Locating Gender Construction: Women, Violence, And Survival in Perfume de Violetas, Nadie Te Oye

Mexico City, one of the largest cities in the world, continually expands due to the ever-growing population. Though this is the center of economic and political power for the entire country of Mexico, this city has also become a place characterized by its violence, poverty and tragedy. While discussing Latin American urban areas in general, urban analysts Yves Predrazzini and Magaly Sanchez have said of the urban space that it is "un deterioro en las condiciones de la vida de la mayoria de los sectores trabajadores, como consecuencia de una crisis urbana [a deterioration in the life conditions of the majority of the working-class sectors of society as a consequence of the urban crisis]" (my translation 26). With an ever-shrinking middle class, Mexico City, like similar cities throughout the world, offers a dichotomy of extremes where the majorities are the "have-nots" who struggle to attain the basic necessities. This state of poverty lends itself to the corruption of individuals who rely on any means necessary to obtain material goods. Film is one medium that has attempted to portray this situation. As cultural critic David William Foster has outlined in a study of Mexico City in cinema, "film becomes available for examination in terms of how it serves to create unique or particular meanings through its visualized portrayal of the interaction between individuals and their urban space" (xiii). The analysis of Maryse Sistach's film Perfume de violetas, nadie te oye (2000) presents a reality lived by people, specifically Mexican women, in the urban area. The film highlights 21st-century lower-class girls while at the same time demonstrating how the urban space, in this case Mexico City, creates locations that set up its inhabitants for violence. Critics like Diego de Pozo have pointed out specifically how the street children have been represented in Latin American films (1) and how they represent a culture of urgency (as theorized by Pedrazzini and Sanchez). Perfume de violetas shows how the city and its economy interact, which in turn has an effect on individuals as manifested in family and social interaction and expectancies and including the constructions of gender. All of these elements are intensified in the broad lower-class. Sistach's film becomes a representation of how the urban setting, with its limited access and drive to attain capital, provokes sexual violence against females and transforms these citizens into agents of violence to secure survival.