Latin American Politics Article

Category

Arts & Living

Spanish club hosts movie night: ‘Salt of the Earth’

Published on March 3, 2009 by Carl Krendel

Addressing a crowd as diverse as could be found anywhere, Dr. Ernesto Silva describes with stern sympathy the plight of Hispanic workers from both sides of the Mexican border, treated as less than their Anglo counterparts and superiors. He references “the struggle” of the workers.
Just before the movie starts, Dr. Kenneth Maffit explains objectively that the filmmakers were “involved with the communist party,” being part of the “Hollywood Ten.” Their involvement, and the film’s references to Marxist ideology, brought the attention of the United States government at the time, and they were heavily investigated. After the professors finished their addresses they began the featured movie, “Salt of the Earth.”

The Department of Foreign Languages, the Center for Hispanic Studies, and the KSU Spanish Club hosted the event on Feb. 25. “Salt of the Earth” was the fifth film in a series on immigration.

Set in Zinctown, the black-and-white social realist film traces the development of a strike that led to an effective peaceful settlement by the miners’ employers. Beginning in the home of an unofficial union leader, we see the lives and poverty of miners as their chief concern set against the backdrop of Anglo-Americans who enjoy wealth. The movie portrayed all non-Hispanics thus: Anglo-Americans who are either supervisory or subservient to Hispanics.

The female protagonist complains the loan she was able to obtain for her stereo is “the plight of the working man.” Full of chants for workers’ solidarity and other references to a struggle against capitalism, the film is undeniably communist in its director’s motivations. Spanish is occasionally used to express a secret hatred or humor in relation to this culture. In avoiding a relationship of equals and peers between Hispanics and non-Hispanics (who never speak Spanish, even in the company of those who do), a viewer might find objectivity difficult.

After the film, Silva and Maffit described the style of the film. Silva explained that what might seem “unprofessional” is in fact from the “Italian style of ‘socio-realism.’” This style beckons the relationship to state-sponsored art of the Soviet Union, dubbed “Socialist Realism,” which is marked by a lack of attention to detail and heroic, muscular figures.

From Peru, Silva has experience in a country where similar movements took place. He is most noted for the group known in Spanish as the “Sendero Luminoso,” which perpetuated acts of terrorism against the Peruvian people, leaving blood on the streets where the legendary Inca once ran. In English, the group is called the “Shining Path.”

When asked if labor unions would have helped prevent such violence by allowing a peaceful alternative, Silva replied to the audience that labor unions were the “seat of the communist party.” Silva said the Sendero Luminoso was not related to other Marxist groups in Peru. Perpetuating violence across the country, the Sendero was known at one point for its permeation throughout society. Eventually, it was suppressed, but the name still inspires either nervous laughter or fear in the faces of many Peruvians today.