Here are your weekend must reads. Netflix's "Selena: The Series" reminds an NCR commentator of the joy of Latinx people, especially his family's Christmas traditions. The author of a new book critiques the American dream and calls all of us to radical "neighborliness." And watch as Sr. Rose Pacatte interviews the stars of the latest Netflix Christmas movies.
The opening moments in "Selena: The Series" (now streaming on Netflix) see the legendary Tejano singer in a familiar setting: Encouraged by her siblings to face the adoring crowds she feels she's unworthy of, she takes the stage. Dressed in white, she walks towards them, a sea of love composed of thousands of fans holding candles. She gives them a shy smile, thanks them for their endless support and offers them a gift in return.
Her offering is the song they turned into a hit. "I hope you remember it," she says as she bursts into "Como La Flor."
"Watching the luminous Christian Serratos as Selena during this sequence transported me to happy memories of childhood Christmases," writes Jose Solís, a Honduran culture critic based in New York City. "I would always stay up until midnight on Christmas Eve, often aided by loving adults, in order to place the baby Jesus in the Nativity scene on his birthday."
"This isn't to say Selena is analogous to Jesus, so forgive any unintended blasphemy," he continues. "I merely want to say that seeing her shine bright as she poured her love into her audience, for a second allowed me to forget she had been brutally murdered at age 23, in a Texan town named after the body of Christ."
You can read more about the series here.
D.L. Mayfield is a prophet constantly traveling a path of conversion, writes NCR book reviewer Stephen Adubato. From white evangelical homeschooled girl, to Bible-college grad gearing up to go on mission to convert people to Christ, to downwardly mobile neighbor of Muslim Somali Bantu refugees, she finds that God has a funny way of challenging her drive to "convince people of the rightness of her cause."
The Myth of the American Dream's exhortations to convert our hearts and social structures are compelling, less because of Mayfield's use of Scripture and statistics, but more so because of unique critique of the American dream, Adubato says.
"It's characterized by her proximity to the people who are implicated in the issues she addresses, or what she would say is her determination to live out the call to radical 'neighborliness,'" he writes. "Her critiques come not from above, but from living in communion with the people she writes about — both the oppressed and the oppressor, the 'woke' and the ignorant — all of whom she regards as current or potential neighbors."
You can read more of the book review here.
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Weekend wrap-up
NCR contributor Pauline Sr. Rose Pacatte reviews four Christmas movies you can find streaming on Netflix, including "Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey," "The Christmas Chronicles 2," "Dear Santa," and "You Are My Home." The article includes video interviews with Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Tyrese Gibson, and more.
See you next weekend,
Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Production/Online Editor
[email protected]
Twitter: @ncrSLY
