Two father portrayals in recent films I’ve watched inspired me. Coincidentally, both fathers were Mexican American, both children were daughters. In both cases, they did what fathers are supposed to do best: they replaced fear and doubt with faith.
Crash (2004) is still before my inner jury, but this scene, with Michael Peña, was extraordinary. Danny is an upwardly-mobile locksmith and he’s just moved his family out of a bad L.A. neighborhood. When he comes home from work, he finds his daughter, Lara, underneath her bed.
This is the passage from the script. It’s extraordinary writing.
LARA I heard a bang.
DANIEL Like a truck bang?
LARA Like a gun.
DANIEL Huh. That’s funny. ‘Cause we moved outta that bad neighborhood, not too many guns ’round here.
LARA How far can bullets go?
DANIEL Oh, pretty far. But they usually get stuck in something and stop.
LARA What if they don’t?
DANIEL You thinking about that one that came through your window?
Lara nods.
DANIEL Yeah, we never did find it, did we?
Lara shakes her head.
LARA I think it didn’t see me, ’cause I was under the covers.
DANIEL And you think it was that same bullet you heard tonight?
Lara shrugs, she thinks it is but doesn’t want to say it. Daniel settles in, as if only now realizing the enormity of this situation. He lies there thinking this problem through.
DANIEL Huh. You think maybe we should move again?
LARA I like it here.
DANIEL Yeah. Me, too. But if that bullet found out where we live … (realizes something) Hold on.
LARA What?
DANIEL I am so stupid. How could I forget this?
LARA What?
DANIEL Never mind, you’re not gonna believe me.
LARA Tell me.
DANIEL Okay. When I was five, this fairy came into my room one night.
LARA (skeptical) Uh-huh.
DANIEL See, me. I told you wouldn’t believe Okay, you go to sleep now.
LARA No, tell me.
DANIEL Okay, so this fairy comes into my room. And I’m like, “yeah, .right, you’re a fairy.” Anyway, we’re talking, you know, and she’s flying around the room, knocking my posters down and stuff.
LARA She was flying?
DANIEL Yeah, she had these little stubby wings. But she coulda glued ’em on or something, right, I’m not gonna believe she’s a fairy. So, she· says, “I’ll prove it. 11 And she reaches into her backpack and pulls out this invisible cloak. And she ties it around my neck, and she tells me it’s impenetrable. You know what impenetrable means?
(Lara shakes her head)
It means nothing bad can get through it. Not bullets, nothing. And she says I should wear this cloak and nothing will ever hurt me. So, I did. And my whole life I never got shot, stabbed, nothing. I mean, how weird is that? Only she tells me I’m supposed to give it to my daughter on her sixth birthday. And I forgot.
LARA Can I touch it?
DANIEL Sure, go ahead. She touches his arm.
LARA I can’t feel it.
DANIEL Pretty cool, huh? If you want, I can take it off and tie it around your shoulders, ’cause she showed me how to do that. Unless you think it’s stupid.
LARA … Don’t you need it?
DANIEL Not anymore. So, what do you think? You want it?
Lara waits, then nods slightly.
Daniel reaches in and pulls her out. Daniel places her on the bed.
DANIEL Okay.
Daniel “unties” the invisible cloak and takes it off. He wraps it around her shoulders.
DANIEL Hold your chin up.
She does. He ties it around her neck.
DANIEL That too tight?
She shakes her head.
DANIEL You feel anything at all?
She shakes her head.
DANIEL Good. Then it’s just right.
He kisses her on the forehead. He pulls out her pillow and places it on the bed. She lies down and he covers her. He turns off her light.
LARA Do I take it off when I have a bath?
DANIEL No, you leave it on all the time. ‘Till you grow up and have a daughter, and she turns six. Then you give it to her. Okay?
LARA Okay.
And he walks toward the door. Lara strokes her shoulder, trying to feel it, then closes her eyes.
In East Side Sushi (2013), Juana, a Mexican American single mother who lives in East Oakland, works in the back kitchen of a sushi restaurant. She is fascinated by Japanese food and is determined to become a sushi chef. She enters a sushi-making contest at a local public-access TV station and her father, along with her daughter, videotapes her as she prepares her “signature sushi.”
Rodgrio Duarte Clark plays Juana’s father. Here, in a later scene, she’s just learned that she’s won a place in the sushi competition. Juana is terrified. Her Apa decides that this is instead a moment to be celebrated.
I need to be careful with moments like these because these are movies and movie fathers seem to always know what to say. All too often, I never found the words I needed to say as a father. But moments like these make me wish that next time, I will know what to say, too.
A Work in Progress 