Poverty Studies Institute

by Staff Writer

The goal of POOR Magazine's Poverty Studies Institute (PSI) is to examine the root causes of poverty and racism through research, critical analysis, activism and advocacy.

PSI is open to all people who are interested in working with, creating media on, or providing services for, communities impacted by or directly affected by issues related to poverty and racism (see below for tuition and enrollment information)

One of our current explorations include the examination of Individualism, Separation and Independence as it is also our belief as Poverty Scholars* at POOR, that these practices lead to the very harmful manifestations of isolation and separation which eventually can lead to and/or worsen houselessness, ageism, mental illness, etc rather than the notions of collectivism and interdependence, most often associated with non-western, indigenous cultures, which can prevent if not heal poor families sufferring from these issues. It is our belief that especially for poor families, these notions are harmful and often lead to the interventions/assault of families by racist and classist institutions and policies such as Child Protective Services, The Criminal (Un)Justice System, The Foster Care System, Welfare (de) Reform, and many more.

Teachers/Poverty Scholars at PSI use several forms of media as a tool for critical analysis. Our current media "reading" is a series of films that explore these issues..

The Following is a series of student analysis through Responses to questi ons by PSI on the Film; Real Women Have Curves.

Teacher/Poverty Scholar; Dee

Teachers Assistant; Alex Cuff

Sometimes We didn't have a Phone

By Intern/Poverty Scholar; Jewnbug

How does the film deal with individuation?

The Mother is against Ana going to college anywhere she wants her to stay close to the family and work. The Father would rather Ana go to school close by instead of New York because he has worked hard to keep the family together and New York is too far away. The family (grandpa, older sister, father, cousins) live together and work together. The oldest daughter Estella works very hard with her Mother making dresses. The Mother wants Ana to know the value of family and hard work. The father works with his nephews doing garden landscaping. Ana no longer is working at a place that makes burgers because of the conflict with the manager. Her mother has Ana work with her and her sister making dresses. She sees first hand the everyday hard work and struggle of making ends meet for the family that her sister and mother do. At the same time Ana is still determined to go to college with the help of her teacher (this part of the movie is similar to a part in the movie Stand and Deliver). Her mother wants Ana to stay with the family and to help with her sister's business and most importantly stay close to the family that the Mother goes as far as saying she's pregnant to convince Ana more and more the need for her to stay close to the family. Estella is older but still shares a room with her sister. They all use the same phone line and share the same computer unlike the boyfriend who had his own room and seemed to have his own laptop computer and is going to Europe and doesn't seem to be struggling with his parents in convincing them to let him go. Ana in the end makes the decision to go and receives her Father's and sister's blessing but not her Mother's. You see Ana walking the streets in New York by herself with a smile like Mary Tyler Moore.
I wonder if she will get really home sick and transfer to a school in L.A.

Well I think that it's a good and wise thing to share a bedroom, phone and computer etc. in the family. I never had my own phone line and sometimes we didn't have a phone. We my family don't even have a computer and we only had one TV in the apartment/studio/hotel and sometimes we didn't. My brother might of have had a small TV at one time but we all shared it. I can remember going to other people's houses and they would have TVs even in the children's room to me this was odd but then became something I was influenced to desire too because other children making fun of you and you not being cool really effects you.

Basically this movie showed a family's value in sharing and working together in order to survive but Ana getting an education can help the family survive but only if Ana goes to college with the focus in mind that this is for the family and how what she is learning can be applied. Also when you don't have the funds to go to college it makes it hard in getting a so called higher education and when you are offered a scholarship it's hard to pass up but I believe that more research could've been done to get her a full scholarship to a college nearby.

I could never leave to a place far away from my family I couldn't do it. I will never forget what my Daddy told me is that he stays here in SF because of me and my brother. I may live in another apartment but it is still close by to my Mommy and Daddy. My younger brother I wish he lived closer but we make ways to stay in contact with him. However it still is hard but he is a bus/car ride away.

