Maria Full of Grace
Updated: 08 September 2022
2012-2024 2012-2024 Key Scenes
| Timecode | Scene Description |
|---|---|
| 00:03:56 | Aspirations |
| 00:07:28 | Flower Plantation |
| 00:16:18 | Pregnant |
| 01:03:57 | Gas Station |
| 01:13:00 | Call Center |
| 01:15:54 | "Mayor of Little Colombia" |
| 01:19:49 | Flowers in NY |
| 01:20:08 | Women's Clinic |
| 01:20:47 | Ultrasound |
The Five Scapes in Action
In what ways do we see the cultural effects of Appadurai's five scapes?
- ethnoscapes,
- technoscapes,
- financescapes,
- mediascapes, and
- ideoscapes.
Another way of asking the same question:
Pretend that Maria is real, and that both she and her grandmother grew up in the same small, rural town that Maria leaves (first for Bogota and then for New York).
How are Maria's life possibilities different from her grandmother's?
BOG » JFK
In March 2014, flights from Bogota, Colombia, to JFK airport in Queens took only 5.5 hours (direct) and cost as little as $539.
On any particular day, Maria would have more than a dozen flights to choose from.
What were her grandmother's options?
Colonial Trade vs. Trade Today
"Scapes" started moving in and out of the place now called Columbia in 1525, when the Spanish set up colonies there.
What's different today is the scale, variety, and complexity of these trade routes.
This map charts the global range and reach of just one coal exporter from its bases in Colombia.
What would the map of Yo Soy Betty, La Fea look like?
Or the drug trade?
Graphic from the Drummond Company, Inc.
Maria's Vision of New York
What was her grandmother's vision of New York?
"Little Colombia" in New York: Jackson Heights, Queens
View Larger Map
Maria Calls Home, Then and Now
By 2004, international call centers like the one shown in the film were already on their way out. As the world's telecommunication systems grow ever more connected, it becomes easier to maintain distant connections as a daily part of life.
This MetroPCS ad refers to Mexico instead of Colombia, but similar trends are re-shaping cultures around the globe.
Maria Calls Home, 2014
The CIA World Fact Book notes that in 2015 Colombia had only 15 landlines per 100 residents. But there were about 123 mobile phone subscriptions for every 100 residents.