Linguists travel globally to examine communities’ language, communication, social, and cultural practices. These linguists engage in anthropological studies involving extensive data collection and analysis. The film “I Dream in Another Language,” originally titled “Sueño en Otro Idioma,” featured Martin, a linguist who traveled to collect data and examine the socio-cultural practices of the last generation of the native-speaking tribe of Zikril. The first language speakers Martin interacted with while studying the Zikril languages were Evaristo and Isauro. Directed by Ernesto Contreas and written by Carlos Contreras, the movie is a Mexican film screened in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. The film won the 2017 Sundance Film Festival awards category, showing its dominance, excellent performance, and influence among stakeholders in the movie, entertainment, language, linguistic, and anthropology sectors. Based on this, the paper will summarize the content in “Sueño en Otro Idioma,” including the main and minor characters, the Otherness in the movie, and themes displayed by characters and events in “I Dream in Another Language” film.
Brief Movie Summary
The “I Dream in Another Language” film incorporates drama, romance, and love in most scenes. For instance, the movie starts with Don Isauro, Don Evaristo, and Maria swimming. At the same time, the latter characters kiss and have happy moments on a beach (01:02). On the other hand, the conflict that made Don Isauro and Don Evaristo decline to work with each other is evidence of drama in the movie (5:40 -6:41). In addition, the film features Martin, a linguist who tries to salvage the diminishing language and culture of the Zikril native speakers in Mexico. The Guardian (2011) report notes that Ayapa Zoque and Ayapaneco, among other native languages in Mexico, were losing relevance. The Mexicans that were native speakers of these languages were no longer communicating with their dialects, creating the need for anthropological research on these communities to develop solutions to preserve these lingos. In the movie, Martin plans and initiates an interrogative session with the last generation of the Zikril. The interviewer interrogates Don Isauro and Don Evaristo, old friends who have been conflicted for nearly 50 years (6:55 – 7:15). In this case, Martin assumes the mediation role to reconcile Isauro and Evaristo to interview them about their Zikril language that is almost getting extinct. With the assistance of Lluvia, the grandchild of Don Evaristo, Martin implements the reconciliation strategy for conflicting Evaristo and Isauro to save their diminishing language.
Otherness in the Movie
Dona Jacinta is also an outcast in the movie because of her old age. Flaviana constantly worries about her mother, Dona Jacinta, leaving the bed because of her health condition, age, and doctor’s instructions (3:19).
Don Isauro and Don Evaristo are considered outsiders because they are the only ones in the movie who speaks only Zikril and does not know any Spanish (57:00 – 1:00:00)
The Zikrils community members treat Don Isauro and Don Evaristo in special ways, organizing parties to celebrate their reconciliation as the only remaining people who can speak Zikril (1:01:00 – 1:07:00)
The community, primarily children, view Don Isauro as an outsider because of his physical and health (57:00)
Evaristo also considered Don Isauro an outsider in their community after falling in love with the same woman. The event made friends fight, making Evaristo chase Isauro out of their hometown (6:55 – 7:19)
Don Isauro and Don Evaristo are considered outcasts due to their love when they were younger, as a relationship between two men was considered a grave sin.
Martin is considered an outsider because he is an outsider in the small town of Veracruz and has higher education, whereas no one in the small town has that.
Martin is also viewed as an outcast by Dona Jacinta when he goes to greet her. Jacinta calls Martin a “child” even though he is an adult (03:34).
Lluvia is viewed as an outsider because she is the only one in the village who wants to go to the United States (31:00 – 32:00).
Evaristo treats Lluvia as an outcast after discovering that she knows the secret about Don Isauro’s and Don Evaristo’s past because he is ashamed and embarrassed (1:29:00 – 1:31:00).
Lluvia, in the movie, was also an outsider when her father, Don Evaristo, excluded her from their discussion with Dona Jacinta, Martin, and Flaviana at their verandah (06:18 – 6:22).