Does the ending of the film conflict with what you learned at POOR or does it agree with what you learned at POOR regarding individuation?

POOR wouldn't like or agree with the ending because it doesn't translate interdependency. The ending does translate individuation.
Interdependency is a family no matter what the members consist of meaning even if it's a single parent home the family stays close and shares which helps build a strong family unit which to me is resistance to capitalism, nourishment and one of the best medicines for depression, poverty and learning disabilities etc?
Individuation is separation of the family members everybody out for them selves, wanting everything as your own and not sharing etc. Ana leaving off to college to another state without her Mothers approval is an example and in the beginning her not wanting to work at the factory with her sister and mother is another. Lastly and most importantly here's Ana in another state going to a top college with full scholarship but what about her Mother? What about her Mother and all she has done and does and is? This scene in the end angers me and is sad. I know that I have caused my Mother pain (not being respectful or patient) when I should be at all times and will apologize for it for a life time. Prior to me working with POOR my Mother and me was always in relations we never separated, in one way we still stayed close but we weren't as close as we once were when I was really young and I miss that. I gave in to the pressures of a society that I'm a outkast in. POOR enforces me and others to build a relationship with our family where we respect at all times and draw close to are family in the means of making a better life not pulling away to be so called acceptedwhen this world rejects our Mothers then turns around and rejects her children. Ana has rejected her Mother and probably doesn't look at it like that, but that is what has happened.

What would an alternative ending look like?

Ana stays home with her family gets a scholarship to a nearby college. She goes to school part time and sill works with her sister and Mother making dresses. She helps her sister Estella open up her own Boutique where they no longer are working as cheap labor/sweatshop for Bloomingdales. Estella is making her own clothing line with sizes that fit women of full figures to plus sizes and they are able to provide the family with Health insurance and the Mother no longer has to sew but still works with her daughter and shares her stories with the women that work there.

Lovin? Latina?s from Califas

The film depicts a family?s struggle to keep itself together for the sake of its economic, cultural, and physical survival
while battling dominant western cultural forces that promote its dismantling an d the individuation of its members. The
beginning of the movie depicts the protagonist, Anna, the youngest daughter, as a model of Western individuated success.
The opening scene shows her battling all the apparent obstacles to this success: she swi ftly ignores her mother?s whining
calls for attention as she marches to school on time, she takes a number of buses escaping her barrio home to get to an
elite high school in Beverly Hills, and she hides her poverty as she mingles with her wealthy schoolmates.

These seemingly positive strides are overwhelmed when Ana announces to her teacher that she must forego college
because she can not afford it. Under her matriarchial mother?s command, Ana?s family is initially understood to be the
enemy to Ana?s progress, unwilling and unable to pay for Ana?s college education.
As the movie progresses, this Western individuated model of success is subtly challenged. Ana begins to go to work with
her mother and sister at the dress factory that her sister owns. There Ana gradually learns to appreciate the ways in which
her family works to support each other. Her high-minded ideals of individuated, college-won, family-removed success are
humbled once Ana comprehends the great sacrifices and collective effort made by her family in order to keep itself intact.
Anna?s prior culturally enforced ideals of self-made success had obscured the great debt she owed to her family?s love and
sacrifice as well as her accountability to them.

The euro-centricity and class privilege of Ana?s model of success are exemplified in the character of her short term
boyfriend. He is a wealthy, upper middle class white boy who has everything given to him, desires creating an artificial
situatio n (teaching abroad) in order to understand suffering, and whose parents are nowhere in sight. Through his
character, the individuated model of success is seen to be a natural extension of his economic stability and white
individuated family model. A nna?s belief in this model is seen to deny her very existence as a Mexican-American, lower
class member of a strong family.
Ana is awarded a full scholarship to Columbia at the end of the movie (because Columbia loves Latinas from California-
de e) which she eventually takes in defiance of her mother?s wishes and her family?s needs. This decision symbolizes Ana?s
struggle between her two cultures. While she has come to understand the vital role she plays in her family- not as a "good
daught er" who must bear the burdens of her family at the cost of her own life (a Eurocentric definition) but as a privileged
member of a strong collective to whom she is accountable- she is also fed the dominant ideals which valorize individuation
and uprooting the family. The movie does a good job of demonstrating how difficult this decision comes to be for Anna so
that strongly individuated audience members aren?t on their feet cheering when she finally makes the decision to leave.

