Mosquita Y Mari
Aurora GUERRERO
2012
USA
Fiction
color
85min
English
HDCam
Set in a predominately Mexican, immigrant neighborhood in Los Angeles, Mosquita y Mari tells the story of two 15 year old Chicanas growing up in Huntington Park. When Yolanda meets her new neighbor, Mari, all they see in each other are their differences. As a sheltered, only-child to her older, immigrant parents, the Olveros, Yolanda's sole concern is securing her college- bound future. Since the recent loss in the family, street-wise Mari hustles to help her undocumented family stay above water. But despite Yolanda and Mari's contrasting approach to survival, they are soon brought together when Mari is threatened with expulsion after saving Yolanda from an incident at school involving Yolanda's boy-crazed friends, Vicky and Vero better known as Las Cuatas. Determined to call it even, Yolanda convinces Mari to let her tutor her after school to prove to the administrators that she's more than a delinquent. Mari and Yolanda forge a friendship that soon proves more complex than anticipated when a moment between them reveals a sexual undercurrent. As the girl's friendship grows increasingly intimate, Yolanda's focus moves away from her schoolwork while Mari devises a scheme to skirt her responsibilities at her job to spend more time with Yolanda.
Initially, when I decided I wanted to write a feature-length script I kept coming back to a series of complex, same-sex friendships I had while growing up. When looking back, long before I identified as queer, I realized my first love was one of my best friends. It was the type of friendship that was really tender and sweet but also sexually charged. Despite the fact that we had the makings of a beautiful teen romance we never crossed that line. The beginnings of Mosquita y Mari was reflecting back on that time and asking myself the questions, why didn't we cross that line and what kept us in "our place?"
