Bruising for Besos by Adelina Anthony & Marisa Becerra (review)

Originally written by Adelina Anthony as a solo play in 2003, Bruising for Besos tells the story of Yoli (Adelina Anthony), a Xicana lesbian, and her tumultuous relationship with Daña (Carolyn Zeller), a beautiful Puerto Rican woman. Yoli is part of a community of lesbians in Los Angeles and has a history of serial dating that often ends in drama-filled break-ups. After meeting at a party for her birthday, Yoli flirts with Daña and pursues her until they end up in bed. Issues quickly arise as insecurities and jealousy plague the relationship and Daña struggles to reconcile her strict Catholic upbringing and her love for Yoli. The relationship begins to repeat the cycle of domestic violence for Yoli, who grew up in a household where her father constantly abused her mother physically and emotionally. In short clips that appear throughout the movie, the audience sees the abuse between Yoli's parents come to life through the puppets that Yoli creates. Yoli and Daña's relationship comes to an end after Daña hits Yoli during an argument over one of Yoli's old girlfriends. In the final scene, Yoli is waiting for the train, heading to see her ill mother. She is alone with the child-version puppet of herself.

A central theme throughout the movie is the deep-rooted impact that domestic violence can cause to those who experience it directly or indirectly. Besides portraying the abuse between Yoli's parents, the puppets are also used to illustrate the complicated feelings that Yoli harbors toward her mother. On the one hand, Yoli loved her mother and it pained her to watch the abuse that her father inflicted on her mother. On the other hand, she resented that despite the violence she experienced, her mother continued to return to her father's side. Throughout the movie the audience sees short flashbacks juxtaposing the abuse Yoli's mother experienced against the domestic violence that developed within Yoli and Daña's relationship. Spanish-speaking audience goers may predict the development of a violent relationship between Yoli and Daña, whose name means "harm." In choosing this name for Yoli's partner, Anthony could have been foreshadowing the violence that would soon develop between Daña and Yoli. Anthony is intentional in showing that domestic violence occurs not just with heterosexual couples but also within the LGBTQ community. While others shy away from such a blunt dealing and representation of domestic violence, Anthony confirms in the writer-director statement that she used the cinematic form to spark awareness and honest conversations about the issue.¹

Another theme woven throughout the film is the idea of having to straddle multiple worlds. While the use of multiple languages might be confusing for some viewers, most of the characters speak English, Spanish, and Spanglish and seem to move effortlessly among all three as they communicate with each other. Just as Gloria Anzaldúa explains in Borderlands/La frontera (1987), the intentional use of all three languages serves as a representation of the ways in which these women transverse the borderlands of multiple different and conflicting worlds. Aside from language, the women battle the stereotypical expectations of a woman's gender identity representation and how they view themselves. Daña exemplifies this struggle between two worlds as she seeks to reconcile her strict Catholic upbringing with her love for Yoli. As Daña's feelings for Yoli grow, she continues to pray for forgiveness for her actions and avoids coming out to her father.

Beyond telling the story of a relationship between two Latina lesbians that developed into domestic violence, the movie calls attention to issues of discrimination. An early example of this is the term of endearment that Daña uses for Yoli, "negrita," which means "little Black girl." When Daña first calls Yoli negrita, Yoli protests, saying that she isn't Black; this incident illustrates the deep-seated colorism present within the Latinx community. Aside from...