Embodying Neoliberal Precarity in María llena eres de gracia

• In Event: Politics and Aesthetics: The Filmic Body and Moving Image

Abstract

María Álvarez, the protagonist of Joshua Marston’s film María llena eres de gracia, seems to embody the ideal worker of the neoliberal age. Entrepreneurial and self-interested, she risks her life transporting drugs to the United States as a means to secure a better future for herself and her unborn child. While most scholars have interpreted this characterization of María an affirmation of US-centered capitalist ideals, this paper suggests that the film is more subversive than it may appear. Narrative and visual elements indicate that María is simultaneously the embodiment of the neoliberal ideal and a contemporary manifestation of Giorgio Agamben’s homo sacer, a figure that represents life that is disposable because it lacks value in all social fears. This paper argues that the film juxtaposes these opposing sides of María’s character in order to denaturalize the discourse of meritocracy and the neoliberal assumption that individuals are ultimately responsible for their own success or failure.

Author

• Ashley B Caja, Georgetown University