EVERETT — For Idolka Cruz, the new monthly Spanish-language film night in Everett is a way to have the same types of discussions about movies that she had in her native Cuba.
For Rose James, it’s a way to improve her Spanish, the native language of her Panamanian-born mother.
The social service agency Familias Unidas inaugurated the movie night Friday to provide Spanish-language entertainment for adults in Snohomish County, said the agency’s program coordinator, Elizabeth Ramirez.
The group’s programs are almost exclusively for families, "and there aren’t many options for adults to meet and socialize," she said.
The group will present a different movie the first Friday of each month, followed by a discussion in Spanish. A potluck dinner will precede each movie.
The inaugural movie was Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s 1995 "La Flor de Mi Secreto" ("The Flower of My Secret"), which received rave reviews from critics.
Maria Burgess, 28, had seen the movie before but said she gets more out of it at each viewing.
"Pedro Almodovar is a great director," she said. "He knows how to make powerful films that can be seen on many different levels."
Matthew Riggen, 39, of Darrington said the discussion "gives a richness to the film. Each person contributes their own perspective."
Cruz, 33, his wife, said the discussion group reminds her of her forays to an art cinema in Havana.
"When I went to the cinema there, I would bump into people I knew all the time and then talk about the film afterward," she said.
Some of the movies might be a Spanish lesson even for Cruz and for Ramirez, who is from Mexico. Vocabulary — particularly the slang — varies greatly among Spanish-speaking countries.
Ramirez said "The Flower of My Secret" wasn’t a problem for her "because I’ve seen so many films from Spain that I know all of the words. But I’ve seen movies from Chile that contain many words that I don’t understand at all."
Reporter David Olson: 425-339-3452 or dolson@heraldnet.com.
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