Many times, the movie does depict the family as an old-fashioned, sometimes backwards unit. Ana?s mother is
sometimes a caricature of an overbearing matriarch who is overly dependant on her family. This depiction easily feeds
notions that the family inhibits p ersonal growth. Many who have seen the movie come away believing that it is just another
right-of-passage film where the daughter must make the tough but ultimately correct decision to leave the nest and gain
her independence. I was a little upset that the movie didn?t spell out the problem of individuation. At the same time, I
understand that the movie probably had to be made the way it was to appeal to larger audiences.

As a final note I?ve experienced the same struggle Anna did in many ways- most immediately is this struggle over
research. Ana?s idealization of college is akin to my own idealization of research. Just as she believed that she would be
helping her family in some long term eventual way by leaving her family and becoming educated, I?ve believed that doing
research will in some long term, hopeful, eventual way help the people "studied". In doing so, Ana and I conveniently
ignore the present reality. The success we envision is removed, uncertain and ultim ately self-serving. Understanding this
took an initial leap in consciousness for both of us and a continual readjustment of values for me.

The end of the movie showed a newly confident and made-up Ana strutting down Times Square towards the end of a
corner. The scene is made to parallel the opening scene where she is slumped over and trudging down the LA streets
towards the bus stops to get to school. It?s interesting that at the end of the block where Ana is walking, a large travel bus
is waiting. The final shot is of the bus pulling away before a cut to the credits. It was my hope that the bus was containing
Ana on her way back to LA and that a second more of the shot would show that Ana was no longer standing on the corner.
But this was my hope and may not have been the actual ending. Ana?s choice to go to Columbia conflicted with POOR?s
teachings on individuation. In POOR version for Ana and Isabelle, the girls, if they must, go to school but to ones that is
close t o home so that they maintain their kinship and communal ties. The ending conflicted with what I have learned at
POOR because Ana decided to individuate and abandon her family.

An alternative ending would have Ana and Isabelle at schools close t o home maintaining their communal ties and their
familial obligations. It would also have a moral audit of the Columbia University California Latina Trust. The money would
be taken away from its individuating purposes and would be given to POOR Maga zine for expansion and accredidation of its
Poverty Studies and Community Building Programs. If I said anything more, I would just be stealing Ashley?s ending
because it was so good.

Revisiting this movie with my mother and being able to give her the handout of all the other interns? answers has given
an alternative ending to our conversation. She says that she has been thinking and rethinking her Westernized belief
system. We spent much of the last two days trying to dissect where it c ame from in her family and her education and also
how it had invaded out own family life. We also started talking for the first time about how this western model is hurting our
family. How do I not sound like a telethon or a really bad sitcom when I say- thank you POOR for helping to make my
family closer. Awwwwww!

Soy Como Soy

1. How does the film deal with individuation?

It portrays Ana's family struggling in East LA and it shows Ana struggling with the desire and need to be herself and to find her identity, and the dilemma and dynamics between the family but primarily the women. She wants an education, she doesn't want to be stuck in a sweatshop and feel obligate d to her family duties. She doesn't necessarily want to leave them but feels trapped. It is obvious that her family's beliefs do not coincide w/ individuation. Her household included three generations, plus her Tia and her primos. I believe it shows a c ontrast of Latin Culture and tenets, that are family oriented but not always healthy, and Euro-centric thought/individuation but did possibly have an underlying tone thought of individuation.

