How does the film El norte illustrate some of the difficulties faced by indigenous people living in the Americas in the late Twentieth Century? Do the film’s conclusions offer any optimism?

Gregory Nava’s El Norte is an Oscar nominated British and American made film which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in 1983. Based Nava’s experiences, the film tells the story of Quiche Indians Rosa and Enrique as they are forced to flee from the village in Guatemala in order to make a new life for themselves in the United States. In this essay I am going to describe some of the difficulties faced by the characters as indigenous people living in the Americas in the late 20th Century while primarily focusing on their experiences as immigrants in North America.

One of the primary problems faced by the characters in El Norte is the issue of seeking employment in a country where they are unable to easily gain qualifications and education. During their time in Guatemala Rosa and Enrique worked exclusively in the domestic and agricultural realm and thus have no qualifications that could grant them a successful and high paying job in the U.S. Therefore they end up in somewhat menial low paying job such as waiting on, ironing clothes and cleaning houses. When Nacha first introduces Rosa to the job of ironing clothes shortly after she has arrived in America she states “They’ll pay you 30 cents apiece.” According to US tax policy this means she would have had to iron 11 pieces an hour in order to earn the minimum wage for the state of California in the year the film was released. This shows just how incredibly hard immigrant workers have to work in order to make just the minimum amount of money they could be expected to live on. Furthermore very few of these types of immigrant job allow opportunities for the labourers to progress into higher paid jobs in the company and