y sewer tunnel. In the third part of the film, Enrique and Rosa rent a dirty hotel room from a mercenary individual named Monty. Rosa gets a job in a sweatshop, where she meets a helpful woman named Nacha. Through a stroke of luck, Enrique gets hired as a bus boy for an elegant French restaurant. However, when Enrique gets a promotion over a Mexican-American youth named Carlos, Carlos seeks revenge by calling the Immigration Board. Enrique manages to escape, and his friend Monty introduces him to a woman from Chicago who wants to give Enrique a foreman job, with the chance of obtaining a green card after a year. However, in order to take the job in Chicago, Enrique would have to leave his sister behind in Los Angeles. When Enrique learns that Rosa is dying from .typhus caused by rat bites suffered during their climb through the sewer tunnel at the border, Enrique decides to
give up his opportunity in Chicago, and goes to her. In the final scene, Enrique is working at menial labor while reminiscing about his village in Guatemala, and thus the film ends on a sad note.
The major anthropological issue of El Norte is that of culture clash. In the first part of the film, a clash of this sort can be seen existing between the peasant villagers of San Pedro and the brutal soldiers who are in dominance. A clash of cultures can also be seen in Arturo's claim that the problems of the peasants stem from rich people coming in from elsewhere to take away all their good land. Culture clash also occurs when Enrique and Rosa reach Mexico. There, in contrast to the family-centered society they left behind, the youngsters encounter rude, pushy people and coyotes who ridicule them and seek to exploit them. Even sharper culture clashes occur, however, when Enrique and Rosa reach America. The new immigrants encounter many difficulties in their efforts to adapt to the American way of life. These difficulties are symbolized, for example, ...