Extra Credit #1 "El Norte" film

The film “El Norte” is a story about a brother and sister ( Rosa and Enrique) who travel from their home country of Guatemala to the United States. While living in their village in Guatemala, their father gets murdered by soldiers for attempting to organize along with the other village men. Their mother is taken away, but it is unclear if she also shared the same death. The losing of their parents demonstrated snakebites to both of the siblings. It caused them a great trauma and a sense of loss with their culture since their parent’s embodied that aspect of their identities. Also Rosa loses her lone love interest in the novel, a young man in her town with her departure. So their departure of their homeland is already creating a division in their psyche as a physical distance from it.

They take inventory of their lives and figure that there is little reason for them to stay and flee in order to avoid persecution and in the hopes to find a better life in “el norte”—the US. They get money from their family friend and embark on the journey that takes them through Mexico. Once there they are cautioned by a truck driver to speak like Mexicans, least they figure out that they are in fact indigenous. They therefor undergo another snakebite in which they have to change their way of speaking in order to not be indigenous. Their experience of linguistic terrorism is one that although not highlighted too much, is one that is important to point out.

Once they arrive to the US, they each find jobs. Rosa works at a garment factory, but after an ICE raid, she begins to work as a domestic worker for a wealthy Anglo family. Enrique lands a job in a restaurant, but after taking English classes, he gets promoted to waiter. He loses his employment due to his fellow coworker telling immigration officials out of jealousy. He instead gets a job offering in Chicago by a wealthy Anglo woman and doesn’t go in order to attend to his sister in her deathbed due to disease.

The story is one that is blender of grief, tragedy, hope and the persistence to survive despite all odds. I really enjoyed the film and found that the characters of Rosa and Enrique to be experiencing different steps in their border consciousness and pointed out some of the snakebites that I noticed although there were plenty to speak of throughout the film. I would recommend the film for others to watch.