El Norte (film)

El Norte is a 1983 BritishAmerican lowbudget independent drama film, directed by Gregory Nava. The screenplay was written by Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas, based on Navas story. The movie was first presented at the Telluride Film Festival in 1983, and its wide release was in January 1984.

Arturo Xuncax The first part takes place in a small rural Guatemalan village called San Pedro and introduces the Xuncax family, a group of indigenous Mayans. Arturo is a coffee picker and his wife a homemaker. Arturo explains to his son, Enrique, his world view and how the indio fares in Guatemalan life, noting that, to the rich, the peasant is just a pair of strong arms. Arturo and his family then discuss the possibility of going to the United States where all the people, even the poor, own their own cars. Because of his attempts to form a labor union among the workers, Arturo and the other organizers are attacked and murdered by government troops when a coworker is bribed to betray themArturos severed head is seen hanging from a tree. When Enrique attempts to climb the tree that displays his fathers head, a soldier attacks him. Enrique fights and kills the attacker, only to learn that many of their fellow villagers have been rounded up by soldiers. The childrens mother too disappears abducted by soldiers. So, using money given to them by their godmother, Enrique and his sister Rosa decide to flee Guatemala, the land of their birth, and head north.Coyote During the second part of the film the two teenagers flee Guatemala, travel through Mexico, and meet a Mexican coyote who guides them across the border. This section includes various comic scenes relating to mutual stereotyping among different ethnic groups the two attempt to pass themselves off as indigenous Mexicans, failing to convince one Mexican truck driver after naming the wrong destination, but later succeeding in convincing a U.S. Border Patrol officer by copiously peppering their responses with the Mexican word for fuck, which a neighbor had suggested was how all Mexicans speak. After their first failed attempt to cross the frontera, where a man posing as a coyote deceives and attempts to rob them, they have a horrific experience when they finally cross the U.S.Mexican border through a sewer pip

Source: Wikipedia