2. Does the film agree w/ what you learned at POOR regar ding individuation?

The answer to be truthful, is both yes and no. I suppose that scholarships aren't given with an exchange rate: i.e. allowances made for people to go to the best schools and yet be able to remain with their families at home (bum mer). So, I would say would say that unfortunately, a decision has to be made that may separate the family temporarily or perhaps forever, I believe it depends on the family's desire to be cohesive and healthy. what I have learned at POOR is, I feel, very valid and pertinent but then I must also look at Isabel's move/decision to go to Columbia University. I know it was a hard choice for her to make, but she is alright and her relationship with her mother remains intact even though they are geographically separated; it does not have to stay that way forever. I'm sure she will return or facilitate a way to live with or near her mother... Then again, what if she did indeed move to Cuba? Would that not be considered the product of individuation? I guess what I am saying is that there are many issues involved that contradict each other and the family's of Ana and Isabel will have to put forth the effort, love , and work to remain a family: to remain whole so that Euro-Centric values do not invade their familie s cultures or tenets. It does not work to just tell an adolescent or young adult, "No" and thus have them feel obligated to their families for the wrong reasons, to feel trapped in their love for their family.

3. What would an alternative ending be?

Shit here you go...what happened to the easy questions? I can think of many, but how about this one? Ana goes to Columbia for a year, maybe two and then transfers back to California (perhaps Berkley or Stanford) and is closer to her family, can see them, and still have a chance at good schooling. In the meantime: Ana has talked her sister Estella into pursuing better contracts and to start selling her own line of clothing. Estella gets a small business loan to get started, format, and present her new business. This enables Estella, their mother, and the women who are employed by her to earn a living wage. Then they create a additional line of clothing called "Real Women" for real women with curves. Ana's mother tries to be loving, but still can not be demonstrative and is still too critical of her daughters (although she now tries to listen once and awhile.) Her Grandpa is still at home with the family and they continue to have a beautiful relationship he live to be 99. Her dad still works hard but is not discontent in his decision to give his nephews more responsibility w/ the business (landscaping.) Ana majors in Literature and minors in Latin Anthropology/Cultures and becomes a renown Latina author. Her novels are of Latina/Latin histories, c ultures causes and life. "Soy Como Soy", her first novel is now a prerequisite for college in California high school classes. She is acclaimed for her ability to merge creative writing, poignancy, clarity, insight and humor without losing cultural or family values.

Sacrifices

Student: Mike Vizcarra

The theme of individuation is seen throughout the film. The main character, Anna, is torn between helping her family
or going off to college at Columbia. This is where the heart of the movie lies: the constant conflict of whether to contribute
to the family/community or be individualistic and be on your own.

The ending of the movie conflicts with what I learned at Poor. The begin with, Poor taught me that taking care of the
family is first and foremost. You have to make sacrifices to help out the family; sacrifices to the individual self. In the
movie, Anna as faces with staying with the family and helping her sister?s company or she could go to Columbia on a full
scholarship.

One possible ending could have been for Anna to not go to Columbia and stay and help her family. She also could
have applied to another local University and be closer to her family. If she went to all the trouble of going to Beve rly Hills
High, going to UCLA or USC would?ve been just as easy for her. Also, she would have been closer to her family and still
would be able to help her sister?s clothing company. That would be the ideal situation. If she could get a full scholar ship to
Columbia, why couldn?t she get a full scholarship to other colleges? Granted LA is not as cosmopolitan as NYC (Harlem), her
education would practically be the same from other prestigious schools in LA.

