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In the film El Norte (Gregory Nava, 1983), the di

In the film El Norte (Gregory Nava, 1983), the disparity in economic strength between two regions contributes to an ongoing flow of immigrants from Guatemala to the north, with Los Angeles being a preferred destination for those seeking economic advantage and a degree of political freedom. The people making this journey also find themselves moving from a traditional society, closely-knit and centered on community, to a major industrial city with different values and a shifting community structure. These immigrants leave Guatemala because of exploitation and find a different sort of exploitation in their new home.

There is a great contrast between the world from which these Guatemalan peasants come and the world to which they aspire. They come from villages in Guatemala where people pursue a subsistence economy. The region is rural and largely untilled. The region is feudal, with a feudal lord in the form of Don Rodrigo. He holds sway over the region like a feudal lord with military powers, and the peasants have little they can do to stop him. If they try to have a meeting and decide what to do about his treatment of them, he uses his goons to break it up. The people are tied to the land, and the land is owned by Don Rodrigo. One man note that the rich, men like Don rodrigo, treat their animals better than they do their peasant workers on the plantations. The North is held up always as a better place, a dream image of what life could be like that becomes more appealing until those who cannot take the reality of their lives in Guatemala any longer decide to seek jobs and a better life in the United States.

El Norte refers to the United States, and more specifically to Los Angeles, the place viewed as an economic mecca to which these peasants flee when life at home becomes untenable or when they simply seek the work they cannot find in their own region. Life is very different in this city, though how different is somet...

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In the film El Norte (Gregory Nava, 1983), the di. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 03:00, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1707716.html