In the film El Norte (1983), Enrique and his sister Rosa live in the Guatemalan town of San Pedro, where they live a life different from the typical American. Enrique and Rosa flee from San Pedro to avoid mass hysteria brought on by military police force. Enrique and Rosa are thrown into a nightmare when their father is killed and plans are made by the police to come back and swarm through the villages once again. Enrique and Rosa see no reason to stay in San Pedro. San Pedro symbolizes a newly rising hell for the two characters. A metaphorical fire seeps through the ground causing Enrique and Rosa to flee nowhere else but north. Enrique hears about this beautiful world know as “El Norte” where everything will be right for the two. They venture off on an odyssey with everything at stake in order to step foot on this glorious land. They make their way north to the town of Tijuana, where they are surrounded by vast crowds of tourists. In a sense, Tijuana symbolizes purgatory. Enrique and Rosa work their way out of the depths of San Pedro to this new world that comes off a bit too strong. The people there really treat the land as if it is someplace in really bad condition.

On their way to El Norte, the two meet a guide and are forced to crawl through the sewer tunnels in order to reach America. In the tunnels, Rosa and Enrique encounter a swarm of rats. The rats cover the two and create suspense that can be compared to that of Alfred Hitchcock in The Birds (1963). Once Enrique and Rosa reach El Norte, everything changes. To these characters, Los Angeles symbolizes heaven. They find even the worst conditioned apartment as a four star hotel. The mere thought of a toilet that flushes is a miracle to them. Enrique runs into trouble at first adjusting to the society of hard labor working as an undocumented immigrant. He discovers the vast competition and begins feeling like an outsider. This is a major economic break for Enrique because he is forced to begin playing the game of capitalism. Rosa discovers beauty in fashion magazines and modeling. She desires to look just like the women in the magazines, but she ends up working in a sweatshop making the clothes that the models wear.

The story takes a turn with Rosa and Enrique discovering that El Norte was not exactly all they had hoped it to be. In fact, both individuals run into a big lesson on what it truly is like to live in America as an immigrant. Enrique works his way up to a pretty high status as a waiter, but a jealous Chicano waiter informs the INS of Enrique’s employment, causing Enrique to run for his life. This waiter snitches Enrique out because he saw how far along Enrique was coming along and became envious to all he received. Rosa runs into trouble in the sweatshops and is forced not to work. Along the way, Rosa begins feeling sick and it is introduced that she has in fact been infected with a serious illness from the rats in the sewer tunnels. In her death bed, she tells Enrique, “We are not free.” She touches on an emotional subject, because this can mean several different things. One of the opinions is that she means they have been traveling north searching for a paradise and trying to break free, but she realizes the only way they will ever truly be free is to literally die. They imagined El Norte would be this heaven, but metaphorically was just earth, and the real way to heaven is death.

After the death of his sister, Enrique is put in a rough situation. He is suddenly faced with many life-changing decisions. Enrique puts on his father’s hat and begins to look for construction work. He, in a way, realizes the importance of living after experiencing a death and gives into the world, and this motivates him to become a better person, fight harder to get work, and prosper the life he has left.The film is directed by Chicano filmmaker Gregory Nava. One item this film contains is style. The film distributes a wide range of symbolism brought on by imagery. In order to tell a great story through film, merely physical actions are shown through acting and a great use of directorial techniques. El Norte definitely succeeds as a great story and artistic cinema. Two scenes come to mind that really show true skill. The first is of Rosa passing out as she vacuums the floor. The shot is seen from above and a spiral staircase wraps around the frame leaving her body lying directly in the center. The other is the head of Enrique’s father hanging from a tree with the sun setting in the far ground. El Norte shows how it is like to struggle for survival and enlightens people of other cultures in the world.