What I Saw: El Vato

December is here, which means NaNoWriMo is finally over! While I didn't reach the goal of 50,000 words, I did write the most of my novel in one months time than I've written all year, and that ain't nothing. Now that I'm not cranking out so many words or brainstorming to later crank out words, I can spend a little more focus on the blog...hopefully. I will be doing some more traveling this month, but I will try and not let it get in the way of all this good TV going on. To ease back in, I will focus on a show a just recently started on Netflix.

What I watched:

El Vato S1.E1-3 - "The Wolf of Hollywood Hits," "Happy Birthday, Mr. Lolo" and "Narco Corridos"

What I saw:

I will briefly discuss the lessons in all 3 episodes I watched, since each episode takes place right after the last one. The shows centers on a band (literally, a musical band) of Mexicanos who move to L.A. on a music contract to record an album. However, the music world isn't as straight forward as one would think, and the owner of the record label gets arrested for laundering money through the business. Now the band, with the main singer known as "El Vato," have to struggle to make it in America.The central themes to the show so far are existentialism, the music world, the drug world, and the immigrant experience of being in a new country.

Each character struggles with their existential identity in the group and what their willing to do to achieve their dreams. In the very beginning we find out the band's songwriter, Mariana, broke off an engagement in order to pursue the music career with El Vato and the others. She took the leap of faith to put her dream above all else. For the main character, El Vato, he has to decide what he is willing to do to achieve his dream of becoming a music star. His father was into music of narco corrido, which could be seen as the Mexican music equivalent of gangsta rap, where a life of crime is glorified through music. El Vato is given an opportunity to make narco corrido (drug trafficking) music for some fast (and much needed) money. He saw first hand what that life led his father, which was being shot and later imprisoned, so he decides not too. The other two, El Pollo and Brandon both struggle to justify their presence in the group, with usually one acting as the foil to the other.

Since the manager, El Pollo, was not able to get immediate results in landing a new contract with legitimate labels, Brandon stepped up and made a quick deal with the narco corrido producer/gangster. In that episode, we get a glimpse at the world of drugs in L.A. The band is hired to play at a party which they gladly take...until the party stretches on for 3 days straight, with them playing practically the whole time. Everyone, including the hired back-up singers, use cocaine to help keep them going. Eventually the host of the party tries to buy a night of sex with Mariana, which shows that in the narco world, everything and everyone is for sale if you're the boss. It was interesting to see El Pollo, who decided not to go since he knew it would be trouble, struggle to decide if he should call the police or not. El Vato's aunt who lives in L.A. tells him to hold off because that might be what gets them killed. El Vato ends up saving the life of the producer in order to break the unofficial contract of "make music with me or I'll kill you" that was established through their interactions. For those who have no experience in the world of Latin American culture or politics, it highlights how there are just some things that cannot be handled through the traditional legal system like most Americans are accustomed to.

Which brings me to the immigrant experience that the show talks about. Most of it is done in a comical way, with the friends making comments like "holy shit this is weird." It's very funny to listen to them talk about what Americans do or say, like when they are asked if they have a permit for singing at the public beach. They are all just dumbfounded that they need a piece of paper saying it's okay to be out in public and sing for tips, since that's what they used to do to get by back in Mexico with no questions asked. The American culture of "if it's not in writing it didn't happen" doesn't mesh (aka cultural dissonance) with the pragmatism of Latin American culture.

So that's my blog post for right now. I will (hopefully) get back into the swing of it from here one out. In the meantime, what would you be willing to give up in order to chase after your dreams? Or if you want something less serious, what was a time where you experienced cultural dissonance? Let me know in the comments below!