legal/cultural question about isabel, her family, chuy etc.

isabel said her great grandmother still lived in central mexico but she worked in nevada (caesars palace?). i think that the younger generation would be raised to speak spanish and visit mexico a lot but would live in arizona/nevada.

I was born and raised in Tucson AZ, 60 miles N of the Mexican border, and lived most of my life in the southwestern US. In addition, my first husband, God rest his soul, was of Mexican descent. His family on both sides had been in the US for five generations--his grandparents owned a grocery store on the far east side of Tucson and used to trade with Geronimo--but his first wife was from Mexico and still had family living there.

US citizenship is determined largely by birth...if you're born on US soil, you're a citizen, period. We used to hear stories all the time, especially when we lived in San Diego, which is much closer to the Mexican border than Tucson, of Mexican women coming across "the line" to give birth to their babies, so they would be US citizens, even though the mothers were not.

My first husband's children went with their mom regularly to visit her family in Sonora, Mexico. I think the frequency with which family members who live in the US visit those who live in Mexico probably depends on where in Mexico the family lives...it's a big place. From Tucson to Mexico City is about 1,500 miles...not a weekend jaunt for sure. And from Las Vegas to Tucson is about 400 miles. As a matter of fact, Isabel mentions in the opening scene that she hasn't stopped to use the bathroom since Nogales...the border town 60 miles south of Tucson. That means she hadn't stopped for about 460 miles, or about 9 to 10 hours of driving. I've driven from Tucson to Las Vegas MANY times in my life, and it's a good eight hours, as much of the most direct highway is two-lane through mountain passes. And I always have to stop at least once! But I digress...

As far as whether English or Spanish is spoken at home by Mexican families, when my first husband and I were growing up and going to school in Arizona, there was no such thing as bilingual education. Everyone learned to speak English, and there was no consideration given to children who spoke Spanish at home. You sank or swam; my husband's first language was Spanish, and he told me it was very difficult to keep up in school, but he was one of the many who learned to swim. He also believed fervently that if you live in the US, you'd jolly well better learn to speak English. Language was never an issue for me, as I'm a "gringa" who grew up speaking only English; moving to Miami five years ago was a real shock for me, because I had lived my entire life around Latins who spoke excellent English.

The older members of my husband's family spoke Spanish at home, but spoke perfect, unaccented English. His first wife's family members who still lived in Mexico spoke no English. His children, both born in the US, speak English almost exclusively, and really don't speak Spanish well at all. I think his grandchildren speak even less Spanish.

Certainly there are plenty of stereotypes in this film, but IMHO, they're really not too far off the mark. Most of the Mexicans I know are Catholic, and take it very seriously. They visit shrines, light candles and say prayers. Mexican families tend to be large and close-knit. I remember going to plenty of birthday parties and other celebrations with my first husband, at which I was often the only white, and I would just marvel at the extended family members who seemed to "crawl out of the woodwork." I don't know about the authenticity of the band of brothers who all like to handle firearms; again, I imagine that would depend on where they were raised. My first husband's first wife's family who lived in Mexico were farmers; she had four brothers, two of whom still lived on the family farm. While I never saw any of them with rifles, I'd be willing to bet that they could handle them very nicely. My first husband was in the USMC and a rifle instructor, and could certainly hold his own with weapons.

I don't find this film to be racist. I think it pokes some gentle fun at the differences between cultures, and explores the interesting situations the develop when romance blooms between two people who come from different cultures. I think it's great fun and an entertaining movie with a happy ending. What could be better than that?

"If you can't say anything nice, come sit by me!"