Y Tu Mama Tambien

Y Tu Mama Tambien
This was a very interesting film for me because I have a 17 year old son. I cannot even imagine him behaving in such a way or his friends for that matter; I hope I am not being naive. I guess this is where there is a big cultural difference between our culture and the Hispanic culture. I am not even talking about the raging hormones these boys displayed. I am talking about the smoking and drinking, not to mention the marijuana usage. From the film I would assume that for Hispanics drinking at this age is not against the law since they were able to go to the store and buy it themselves. They also seemed to have a steady supply of cigarettes. I know that kids in the US drink and smoke but it is against the law at age Tenoch and Julio are. Peer pressure can play a big part in any culture and if all of your friends are doing it there is a good chance you are going to do it too. One can only hope that parental influence can be as powerful as peer pressure. The problem in the film is that there was a lack of parental guidance for both boys. Julio had no male figure in his life and Tenoch’s dad was too busy for him.
Now let me briefly talk about the raging hormones. I think this is probably the same for any culture. I do think however these two guys were a little excessive in their quest for sexual satisfaction. Girls, themselves it really did not seem to matter to them. You just knew that the journey to the beach was going to lead to sex with Tenoch’s cousin’s wife. The fact that she was married to a relative did not seem to bother these two. I did find it ironic that what bothered them most was the revelation that they had slept with each other’s girlfriend.
Throughout the film we were exposed to the Hispanic culture. The wedding reception itself was nothing like I had ever been to in the United States. It did seem to me that the father was more concerned about the visiting President than his own daughter the bride. Unless it was a family member or a very close friend I do not think that we would have to worry about the President of the United States showing up at a wedding. Another aspect of the Hispanic culture and of the times were all the protests that we were exposed to. Julio had to go to a protest to find his sister to ask to borrow the car and then at different points along the journey to Heaven’s Mouth we saw other protest occurring. We also saw the military, could have been the police, stopping cars and searching them. Searches like this can happen in the US but usually it happens after being stopped for breaking the law and of giving the officer probable cause.
I would have loved to see how the film ended, instead I googled it and read how it ended. I figured Luisa had received bad news at the doctor’s office, I hope she died happy and at peace with the choices she made during her last month of life. I was sad to read that Julio and Tenoch did not remain friends after their sexual experiment. I guess it was hard to face each other and be reminded of what they had actually done.