The Other in Flores de Otro Mundo

Flores de Otro Mundo presents a number of interesting perspectives on the question of transculturality and the objectification of the female exotic other. While Parvati Nair perceives its general emphasis to a positive one that enables “a shifting and contingent frame-work for identity”, she does not address the film’s somewhat problematic engagement with objectification and the exoticization of the female ‘other’. This is especially prevalent in the character of Milady, whose presence in the village is like a breath of fresh air for many of its inhabitants. Nevertheless, her otherness is exaggerated and demarcated in the various revealing and loudly colored costumes she wears, which ensure she lives up to the notion of the exotic and atypical. Marrirosi’s boyfriend renders the film’s central metaphor explicit; he refers to the orchids he has planted during winter, which he believes will survive this harsh, unfamiliar climate because ‘with enough care, they can grow anywhere’. This scene, coupled with the film’s title, clearly link the flowers to Patricia and Milady, who have been displaced from their warm, tropical countries of origin and now seek a better life within a realm of shattered expectations in this new, unfamiliar territory.

Nevertheless, this metaphor can be perceived as somewhat problematic in its implication that these women are flowers to be looked upon and admired as ‘pretty things’ or decorative elements. Indeed, this is how Milady’s Spanish boyfriend treats her, expecting her to bend to his will at all times and engaging in a relationship with her that is based purely upon objectification and misogyny. Though she takes some charge of the situation by escaping her predicament, it is done presumably to seek her other boyfriend out, which limits Milady’s self-sufficiency and emancipation as a character. Indeed, much like Patricia, her ability to obtain happiness and economical stability is directly linked to her relationship with men, and attempts to foster an illusion of affection and mutual attraction. This restricts these characters’ independent agency and suggests that for women, border crossings will always involve men and their influence.

Patricia presents a more interesting case in that her relationship with her husband evolves out of economical need but gradually morphs into genuine attachment and love. Indeed, through her sexually liberated mannerisms and her affectionate warmth, Patricia seems to provide her husband with a joie-de-vivre previously unknown to him. Even so, the emphasis upon her sexuality, like Milday’s, serves to highlight the notion of ‘otherness’ and link her Latin American origins to more liberated sexual practices. Thankfully, Marirosi also fulfills this role to some extent and thus counterbalances this exoticizing impulse.

Essentially, the non-Spanish women in Flores de Otro Mundo are presented as exoticized and eroticized others, and while the film does explore the complex identity and boundary erosions and modifications that they engage in, it runs the risk of reducing their identities to the objectification they inspire in the men around them.