Themes in the Movie
Lluvia misses her grandmother after she dies (20:19 – 21:00).
In the entire movie, Evaristo is always sad after losing her wife, making Lluvia concerned about his mental wellness (20:19 – 21:00).
Lluvia educates radio listeners about English speaking and writing (18:20 – 19:20).
Lluvia’s mother taught her English language before she died
Lluvia teaches Zikrils English so that they can travel and work in English-speaking countries (27:00).
Martin promises to teach Lluvian English (28:00).
Dona Jacinta demonstrates that she is an independent thinker when she tells Flaviana that in her old age, she can do anything she wants without the doctor’s or her daughter’s interference (3:27). San Isido also told Martin to respect the decisions of first language speakers and avoid forcing them to participate in his studies as a golden rule for linguistics (16:50 – 17:20).
Dona Jacinta is a traditionalist who values Zikril, calling it a powerful language that native speakers would not want the wrong people to learn how to speak it. Jacinta also tells Martin that she and other Zikril speakers are scared and unwilling to let their language diminish and lose its value in the current society (3:48 – 3:55). Thus, she wants Martin to help Zikril speakers preserve the language for future generations.
Dona Jacinta is also a traditionalist that knows nearly every cultural practice and origin of Zikril culture and language as she narrates to Martin (8:00 – 9:00).
Don Evaristo is a traditionalist who carries his chair to a church with empty benches (25:00 – 26:00).
The whole movie also shows how Evaristo moves with his chair to the radio station, beach, shrine, and forest, among other places, illustrating how he became a traditionalist in his old age.
According to the director, the film’s central theme revolves around the disappearance of native languages. Martin tells Jacinta that anthropologists have little knowledge about the Zikril language and culture (7:39 -7:50). The theme coincides with Vidal and Brusca’s (2020) findings and discussions about the erosion of the Ayapa Zoque indigenous language in Mexico because of the country’s biocultural diversity.
At the movie’s beginning, Martin and his friend Santiago drive an old car to show they could not afford new and well-maintained means of transport (2:00, 04:30 – 04:33). The untarmacked road in Veracruz also demonstrates that poverty life that the community members lived in. The wooden house, old furniture, and outdated radio in Flaviana’s house also show the poverty theme in the movie (2:23). Don Isauro also lives in abject poverty in his old age, evident in his house made from wood and grass roofing (4:51 – 5:10).
Poverty is evident when Don Evaristo and Lluvia cannot afford to buy a new television (22:00 – 22:24).
The theme of poverty corresponds with Mora-Rivera and Garcia-Mora (2021) findings about high poverty prevalence in rural and urban Mexico regions that prevent residents’ access to quality transport and telecommunication services. The theme also matches Millán-Guerrero et al. (2021) findings about the severity of poverty in Mexico that affected the welfare and survivorship of Mexicans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Martin shows humility when he appreciates the poorly furnished bedroom provided to him by Flaviana during his stay at Veracruz (3:04).
Conflict is evident when Evaristo and Isauro refuse to work with each other when Martin wants to interview them regarding their native language, Zikril (5:40 -6:41).
Evaristo and Isauro are conflicted because of loving the same woman, Maria, as Dona Jacinta narrates (6:55 – 7:15).
There are also themes of the church (when Evaristo went to the church and saw blood falling from Christ onto a puddle of blood at his feet).
Martin also shows that the Zikril speakers worshipped many gods because of their polytheistic culture (7:39 -7:50).
Don Evaristo likes going to church every Sunday at 6:00 am, as Lluvia told Martin (22:25 – 22:35).
In the movie, Martin and Lluvia fall in love despite her grandfather Don Evaristo threatening Martin not to lay one finger on his granddaughter (30:30 – 32:00, 1:01:00 – 1:02:00).
The love between Evaristo and Isauro when they were young
Evaristo finally admits that he loved Isauro at the end of the film after his death of Isauro (1:35:00 – 1:38:00).
