'El Norte'-No paradise for refugees

Scan page 16

16 Socialist Action May 1984 tic goal for a nigger, his teacher told him. "You've got to think in terms of something you can be. How about a carpenter?"

The next five or six years saw Malcolm grow from a wide-eyed country boy to a knowledgeable city hustler. He moved to Boston and then to New York, where he settled in Harlem and worked variously as a shoeshine boy, railway clerk, and waiter.

At 21, Malcolm landed in jail with a 10-year sentence for burglary. He spent seven years in prison where, as with many young Blacks and underprivileged youth in general, he did what the more fortunate do in college. He began reading, studying, and looking for a future. It was during this search that he became acquainted with the Nation of Islam, and began corresponding with their leader, Elijah Muhammad.

Joins Black Muslims

Shortly after Malcolm's release from prison, he went to Chicago to hear Elijah Muhammad speak. A mutual respect and admiration quickly grew between these two men. Within a year, Malcolm was asked to address the congregation at Detroit Temple Number One. He was soon made assistant minister and shortly thereafter became a fulltime minister, accepting assignments in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. Because of his great personal magnetism, each temple in which he served grew dramatically in membership. Soon Malcolm became a national spokesman for the Muslims, appearing frequently on television and radio programs, and lecturing at universities around the country.

Malcolm's sincere devotion to Elijah Muhammad and his teachings was partly responsible for both his rise and fall within the organization. When El Norte, a feature film by Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas, starring Zaide Silvia Gutierrez and David Villapando.

When I see a sensitive and honest film like El Norte I walk out of the theater feeling like a starving man who has finally been given a nourishing meal. El Norte is a beautifully photographed story about two Guatemalan refugees. Independent filmmakers Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas created the film on a very low budget, trying to avoid commercial restraints. The film will eventually be shown on the Public Broadcasting Service's American Playhouse.

As the film begins we are introduced to Indian villagers in Guatemala. Here poverty is among the most devastating in Latin America. When their arable land is seized by the government, the villagers plan to take it back. But the military attacks, and the people are routed from their village.

Two of the villagers, Rosa and her brother Enrique (portrayed superbly by Mexican actors Zaide Silvia Gutierrez and David Villapando), flee one nightmare and begin another. They head north across Mexico to the United States for what they expect will be a better life. However, flush toilets and electric lights are as unfamiliar to them as the deceit and trickery they find in the north. The hellish scene when Rosa and Enrique cross the border into the United States is one the viewer will not soon forget.

Once in the United States, they are housed in a dumpy motel in Los Angeles run by a labor contractor. Here Rosa and Enrique are hired out for casual labor at slave wages. They work at various jobs in constant fear of deportation by the immigration authorities. After Rosa barely escapes a raid by La Migra on a sweatshop, a coworker ruefully warns her never to work where there is no báck door to escape the authorities.

Language barriers prove no small hurdle for the brother and sister. In one scene a barely comprehending Rosa is given operating instructions in English for a super sophisticated washer and dryer. She stares, mouth agape, as her wealthy employer explains gadgetry worthy of the space shuttle. Rosa finally resorts to cleaning the clothes her own way-spread out on the lawn.

Toward the end of the film, Rosa recognizes how bleak her and Enrique's situation has become. If they return to Guatemala they face certain execution by the military. In Mexico they will find only impoverishment. In the United States, as workers without papers, they are doomed to a rat race for a few crumbs, living in constant fear of deportation. At one point, Rosa wonders out loud if the only home they will ever find will come after their deaths.

El Norte is expressly not a political film. But this still does not explain why the filmmakers sacrificed many opportunities to make a sharper, more original social statement. For example, little is revealed about the backgrounds of the people Enrique and Rosa meet once they cross the border. Their tormentors are in fact miserable people manipulated by an exploitative and racist system. However, it would be easier for an audience, especially a North American audience, to accept and understand this pattern if a little more were shown regarding the individual characteristics of these people.

Also, it seemed as though Rosa and Enrique cast off their past traditions and painful memories rather effortlessly. They cheerfully accept gringo ways without reservation. Is this usually so?

Nevertheless, this is a film that brings a sensitivity to the plight of Latin American refugees. The film succeeds in telling the story from the refugees' point of view. It is important that humanistic films such as El Norte reach a broader audience in this country.

Soclalist Action

----- pull-quotes -----

SUBSCRIBE JBSCRIB NOW