Cultural Expectations

Student(Teacher?s .Assistant): Alex Cuff

How does the film deal with individuation?
at first i thought the movie didn?t really deal with individuation. it certainly addressed the issue of
individuation on many levels. most obviously between ana and her mother, carmen. if ana and carmen?s relationship
was the only relationship looked at in the film, then i would have to say that the filmmaker wasn?t seeing the
issue of individuation, the situation from the mother?s point of view, at all. but although we are given a stronger
view and allowed to connect more with ana then her mother, other subtler aspects of the movie brilliantly offer the
audience a point of view other than ana?s.
1. the sister ? the role of estella?s charac ter was, to me, ambiguous. ana does toward the end of the movie
appreciate how hard her sister works when she borrows money from her father to pay the rent on the factory space
but i feel like the overall view of estella is negative from both the m other?s point of view (which provides
entertainment from the audience) but also because ana calls her business a "sweat shop" . . . i guess i wanted to
see more activism on ana?s part in at least discussing why she felt her sister?s business is a sweat shop. i mean
we know why she says that but what can she do, besides iron, to help that situation?

the women who work for estella ? the women at the factory certainly validate carmen and her cultural
expectations and ideas when ana comes to work for estella. again, although our (my, other individuated audience
members?) "pity" lies more with ana for having to work there and also to deal with her mother?s negativity
regarding ana, we see through the reaction of the other women, that ana is acting a bit spoiled. it also points out
the importance of family in the latino culture. one example being that the woman who gets married and moves to
mexico with both her mother and sister who had worked there with her. and another woman wh o tells the story of her
father?s death and the way in which she pretends he is alive and wheelchairs him out of the hospital cause she
can?t afford to pay the bills.

Overall i think that the film is depicting the young woman ana and her "pr oblem" being that her family is old
fashioned and doesn?t understand her. threaded thoughout the film is positive moments of her family life especially
with her sister, grandfather, and father ? but the film?s answer was that she just needed do what she needed to do
for herself regardless of her relationship to her mother. there were scenes that related the filmmakers cognizance
of the sensitive relationship between mother and daughter: on the bus she sees a mom with a crying daughter and to
me that was to show ana, and us, the sacrifices mother?s go through to have children. the situation with jimmy was
great in providing a contrast between the privileges and those that aren?t privileged. him on his ibook, with his
volvo, and with his plan on meeting her in europe.

Does the ending of the film conflict with what you learned at Poor or does it agree with what you learned at Poor
regarding individuation? the end of the film agrees with what we learned at poor regarding ind ividuation. we learned that
individuation affects non-european descendent family who now live in cultures, america in this case, that strongly promote
individuation. this is clearly an issue in this film.

What would an alternative ending l ook like? um, there could be a few alternatives....the most obvious is that ana?s
teacher could have helped her look into universities around LA or closer than NYC after he first witnessed the parents
reaction to him visiting at her graduation party. his role was definitely "teacher knows best" and we in the audience trust
him more since he speaks spanish (i know that sounds dumb but it is true.) another ending could be that ana does leave
for nyc but she takes the time to explain to her pare nts that with a prestigious university degree she will be more of an
asset to her family in the long run cause she will be able to earn more but that she?ll be back for xmas, holidays, etc. and
plans to move home after school or look into transferri ng down the line. another ending would have been that she helps
estella get her own line of dresses off the ground and figures out a way to rid of the nasty middle woman designer who is
selling her dresses for $500, $600. then she could go to colle ge after that or go locally while working part time with estella
and taking the pressure off her mother who has been working so long.

A Full Scholarship

By Student: Connie Lu

Ana, the main character in the film, is a young Latino woman in her senior year in high school. She is a very intelligent
student, who works hard. Her teacher encourages her to apply to Columbia University in NY, but she explains to him that
her family can?t afford to pay the tuition. Ana?s mother is a gainst her daughter going to college because she needs to work
to support the family. her mother forces Ana to work at her sister?s clothing factory. But Ana still wants to leave her family to
be her own "individual" person at Columbia University. She looks down upon her family and sees her sister?s clothing factory
as a sweat shop.