Jacinta narrates that Evaristo and Isauro fell in love with Maria (6:55 – 7:15).
Woman Bird falls in love with the first man on earth, teaching him the Zikril language (8:00 – 9:00). The event led to the spreading of the dialect in the community and the rest of the world (8:00 – 9:00).
The film shows that Zikrils believed in supernatural beings. Jacinta speaks in Zikril to an unknown supernatural being that responds to her calls, surprising Martin while in the forest with Isauro (9:16 – 10:12).
Flaviana also believes that Zikrils are immortal, telling Martin that when a Zikril dies, ancestors take them to a special cave in the forest of the community (14:00 – 15:00)
Zikrils also talked to dead people in a cave in the forest. This is evident when Evaristo talks to Isauro after his death, expressing how he considered him his best friend (1:35:00 – 1:40:00).
Lluvia wants Martin to bribe Don Evaristo with a new television to reconcile with Isauro (22:00 – 22:24).
Martin buys Evaristo a new Tv, convincing him to rethink his decision to speak to Isauro (30:00).
Martin reconciled Evaristo and Isauro, interviewing them about Zikril, their childhood, and friendship, among other aspects of their lives (57:00 – 1:07:00).
Children and the community discriminated against and mocked Don Isauro because of his old age, mental and physical unwellness (57:00).
The friendship between Maria, Evaristo, and Isauro when they were young and did everything together, as Lluvia narrates to Martin (31:00 – 32:00).
The friendship between Martin and Isauro throughout the whole movie
Martin takes care of Isauro before he dies while he is sick (1:15:00 – 1:30:00).
Martin is a nicotine addict who smokes cigarettes frequently. For instance, before Martin interviewed Isauro and Evaristo at the radio station, he walked out of the room to smoke (57:00).
Hatred was evident in most of the scenes between Isauro and Evaristo.
In addition, Isauro showed hatred toward Maria and Evaristo when he sneaked into their houses and burnt all of Maria and Evaristo’s photos (1:10:00 – 1:12:00).
In the movie, revenge is evident when Evaristo burns down Isauro’s house because of all the wrongs he did to him and his family (1:12:00 – 1:15:00).
Lluvia narrates that Don Isauro betrayed Don Evaristo when he slept with his girlfriend, Maria, in their youth (40:00 – 42:00).
Lluvia also tells Martin that Maria betrayed her boyfriend, Evaristo, by sleeping with his best friend Isauro (40:00 – 42:00).
Evaristo also betrays his wife, Maria, by continuing to have a love relationship with Isauro after their church wedding (47:00 – 50:00).
Lluvia tells Martin that Don Isauro and Don Evaristo were gays, sleeping with each other during night camps and beach hangouts (42:00 – 45:00). This homosexuality theme harmonizes with Lennes’ (2021) findings about homosexualism in Mexico. Lennes (2021) notes that the high homosexuality prevalence among Mexican men makes them use dating sites in the U.S. to find mates.
References
Contreas, E., & Contreas, C. (2017). “I Dream in Another Language (Sueco en Otro Idioma).” B4 Watch. Web.
Lennes, K. (2021). Queer (post-) migration experiences: Mexican men’s use of gay dating apps in the USA. Sexualities, 24(8), 1003-1018. Web.
Millán-Guerrero, R. O., Caballero-Hoyos, R., & Millán-Guerrero, J. (2021). Poverty and survival from COVID-19 in Mexico. Journal of public health, 43(3), 437-444. Web.
Mora-Rivera, J., & Garcia-Mora, F. (2021). Internet access and poverty reduction: Evidence from rural and urban Mexico. Telecommunications Policy, 45(2), 102076. Web.
The Guardian. (2011). Language at risk of dying out – The last two speakers aren’t talking. Web.
Vidal, O., & Brusca, R. C. (2020). Mexico’s biocultural diversity in peril. Revista de Biologia Tropical, 68(2), 669-691. Web.