Maria Trujillo
Professor David Watson
HUP 102.1427
May 13, 2008.
“Maria Full of Grace”
TIMELINE
This story takes place in a small town in Colombia. The movie begins showing
how Maria goes to work to a flower plantation as a laborer. She goes very early in
the morning. She lives with her grandmother, mother, sister and nephew. Maria felt
very pressed for her family and their economical situation; she has to contribute
almost with all her salary. Maria is not okay with it, besides she is not treated well
in her job so she decided to quit. Her family is not happy with her decision and her
mom tells her that she has to go back to his boss ask him for forgiveness and for her
job back.
In the other hand Maria suspect that she is pregnant, but she is not in love with
the baby’s father. She does not know what to do about it, she does not want to get
married. There is a party in town where Maria meets Franklin, he looks as an
uneducated, manipulator, bad guy.
She decided to go to Bogota to look for a job when she crossed paths with Franklin
and he offered her an illegal job as a mule. Maria met Javier the big boss, who
explained her what was the job about and told her that she was going to be paid
$5.000. Maria accepted the job. She met Lucy a girl who has worked as a mule
before. Lucy explained Maria how to swallow the pallets, she also confesses Maria
that she has a sister in New York who she would love to visit, Maria practice
swallowing grapes. Later Maria discovered that her best friend Blanca is going to
New York too. Maria tries to convince her to not go, but Blanca is reluctant. She
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tells Maria “Imagine what I could do with all that money. I can buy a house for my
family. Besides if you are doing it why I can not do it?” Maria did not have a good
answer for that question, so she does not argue with Blanca anymore.
Maria tells her family that she is going to work as a secretary in another part of
the country. Then Franklin took Maria to a pharmacy were they make her
swallow 62 pallets and fly to New York. In the plane she sees Lucy and Blanca.
Lucy was not feeling good and Maria was very nervous. When Maria was picking up
her luggage, an immigration officer stopped her for questioning. The officer asked
her some questions and then they decided that they wanted to make some x-rays on
her, to make sure that she is not carrying drugs in her stomach. They made Maria
sign some papers giving them the approval to perform x-rays on her. Before
doing the x-rays the officers did a urine test. The test revealed that she was
pregnant; and so they could not do any x-ray because the x- rays can harm the baby.
Maria met two men outside the airport; they took her, Lucy and Blanca to a motel
and gave them some medicine to make them go to the bathroom. This way the man
could get the drug pallets faster. Lucy gets very sick and Maria begins to worry, she
tells them that they should took Lucy to see a doctor but the man do not pay
attention to her. Maria finds out that these man have killed Lucy to get the pallets,
they opened her stomach and were dumping her body.
Maria and Blanca run away, they ended up in Lucy’s sister apartment. Her name
is Carla; she is pregnant almost at her due date, she lives with her husband and her
husband’s cousin in a small apartment in Jackson Heights. “I am a friend of Lucy, she
gave me your address“ Maria said. Carla let Maria stay but at the next day she took
her to Don Fernando. Don Fernando has an office where he provides all kind of
services; he tries to help immigrants find jobs or place where to stay. Blanca
shows the pallets to Don Fernando and he tells them to take the pallets to the to
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two man because if Maria and Blanca keep the drug with them, their family may get
hurt. Maria talked with Don Fernando about Lucy. He calls to the police in New
Jersey and they tell him that a corpse was found. The police send a picture of the
corpse and Maria confirms that is Lucy. Maria has to tell Carla all the truth, but she
is not capable of doing it.
When Maria is passing by the street, something calls her attention, she sees a men
working with flowers as she used to do. Then she buys an oblea (a dessert from
Colombia). It seems that Maria noticed that New York and Colombia have a lot in
common. While she is eating the oblea, Maria observed an obstetrician office. She
decided to go in there to check on her baby, the doctor perform a sonogram and
Maria listened the baby’s heart. The doctor confirmed that the baby is okay.
Maria and Carla have a conversation. Maria tells Carla that she is going back to
Colombia. Carla says “I know how you are feeling, the first days here were very
difficult for me too, but you will get use to. I miss my family very much, but when I
begin sending money to them everything changed. And now I am pregnant, and I
cannot imagine raising my baby in Colombia. You know how is over there.”
The next day Carla received a call from Don Fernando, he tells Carla what
happened with Lucy. He also asks if Maria did not say anything about it to her.
Carla discovered that Maria has been lying all the time and force Maria and
Blanca to leave the apartment.
Maria and Blanca deliver the drug to the two men and received their money.
Maria pays $2500 for Lucy’s funeral and to send her body to Colombia.
Maria and Blanca decided to go back to Colombia, when they are in the cab
toward the airport, Maria has the baby’s sonogram in her hands. When they are
presenting the tickets to the steward to board the plane, Maria moves out from the
line and decide to stay. She says good bye to Blanca and walks out of the airport.
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When she is walking in the back is a broadcast that says “It’s what inside what
counts”.
REFLECTION
This is a heartbreaking story, where we can see how money can corrupt people.
