The film Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary by Laura Angelica Simon, a Mexican immigrant and fourth-grade teacher at Hoover Elementary School in Los Angeles was made in response to 1994 California voters approval of the controversial Proposition 187, a ballot initiative denying public education and health care to all undocumented immigrants. The film focuses on the impact that the proposition would make to the majority of its students who are economic and political refugees from Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador and one in particular who is fifth grade student from El Salvador named Myra. .
Myra lives in a small apartment located close to school and across form the infamous McArthur Park in the Pico Union area of Los Angeles, she lives with her mother and father whom are not seen in the film and one of which is killed (her father).
Using Galinski's six stages of parenthood it can be said that despite the absence of Myra's mother and father in the film, they are in what Galinski classifies as the the fourth stage or the "The Interpretive Stage-, at this point in her life Myra's mother is faced with having to no only interpret the world to her but also the circumstances surrounding her fear of being thrown out of school and maybe even the country. (Galinski 1987) In this stage parents are concerned about how realistic they have been as parents and how they are helping their child develop positive self-concepts and ideas, Myra's mother faces a daunting task in being realistic with her daughter about the outcome of the passing of proposition 187 and ultimately her right to attend Hoover Elementary and continue her pursuit of a college degree. Myra faces not only socioeconomic uncertainties but personal one's as well, Myra's father is killed on the street as a result of an apparent robbery and subsequent attack. Her mother is faced with having to explain to Myra why her father is gone and how they will deal with it, she also has worry about how to answer any potential questions Myra might have about her father's death and her fears of Proposition 187.
