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Spanish Film Club’s series kicks off with Bad Hair (Pelo Malo)

By Kyandreia Jones ’19

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Last Tuesday, February 2, the Hispanic Studies Department showed Pelo Malo (2013). The film was the first screening for their film series celebrating “the new wave of Ibero American Cinema.” The event began with an introduction from Professor Luisa Briones-Manzano. Next, Phyllis Breland, who attended the event as part of a collaboration with the Days-Massolo Center, gave a personal account regarding the idea of “good hair.”

Breland expressed her connection with the debate of “good hair” and “bad hair” upon which the film touched. “Bad Hair,” Breland said, “resonates because I can understand how people define themselves through hair.”

Discussing her biracial background and how hair “defined who [she] was,” Breland learned early “what it symbolized.” As a child, Breland recalls,“I put a long towel over my head and I would sit in the mirror and flip my long luxurious blonde hair.”

However, Breland did not limit her hair idea to that of Disney Princesses. Describing how during a time of black power she was defined by the size of her afro, Breland divulged. “I wanted to talk about myself instead of my hair.” Thus her “ outter blackness became inside.”  For this reason, Breland mentioned, she shaved her head.

After using her experience as a segue into the film, Breland left the crowd with this final question: “What kind of assumption does one make by looking at your hair?”

Pelo Malo (Bad Hair) provided an answer to Breland’s question.

The film is about a young boy, Junior (Samuel Lange Zambrano), who lived with his single mother, Marta (Samantha Castillo) and his baby brother.  Junior comes from a mixed heritage—a Venezuelan mother and a father with an African background.  His father died due to an undisclosed gang-related incident. Junior’s hair demonstrates his role as a member two worlds. 

Junior’s hair is an essential aspect of his identity. He is fascinated with his mom’s and jealous of his baby brother’s straight hair.  His paternal grandmother, Carmen, seems well intended and like an ally at first. At one point Carmen said to Junior, “I got a surprise for you,” to which he exclaimed, “a hair dryer?” However, as the film continues, it becomes clear that she exploits Junior’s desire for straight hair because she seeks the son she lost (Junior’s deceased father) in Junior. At several points in the film Carmen offers to take Junior off of Marta’s hands but with this warning: “He’ll be mine.”

The harsh realities of the characters’ environment are shown through the children. One such reality is a scene in which Junior and his best friend La Niña (María Emilia Sulbarán) are playing in Junior’s room. As Junior plays with his toy soldiers, the sound of gunshots can be heard. Because Junior incorporates the sound into his playing, it does not seem like they’re in a hostile situation. However, as the camera pans to Junior’s baby brother bouncing in his crib, Junior’s next words—”Don’t get up, baby, somebody’s shooting”— demonstrate a harsher truth. 

In another instance, La Niña tells Junior that they “[a playground] have to get out of here,” because her mom told her “people get raped here.” During this conversation, Junior tells La Niña,“you have to be good- looking to be raped.” The children tackle a conversation that’s sensitive even for adults in a place of innocence.This picture creates  discomfort for the audience but also serves a greater purpose than if two adults had been having the conversation.

In a moving scene relating to Junior’s hair, Junior yells at La Niña, “I’ll go as a singer with my straight hair!” when they speak about their costumes for their school photos. In response, his best friend (who wanted to dress up as a beauty queen for the photos)  says, “To make your mom love you.”  

In this case, La Niña taps into a very important detail of Junior’s life. Junior craved his mother’s affection which she did not give to him. Marta’s emotional distance from him creates Junior’s disdain for his baby brother, who constantly receives their mother’s love and admiration. Not only does La Niña’s statement accurately voice one of Junior’s secrets, it serves as a basis for the decision Junior makes at the end of the film. 

Throughout the film, Junior’s obsession with straight hair puts a strain on his relationship with his mother, who is a very complicated character. Viewers have a hard time deciding whether or not to hate her. Marta does not accept that her son is different. She goes as far as to take him to the doctor to figure out what’s wrong with him. She believes her son is gay, and this belief seems to trump her basic instincts as a mother. Instead of welcoming her son, she confronts him with malice. 

Often in the film, the two characters glare at one another with an obvious hatred. But a large part of Marta’s contempt seems to stem from a conflict within herself. She experiences a discomfort because she, a single mother, has a son whom she does not fully understand. This truth battles with her instinct to be a good mother. 

At the doctor’s office, Marta asks the physician, “He’s going to suffer, right?” This begs the question that Marta’s attitude toward her son has been tough love, that she hurts him and denies parts of his identity because she believes accepting that he’s different means for her child to suffer.

Desperate for a remedy, Martha asks the doctor if she should cut Junior’s hair (a key part of his identity) to cure him of his “peculiar” behavior. However, the doctor advises her to show Junior a father figure. The aforementioned advice provides context for why, when Marta’s future boss came to her house, she tells Junior not to close the bedroom door when she and her boss have sex.

However, it is hard to hate Marta because she seems to be attempting to do what she believes a mother must do for her child. Granted, the way in which she goes about her “motherly duties” is twisted, cruel and misguided.  

One of the most moving scenes was the split hair scene. Junior’s grandmother Carmen had straightened half of his head. Upon Marta returning to collect Junior from his grandmother’s house, Junior is instructed to wet the straightened side of his head to make it curly again. Before wetting his hair, Junior studies himself in the mirror. When he turns his head so he can only see the curly side, his face twisted in displeasure. Then he turned his head so he could only see the straight side, at which point  his face beams. The image shows that obtaining “good hair” means finally having happiness for young Junior. Never did he smile as fully as when his hair was straight. 

In contrast to the split hair scene,  the scene where Marta forces Junior to cut his hair is painful for the audience to watch. Knowing Junior’s hair was an important aspect of his identity, the act seems cruel and torturous. However, the fact that Junior says, “I don’t love you” to his mother for making him deny a crucial part of himself was even harder to grasp. Further, Marta’s reply “Neither do I” applies a whole other element of harshness, especially given that the two character’s never dropped the other’s gaze as the moment transpires. The film ends with Junior standing among other children. They appear to be outside their school singing their national anthem.  All the other children sing but Junior does not sing, for he no longer had anything that make him happy.

Left with this final picture, besides a feeling of great sadness, I felt an impossible rage. I was so angry that Junior was forced to become someone he was not for his mother’s sake. The fact that he is a child makes it even more upsetting when his face is stoic. Smiles are so precious among children. Junior’s smile was stolen as anyone’s would be if they had sacrificed an integral part of themselves. Pelo Malo did not deliver a happy ending. Instead, watchers were left with a haunting image of a defeated nine-year-old boy. It is because of the final image, and the film in its entirety, that I believe Pelo Malo was the kind of film viewers could not help but carry home with them. 

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