Unfortunately Maria chooses an easy solution for her problems, without thinking in
the consequences of her acts and the harm that she might cause to herself and her
family. She is not a bad person she just took the wrong decisions. I think that when
people find themselves in this kind of circumstances, first they have to analyze their
resolutions very well and a couple of times to find out if what they are doing is
correct or not.
Her family has a big influence in her decision. After all she is just a 17-year-old
girl that should not be working, instead she should be studying and enjoying life as a
normal kid of her age. The fact that she is pregnant at 17 influenced her decision.
She sees how her older sister struggles with a baby, and I think that she does not
want the same kind of life for her and her baby.
But most of all I do not understand how the people who come as mules to the
U.S.A. do not think in their health, in the possibility of dying or to end up in jail for a
long period. I would not risk myself doing something like that. In the other hand I
understand Maria’s situation because I myself come from a third world country
were either you are poor or you are rich. And the possibilities to find a good job are
hardly any. I believe that people should battle for a better life but always doing it
the right way without harming others or themselves.
Most of immigrants that come to U.S.A. in the search of a better life think that
everything here is easy. But when we get settled and when we search for a job, we
find out that things are more difficult here and the job requires more effort from us.
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And in top of that you need to be legal to work and to get paid fairly. Maria realized
that her life was not going to be different in New York, but she decided to stay for
her baby. The good side is that in U.S.A. our children are very important and they
have a lot of opportunities comparing with the life that awaits them in the third
world countries where sometimes they do not know if they will have something to
eat for the next day.
The principal cause of her problems, her baby, is the one that helped Maria to not
get caught by the immigration officers. Because she is pregnant the officer could
not do any x-rays on her. Maybe it was her destiny or God that decided to give her
another opportunity to repair what she did incorrect.
The airport announcement that says “It’s inside what counts” has a lot to do with
Maria. Now that she put in risk her life and her baby’s life and fortunately
everything is okay, what matters is the life that she is carrying inside her. From now
on before taking any decision Maria will take in consideration her baby first and
how her decision may affect him and her in the future.
RELATIONSHIP OF ECONOMY TO MORALITY
It seems that Maria is a good girl but in a difficult stage in her life, that obligate
her to take a very erratic decision. The fact that doing something dangerous but in a
way easy for a lot of money make her not to think in the moral values that she might
had.
Sadly in a third world country the opportunity to do a lot of money for an “easy
job” is impossible. Even having a good job it is very difficult for people from these
countries to make $5000 in a two weeks period. I am not justifying Maria in any
way, because I think that what she did is erratic, but I do understand her.
Even though economy and morality are not related to each other, sorrowfully
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when money is involved some people’s morality is thrown in the garbage.
CHANCE AND DECISION MAKING
The chance that Maria took, bringing drugs in her stomach to U.S.A. was big and
very dangerous. She was very lucky not to be discovered or to get sick from the
drugs. Even thought we always have chances in our lives, we have to be very careful
when it comes to the decisions we take. We have to look into all the possibilities
that we might had, and choose the most convenient but at the same time good for us.
Always having in consideration if our decision is going to affect other people.
CRIMINALITY
In this story I could see how this criminals work, and take advantage of people
that have some necessities. It seems that these criminals do not have a heart
because they do not care to even murder in order to achieve their purpose. In
Colombia and in most part of the world these drug dealers keep unpunished, making
themselves rich. I think that this is a very bad trace that exist in every part of the
world, unfortunately we the citizens can not do much about it. We just have to trust
the authorities and believe that some day all these persons can get caught an
punished for the bad that they did to society and to the youth.
FRIENDSHIP
For Maria friendship is very important. I could notice when she advise Blanca to
not to work as a mule because of the risks, and when she tried to help Lucy to get
medical attention without luck. When she tries to solve the mess in where they are
in, Maria always thinks in Blanca and herself. Friendship plays an important role
in this movie and I think that in everybody’s life because we always need a good
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friend next to us. Who can advise us and comfort us when we need it.
CHARACTER PORTRAIT
Maria is a pretty 17 years old girl. She seems very strong, independent and
rebellious too. Maria does not feel love by her family, instead she feels pressure
from them because of their economical situation. She is a good girl, but her
problems made her take the wrong decision. Maria is not a good problem solver
because she did not took in consideration all the choices that she might have had.
Maria is a good friend because she tries to help Lucy when she is not feeling well,
Maria tried to do all she could, sadly it was not enough. After the erratic decision
that she took when she accepted the job, it seems that all her other decisions are
taken with calculation and not thinking just in herself but in her baby. Maria is a
very daring person who just wants a better future for herself and her family. In the
way to accomplish her purposes she finds herself with the wrong kind of people,
who persuade her to take wrong decisions.
MESSAGE THAT THE TITLE CONVEYS
There is a pray in the Catholic religion that is called The Hail Mary and say:
Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary
Mother of God
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pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.
Amen.
Blessed is the fruit of the womb, this part refers to Maria’s pregnancy and the fact
that the baby that she is carrying in her womb saved her of going to jail. She never
would have imagined that her biggest problem now becomes her salvation. This
experience changed her life, and made Maria reflect about her life and the new
meaning that her life has now. The new life that she will procreate is her reason and
hope to try to do better in life and try not to make the same mistakes again. After all
“It’s inside what counts”