Reznet

Personalizing a Political Controversy

By Nancy Kelsey

One of the scariest things my mother ever had to do was sneak into this country illegally.

It's really easy for people, even me, to make their minds up about immigration by having it reduced to back-and-forth political rhetoric. I think that all of us in this country, whether we are the children of immigrants or not, lose sight of the humanity behind the issue. "Under the Same Moon," or "La Misma Luna," shows us in the most heartfelt ways just how personal the stories behind the hot-button social issue really are.

This exceptional movie is not in all theaters yet. It has been debuting in cities around the country weekend by weekend. Click on the link above to view the movie site and see when it may be coming to a city near you. It is scheduled to show in all theaters in May.

The story starts off in Mexico and follows the journey of talented young actor Adrian Alonso, who plays a 9-year-old boy named Carlitos. His mother, played by Kate del Castillo, leaves him behind with his grandmother so that she can come work in America. When the grandmother dies, Carlitos uses the money his mom sent him to buy his spot in a hollowed-out van seat to get across the border.

This is when the remarkably intelligent young boy's plans go scarily awry. Carlitos somehow avoids getting sold into prostitution, getting picked up by la migra (the INS), and letting abandonment by his father sour him on the goodness of people.

The adorable boy with irresistibly pinchable cheeks eventually reconciles himself to the fact that his mother struggles in America to work not because she does not love him, but because she loves him more than anything else. Beautiful.

That is the theme of this movie, as with most films — love. This movie assigns to explore the human side of one of the most repeatedly contentious issues in American politics: immigration.

I could not help but cry my eyes out when I watched a mother tuck in the boy she babysits while her own son struggles with the idea that his mother left because she did not love him. I could not help but gasp as I watched immigration officers nearly stumble on Carlitos while picking tomatoes. And I could not help the tingle in my heart when I realized that maybe this story isn't so far-fetched and that it happens everyday.

You do not have to be the child of an immigrant to appreciate the indestructible bond that this mother and son share despite the thousand miles between them. You just have to open your heart to something beyond what your candidate of choice has spouted. If you like this movie, I suggest watching "Buscando a Leti," another movie about the love and pain of immigration to America.

Because of the combination of great acting, emotion-evoking dialogue, engaging plot and new spin on a classic theme, I must give "Under the Same Moon" reznet's highest rating of four frybreads. I am also grateful for the perspective and appreciation it gave me for my mother's love in braving a new country just so that I'd have a better life than she did in war-torn El Salvador.

Forever thanks, Mom.

Nancy Kelsey, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, is studying journalism at the University of Nebraska graduate school in Lincoln. She is a graduate of the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute. She interned as a reporter at The Seattle Times last summer. Next summer she'll report for The Associated Press in Boston.