The Movie: El Norte (1983)

Essay by MALBOLSIACollege, Undergraduate July 2005

download word file, 2 pages 1.0

Downloaded 18 times

History 15

Spring 2004

The Movie: El Norte (1983)

Mayan Indian peasants were tired of being thought of as nothing more than "strong arms", and organizing in an effort to improve their lot in life. The Guatemalan army was very powerful at that time, and destroyed many villages included the Mayan village. After the army destroyed their villages and most of the families, a brother and sister, teenagers who just barely escaped the massacre, decided that they must flee to "El Norte" ("The North"), where it is safe. After receiving clandestine help from friends and humorous advice from a veteran immigrant on strategies for traveling through Mexico to get to the states (Los Angles) were they can start a new life as illegal aliens. The border was like a "war zone", and was very dangerous. If they were to get caught, they could have been put to death by the Guatemalan army. The only way was to crawl on hands and knees several miles under ground in an abandoned sewer tunnel with a lot of infected rats with diseases. It was riskier to go over the mountain route.

They soon made it to Los Angles without getting caught and met up with a man who helped immigrants. He gave them a place to stay. The place was really bad and messed up, but the both of them were just so happy that they made it to Los Angles alive. After a few days, Enrique got a job as a waiter in a fancy restaurant, and Rosa gets a job as a maid.

Enrique and Rosa really had high expectations about the U.S. They thought that they could get a job with no problems, but reality came through when the U.S immigration came to Enrique's work, but he...