Ana takes the advice of her teacher and applies for college, despite her mother?s wishes. She ends up getting accepted
to Columbia University with a full scholarship and leaving her family. I thought her mother would come out of her room to
say good-bye to Ana, but it broke my heart to see a severed relationship between a mother and daughter because there?s
something so special about the bond and unity that is shared within a family that sticks together.

The ending of the film conflicts with what I learned at Poor because Ana leaves her family. She wants to pursue her own
future, education, boyfriend, and separate herself from her family. Her desire to become independent from her family fits
under the American individualistic mindset of our society. However, at one point in the film, Ana does improve upon her
individualistic ways and realizes how hard her family works to support each other, which brings her closer to her family and
makes her more willing to work at her sister?s factory.

Perhaps, Ana should have applied to a college and scholarship within the LA area, so that she could live at home and go to a nearby school, be close to her family, and support them financially.

When One becomes Many..

Student: Ashley Adams

In the film, the daughter, Ana, becomes individualized. She leaves her family in LA to pursue formal education in NY
even tho ugh her mother refused to say ?good-bye?. Ana leaves against her mother?s wishes, then the movie ends without
showing the viewers the flip-side of becoming individualized and how painful the process is for all involved?There are no
scenes of how Ana copes in NYC without any members of her family and there are no scenes of how Ana?s family and
especially Mother handle their day to day life without her in their home, in their city.

The movie shows what a working class inter-dependent family experiences as their daughter becomes individualized.
The ending of the film shows Ana walking down the street in NYC with a smile on her face. I gathered that the film was
promoting such decisions by the ending. Towards the end, I thought that Ana would not leave and I was surprised at the
outcome. Very much like Isabel.

The ending of the film conflicts with what I have learned at Poor regarding the issues of individuation. I have learned
that family and community are the most import ant part of survival, and one of the most anti-capitalist behaviors and
actions that one can participate in. When the ONE becomes a part of the MANY, the individual?s need shift from personal
gain to collective gain, which is the exact opposite of c apitalism and the truth about our existence is our interdependency.

Ana would choose to stay with her family in LA realizing she is a part of something bigger than herself. This decision is
make just before going to the airport to fly to NY. S he does not receive her mother?s blessing to leave home, so she does
not go. Instead she applies to UCLA and gets accepted with a full ride scholarship. She helps out with her sister?s factory
work when needed. Her sister, begins designing a dress l ine for ?real women that have curves?. The dresses are made in her
factory and instead of getting $18 for a dress that is sold in department stores for $600, she begins to sell the dress all
over the world via internet, for $300 each, and she gets a s many orders as she did as a contractor. Ana helps her with this
transition, as Ana helped her to see the slave labor, sweatshop conditions they were working with to survive. They, as a
family, changed the course of their survival by staying togeth er and helping each other actualize dreams.

Hospitale Generale..

Student: Andy Dellarocca

Individuation was certainly THE underlying theme of the film. The girl
wanting to leave, the mother wanting her to stay not just because she is
going to miss her, but because she wants her daughter to now give back, and
work for the family. A cultural struggle ensues, as the daughter is
prompted to leave for college (Beverly Hills culture) because "it is the
best thing for her", while her mother and father, do not want the family to
break apart (Mexican culture).

The ending of the film is not conclusive. What occurs- the girl living in
Manhattan -certainly goes against Poor's doctrine. However, the filmmaker
does not reveal to the audience whether she agrees that it is the best
decision. The filmmaker leaves her opinion intentionally ambiguous. The
focus of the film is the struggle between individuation and collectivism.
Therefore, the ending does not conflict with what we learned at Poor,
because at Poor we learned that the conflict exists. Poor, however, would
prefer that she stay at home. So Dee was mad.

An alternative ending, naturally, would be the girl staying ho me and working
in her sister's factory, laughing, dancing in her underwear, ironing
clothes, and talking with her friends about Jose's illegitimate child and
how he secretly dates boys, and how the alien on "Hospital Generale" falls
in love with a sock.