Extra Credit #2: El Norte

El Norte

The first time I saw EL Norte was in 9^th grade but I did not understand why this story was so special. I saw it again in 12^th grade and that is when I realized that these immigrants were not from Mexico but from Guatemala, which means have to assimilate or try to fit in not just once but twice. The film being split up in 3 parts shows, how different their stories are in each stage.  Throughout the film the two characters, Enrique and Rosa find themselves following this American Dream. They have these perceived idea that even the poor people have cars and this is what motivates them to travel to a ‘guaranteed’ better life.

In the film we see a similar stereotyping of these two when they are in Mexico. I find this to be similar to Rudy Robles’s experience of being stereotyped for being Mexican just by appearance. At first, la migra thinks Enrique and Rosa are from somewhere else because of their language but are then easily stereotyped when they start using the word ‘chingar’. When they finally reach el Norte, Rosa’s experience of being a house cleaner is similar to Concha’s from The Flower in the Skull. Concha is also from a small village but then finds herself having to do things for other people from a culture she is not familiar with. This is also what Rosa has to go through with the Anglo family.

Overall, I like how the film portrays many aspects of the immigrant such as struggle, perceived ideas, stereotypes and assimilation. This film also tells a story that is not commonly told; the story of immigrants from central America. When people usually see Latina/os the automatically think, Mexican! But this film shows the double struggle central Americans go through. Also the final scenes when Rosa is extremely ill in the hospital, she has a dialogue with Enrique where she says that in their land they did not have a home and they have been left to find a home but the US does not want them. This reminded me of the a quote in Borderlands/La Frontera, “Refugees in a homeland that does not want them, many find a welcome hand holding out only suffering, pain and ignoble death” (Anzaldúa 34). Event though this was not a homeland for Enrique or Rosa, they were in the search for a new home because they no longer had their home. But through their journey, they were just faced with more borders. They had to loses their traditions and native language and try to fit in, into a country that was not willing to accept them. This is a very hard film to watch because one gets sucked into the story but watching made me think of the borders my parents had to face when they immigrated and how living in the US for first generation immigrants has not been easy.