Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

El Norte

This paper will be concerned with the issue of culture clash as seen in the film El Norte. This independent film was made in the United States in the year 1983. However, although it is an American film, El Norte is unusual because "eighty percent of the screenplay is in Spanish" (O'Brien 211). The film was directed by a Latino filmmaker named Gregory Nava. Nava's wife, Anne Thomas, produced the film, and Nava and Thomas together wrote the screenplay. El Norte is a fictional film which is based on a real social issue. Specifically, it deals with the plight of Central Americans who flee from the dictatorships of their homelands in the hopes of finding both refuge and opportunity in "the north," or America.

The first part of the film takes place in the tiny village of San Pedro in Guatemala. Enrique and Rosa are two young Indian peasants who live in the village with their parents. Their father, Arturo, is a member of a secret group seeking to overthrow the dictatorial regime in the area. However, soldiers raid a meeting of this group, kill Arturo, and hang his decapitated head in a tree. As a result of this circumstance, Enrique kills a soldier, thus becoming a fugitive from the law. After his mother is arrested, Enrique and his sister Rosa decide to flee to the north, where they imagine America to be a dreamland of opportunity. In the second part of the film, the youngsters manage to make their way to Tijuana, Mexico, where they start looking for a "coyote" to help sneak them across the border. They soon find that they cannot trust anyone in their new environment, as one coyote tricks them into thinking he will help them and then tries to rob them of their twenty dollars. They are arrested by Immigration officers, but are able to escape being sent back to Guatemala by pretending to be Mexican Indians. Finally, they find a friend of a friend named Raimundo who helps them across the border by sending them through an empt...

Page 1 of 12 Next >

More on El Norte...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
El Norte. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 04:48, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1682970.html