Bruno
yes, yes, YES!
"The indigenous people are there, they have been made invisible and nobody talks about them, but they are the sacred part of Colombia. It has become fundamental to understand this, and it is very well-represented in Bruno” - Espinosa
Bruno is very superstitious.
Throwing salt or sugar, not touching or stepping on cracks, knocking on wood, reciting mantras such as "sana, sana, colita de rana"
It is very common for us indigenous people to be superstitious and doing this kind of thing protects us from evil.
Second, Bruno's room inspired on the precolumbian tombs of Tierradentro.
Bruno's room it's a thing, huh?
Knows as the place where you go to see your future, it's literally a sacred tomb, with many indigenous factors, and I believe that the only place Bruno had his visions before get destroyed by Mirabel.
And speaks in visions, Bruno do a whole shamanic ritual to have his.
Making a circle of sand, protecting himself with salt and burning four piles of leaves every time before having a new vision.
It's just the traditional and the sacred of a Shaman.
Now, why?
Why all those things matter?
Why not just watch the movie?
Well, I never had indigenous latin representation before.
This is the first time i see characters who look so much like me, and I could, even that's not my country, see so much of my culture there.
And of course I am not the only one.
The Madrigals and Encanto are indigenous, and the fact there so many mixed people in the film is the best part, I love this movie beside some "low spots" they have. This still one of my best representation in media.
Sources:
MOVIE RANT BELOW YOU CAN IGNORE ME LOL JUST IN MY FEELS OK
I just watched Encanto yesterday by the way and as a Colombian I love what they did with this movie. There are small details that you wouldn’t notice if you weren’t familiar with the culture but I just had to make this appreciation post:
The clothing they wear is very typical of the clothing worn in the villages of the mountains down to the stitching! It was all so vibrant and beautiful! And the fact that they stitched the main characters name onto her skirt was such a great detail! Even the little bag that she was carrying is exactly like the bags that are crafted there - my grandpa would buy them as gifts for me and my sister and they are always so beautiful - bright colors and covered in flowers!
Also the architecture of the houses is JUST LIKE my great grandparents village!! My mom and grandma watched the movie with me also and were telling me about how they identified with this story so well. Personal note but my great grandparents actually had to flee their village on horseback with their two babies just like in the movie because they were threatened by assassins (wild I know). So my mom was like “bruh that abuela is MY ABUELA”
When it comes to the appearances, I’m so glad that they made the cast a mix of skin tones, hair types, overall a mix of appearances - because that is totally what we are like! The abuela looks just like my grandma - fairer skin, relatively straightish hair. Meanwhile I’d say I look a lot more like the main character - medium tone skin with curly hair but the curls aren’t tight. And my sister turned out like the MC’s cousin Camilo, similar skin color but MUCH tighter curls. I saw so many of my family and friends in those characters I could go on about this all day!
Also, THE FOOD! Don’t get me started on the food! There are certain foods that are ‘typically’ served in colombian restaurants here in America that are not actually what we eat back in Colombia. I appreciate that they actually used OUR food in this movie. Like the arepas for example. Here in america usually the restaurants serve the corn arepas with cheese on top. I’ve never been to a restaurant that serves arepas the way we actually make them - with the cheese already in the corn mixture. But in the movie they were EXACTLY how we make them I wanted to cry ok. And the buñelos looked so good ffs the breakfast they had together after the engagement party was literally the breakfast my grandma would make for me as a kid like 😭
And the music was so very obviously inspired by not just salsa (aka generic carribean Spanish music) but vallenato (a genre of music that is almost exclusively Colombian) and other genres of music, it was overall very inspired by everything we listen to not just the generic salsa you hear at parties
PLUS the casual use of Spanish pet names like “mija” and “abuela” had me cheesing okay
ALSO WHEN MIRABELS FATHER SAID MIERCOLES I WAS DYING AKDHSKDJSKD (it’s a PG way to say shit in Spanish jajaja)
Actually everything about her dad was precious also when he played the intro chords to La Rebelíon I was ACTUALLY CRYING OF LAUGHTER like whoever chose the music for this KNOWS COLOMBIANS SO WELL LIKE????? If you aren’t familiar with Joe Arroyo you wouldn’t have understood why her dad was playing those chords but like - that is literally the one song that will make ANYONE stand up and dance so when Abuela was like “let’s get back to dancing” and Mirabels dad started playing the intro chords to that song on the piano it was so funny ok
Also real talk I think I have a crush on Luisa
*CORRECTION the song was En Barranquilla Me Quedo and as someone who is FROM BARRANQUILLA I wanna formally say I’m going to crawl into a rock and die now for my mistakes*
Above image is a pride flag with every color band represented by a NASA image. White is Earth clouds, pink is aurora, blue is the Sun in a specific wavelength, brown is Jupiter clouds, black is the Hubble deep field, red is the top of sprites, orange is a Mars crater, yellow is the surface of Io, green is a lake with algae, blue is Neptune, and purple is the Crab Nebula in a specific wavelength.
I never want to hear conservatives go on about repressive censorship in China, North Korea, and Iran ever again
Obsessed with this concept
(the fact that the ravens annoy the wolves sksksnsjksn)
just girl-best-roommate things part two a follow-up to wenclair kafka quote my beloved