Written and directed by Aurora Guerrero, Mosquita y Mari (2012) is a love story about two young Chicanas, Yolanda “Mosquita” Olveros and Mari Rodriguez, coming of age in Huntington Park, CA. Soon after they begin to forge their friendship, Mari and Yolanda come across an old vacant automotive body shop that they then claim for their own. This space becomes pivotal to their bonding as it serves as a backdrop to their sharing of knowledge, memories, hopes, and anxieties. However, the potential to name and explore the intricacies of their longing in this abandoned shop is narrow given the gendered, adolescent, and socioeconomic conditions and expectations placed upon them. In this essay, I reflect on one such scene of understated longing to consider first how its cinematic elements call our attention to a hopeful future outside of the shop, and second, how this reorientation moves beyond the film and...

Issue Section:
Moving Image Review
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