El Norte

Seeking a Better Life

The film opens with the circumstances that force the siblings to flee their homeland. Arturo Xuncax, the father of Rosa and Enrique, is ambushed and brutally murdered, along with several coffee pickers, for attempting to organize. Upon the burial of the murdered men, the military troops return in search of surviving family members. Rosa's and Enrique's mother is picked up and “disappeared,” a common practice during the repressive regime. Enrique and Rosa escape the death squad and are faced with the only option available: to head north. El Norte—America— is not only a place of refuge but, as told in old issues of Good Housekeeping, also a place of abundance, where they will make a lot of money. “In the north, we won't be treated this way,” Enrique asserts optimistically upon the decision to migrate.

Part two projects the travels of Rosa and Enrique through Mexico and across the U.S.-Mexico border at Tijuana. While in Mexico, the siblings experience the racial hierarchies established in a country where Indians continue to be at the bottom, even in impoverished circumstances. At the same time, they encounter strangers willing to help them through their journey, including Raimundo, a retired coyote (smuggler) who agrees to guide them through the border. Rosa and Enrique cross underneath the U.S.-Mexico border through an abandoned sewer tunnel. As they crawl through the narrow space, they are attacked by hundreds of rats, a haunting moment that exemplifies the dehumanization of immigrants as they seek refuge in el norte. As they reach the end of the tunnel, mesmerized by the shining lights of San Diego, they pause for a moment to relish their arrival in the promised land.

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