Week 12

"Camila, Love Against All Odds"

Nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign film in 1984, the movie, "Camila, Love Against All Odds", recounts the true story of a young Buenos Aires socialite, Camila O'Gorman, and a young Jesuit priest, Ladislao Gutierrez who fall in love.  Challenging parental, religious and state authority, the elope and run away.

The story begins in the 1830's when Camila was a young girl and her paternal grandmother is exiled to her father's home for scandalous love affair with a prominent politician and accused of being a spy.  During this time, a ruthless and tyrannical dictator, Juan Manuel de Rosas, who rules through fear and absolute power, runs the government.  Likewise, Camila's father, Adolfo O'Gorman, runs the household through intimidation, far and oppression. 

Camila's brother, Eduardo, introduces Ladislao to the family at Camila's birthday party.  Ladislao and Eduardo were friends and attended seminary together.  In spite of his own attraction toward Camila, he resists her advances.  However, he is unable to repress his feelings and desires and they allow their love to blossom.  They struggle between their love for each other and their obligation and commitment to the church and family.  They finally decide to elope.

Their action causes serious upheaval in the government, the church, and in Camila's family.  Adolfo O'Gorman writes a letter to Rosas with exaggerated embellishment describing their action as "the most atrocious and unheard of event in this country".  Rosas views their actions as extreme disobedience of a moral and social code imposed by his regime.  Rosas issues a warrant for their arrest to prevent further cases of immorality and disorder to religion, family order and the law.

Unwilling to accept their love as a crime, Camila and Ladislao take on new identities, Maxim Brandier and Valentina Desan, and settle in the small village of Corrientes, where they become the village teachers.  The villagers grow to love and accept this young couple that are devoted to each other.  As their popularity grows, they are invited to a gathering at Justice of the Peace, Esteban Perichon's place.  Perichon is Camila's grandmother's brother but the two of them only met once when Camila was an infant.  Although aware of the dangers of public exposure at this gathering, their absence would cause suspicion and they cannot refuse this invitation.  Unfortunately, Miguel Gannon, a priest, recognizes them and although they had an opportunity for escape, they stay together to await their fate.

The two are arrested and sent to Santos Lugares de Rosas.  They continue to express their love for each other and show no signs of repenting for their actions because they know in their hearts that their love for each other is not a crime.  In spite of his wife's pleas, Adolfo O'Gorman refuses to intercede on his daughter's behalf and helps to seal Camila's fate.  Rosas is  enraged by the two lovers and their defiance toward his authority and power, and orders their execution.  Camila is found to be pregnant and the Argentine law states that a pregnant woman should not be murdered until the baby is born.  Rosas disregards the law and without any trial, the two are condemned to death.  On the day of their execution, Camila is given holy water to drink in order to baptize the unborn child.  The two are brought to the execution yard, blindfolded, and placed side-by-side.  When the order to fire is given, Ladislao falls over, dead.  Understanding that this is not an ordinary execution, not one soldier aims his rifle at Camila.   The commander orders his men to fire again at Camila and their shots are aimed away from Camila.  The commander, aiming his firearm at the soldiers and threatening their lives, orders them again to fire at Camila.  This time, their shots kill Camila.  On August 18, 1848, Camila O'Gorman, a pregnant 20-year-old socialite and her lover. Ladislao Gutierrez, were executed for their attempt to escape from a society that would never understand their love for each other.

Freire's Ideas...

This story exemplifies the struggles of oppression in the Argentine society as a result of Rosas' dictatorship and the affect of his rule over personal and political freedom.  Freire believed that people have the desire to become more complete individuals and breaking oppressive situations is one of the paths toward completeness and personal freedom.  Refusing to give into the repressive roles dictated by society, Camila and Ladislao attempted to escape that world and create a better life for themselves.  The current political conditions and their experiences in their lives, made them realize that their love for each other would never be accepted by their family, the church, the government and society, so they chose to elope to honor their love for each other.

What I find interesting is that Rosas felt his power and control threatened by this couple.  Not just from Camila and Ladislao but also by the unborn child.  If the baby were allowed to be born, the baby would symbolize the disobedience of the moral code and his regime and illustrate to the world the possibility of choosing a way of life where there is personal freedom.  Therefore, Rosas had to murder both the mother and unborn child to get rid of any reference to this attempt on his control and power.  In hindsight, Camila and her unborn child's death created social awareness and defiance to the dictator and government which contributed to Rosas' fall from power in 1852. 

Human Story that Transcends Borders

Like a Shakespearean tragedy, the story of Camila and Ladislao stirs emotion in the depths of our soul.  Love stories are universal and this story, just like "Love in the Time of Cholera", proves that you can't control whom you love.  What makes this particular story transcend borders is that Camila and Ladislao were willing to follow their hearts by refusing to become victims of an oppressive society.  The fact that this is a story based upon true events captures our attention and helps to make us aware of injustices in our world.

Classmate Reviews from Week 11

Beatriz - Florentino never lost faith and never gave up the love that he felt for Fermina.

Kathy - Love exists across all borders and is stronger than social standing.

Kelsey - believes that throughout the movie, Fermina loves Florentino, but wants to obey her father's wishes of her being with a man of high status.

Michael -  Florentino's life is is about the relentless pursuit of lost love and Juvenal's life is about stability and doing everything the "right"or properly accepted way. This is what makes the story interesting and spices it up with real world meaning.

Michele - Money provided a class significance that Florentino was unable to achieve in the beginning to win over Lorenzo. This class stigma is what Paulo Freire worked so hard to eliminate through education.

Nancy - Freire’s themes of liberation through learning are important in this movie as Fermina and Florentino both come to know themselves in a way that is needed before they can be united together.

Nicole - Florentino made the choice to become rich and successful like Dr. Juvenal Urbino in order to be worthy of his true love.

Robert - It is the human aspect of any story that is usually the most interesting and wrote in his blog about the characters, their motivations, and the feelings they experienced which effected their motivations and actions.  I like how you pointed out that Fermina is a metaphor for Cholera - good point.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog.

Shannon - This is a is a story of love and rejection, struggle and triumph, good, evil and the gray area in between.

Stacy - Freire's idea that people fear freedom also hold true in this movie. Fermina played a part of ridding her own ideal and heart out of fear of the challenges and pressures of stepping out of class. This was carried into a seemingly superficial marriage of security.