CINA 2022.

2
Amanda Nunes Borges, 190125012

The Latin American immigration experience in the United States portrayed in El

Norte

El Norte (1983) is an independent film directed by Gregory Nava and

produced by Anna Thomas, which portrays the Latin American immigration
experience in the US. It shows the journey of the indigenous Mayan siblings Enrique
(David Villalpando) and Rosa (Zaide Silvia Gutierrez) through three sections: the first
addresses their early life in Guatemala with their family, the second their long and
difficult trek towards the North, and the third their life as immigrants in Los Angeles.
The first part takes place in Guatemala, where the siblings are from, and
presents the ethnic and political persecution brought by the Guatemalan Civil War.
People were living in terrible conditions, being exploited at work, and suffering the
strict control of governing bodies. For those reasons, the teenagers’ father, Arturo,
participates in meetings with other workers to raise political awareness among them
and organize themselves out of these problems. It is in one of those meetings that
these workers, including Arturo, are killed by the Guatemalan army. Subsequently,
his wife is arrested. Enrique and Rosa know that it is just a matter of time before they
get caught, so they decide to leave to the United States, where they believe life will
be better.
 In the second part, the siblings leave their village and walk for miles until
arriving in Tijuana, Mexico. They stay in a kind of transitory city with hardly any
infrastructure that people go to before departing to the border. Enrique and Rosa
already experience racism and are seen as inferior by Mexicans, being called
“indians” derogatorily. They meet people who try to rob and kill them, but also a
coyote who helps them cross the border as a favor to an old friend.
According to the coyote, it is possible to cross the Mexico-United States
border through the mountains or through the sewage pipes that used to connect both
countries, but the second option is “safer”. The teenagers are forced to crawl through
these pipes enduring its awful smell, in addition to the heat, the darkness, the pain,
the tiredness, the carcasses, and the rats. They finally manage to cross the border
into California and are mesmerized by the city and car lights of San Diego, feeling
hopeful about the new chapter that is about to begin in their lives, away from
violence, persecution, and oppression (or so they thought).
Enrique and Rosa settle in Los Angeles, in a neighborhood with mainly Latin
immigrants. By this point, they experience racism and the condition of otherness in a
deeper way, and the image of the American Dream pursued by them begins to
shatter. Rosa becomes a maid and Enrique becomes a waiter. They have to work
really hard, and the money is still not enough. The siblings take English classes, run
from immigration officials, and compete for work. Even though immigrants are not
recognized as citizens (and at times as people) in the country, the patrons know that
without them and the cheap labor, the economy would be affected greatly.
Other points highlighted in the film are identity and belonging. Enrique and
Rosa were worth less than Mexicans - who are already a subaltern group - feeling
forced to pretend not to be Guatemalan at times in order to be safe. In addition, they
felt like they did not belong in their homeland and also in America. In one of the final
scenes, Rosa says that they would most likely find a home just after dying.
The history of the United States of America is marked by immigration since
its beginning, when the territory was not even known as a country. As time went by,
there was a propagation of the country’s image as open to people from other places
and cultures of the world, but that is not always what happens. The American Dream
may exist for some, but it does not become a reality for everyone. People go to the
US for several different motivations, full of hopes, but most of them end up living in
bad conditions, working hard enough to harm their bodies and minds, making very
little money and being persecuted (as many were in their homelands), and that could
be seen in the movie.
The border separating the United States and Mexico was created after the
Mexican-American War ended, in 1848. Both sides fought for the territory nowadays
known as California and Texas. By the time the conflict was over, US soldiers had
captured Mexico City and raised the American flag. After the war, the US-Mexico
borderline began to take shape. The Western part was drawn in 1853, with some
modifications made later. Once the borderline was drawn, Mexico lost 55% of its
national territory. Mexico’s northern border has been a conflict zone with the United
States for a long time, due to this loss of territory and to the proximity of two
civilizations that are not entirely compatible. Conflicts have characterized the bilateral
relations along the borderline in part because of vast differences in both countries’
economy, culture, race, religion, and geography. Those complexities marked border
relations during the Mexican Revolution, which lasted from 1910 to 1920. Decades
after its creation, the US-Mexico border was virtually wide-open, with just a few stone
monuments marking the international boundary. They are still in place nowadays, but
physical limitations such as walls and wires are also there.
Over the years, hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants have
crossed the border illegally to the US, which led both Democrat and Republican US
presidents to build border barriers. Followed by the terrorist attacks in New York and
Washington DC, an era of enhanced border security began. Donald Trump, who was
known for his strong views against immigration, promised to build a larger wall on the
border, ensuring that Mexico would pay for it. It is clear that many of Trump's actions
did not reflect a legitimate concern for the population, instead what could be seen
was xenophobia and an attempt to physically separate people.
Even though the movie takes place in the 1980s, it is possible to notice that
the situation is not better nowadays: many people are going through what the
siblings experienced, or even worse. More policies aimed at segregating immigrants
and making immigration more difficult were formulated and implemented in recent
years, being supported by a xenophobic attitude that, unfortunately, is still spreading
around the world. El Norte is as relevant as it was when it came out, and it makes us
realize through beautiful cinematography that the difficulty in trespassing borders is
much more than physical, because they still exist even after being crossed.