“They told us that we would get
more money, but they never told us that we were going to spend so much.” –
Rosita. The myth of “El Norte” has blinded people to see the hardships that undocumented
people face once arriving in the United States. The godmother used media as a
source of an idea of what life in “El Norte” is like. The telenovelas are not
the ideal common life experience that people have, and people are only misled.
This is shown when Enrique and Rosita are looking for jobs. In the present,
jobs are a lot more difficult to come by, especially in a time of recession and
immigration policies (ex. SB 1070).
I understand and agree that the
standard of living has “improved” compared to the living conditions people may
have had back home. Looking at my experience, I acknowledge and am grateful of
my parents’ risk of migrating into this country. They have given me more opportunities
to an education and social/economic mobility (or even just stability). But the
myth is still there, my parents have not had/seen a direct economic or social
mobility (a.k.a American Dream), since we are still stuck in poverty (even
though they work their butts off, but of course it’s the system working against
them and our family. But that’s a different conversation). I don’t think they
will directly see that; hopefully they will be able to enjoy some kind of
economic mobility/stability through my (OUR) academic achievements.
Yaneli-
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your take on the film. You make really good points. I think it is significant that you put the word "improved" in quotes, because, as we see in "El Norte," even though Rosa and Enrique seem to have access to education and technology that they don't have back home, they have given up SO much to get there, and the "improvements" sometimes aren't actually better. I'm thinking of a quotidian example here-- the washing machine at the woman's house is not an improvement for Rosa compared to hand-washing clothes, but it is presented to her as if it is. More importantly than this example, your post gets at the complexities of "improving" one's social/economic mobility/stability and increasing opportunities for education through migration... while there ARE real, tangible, actual improvements, they can come at a high cost; they can also be frequently exaggerated by media and myths such as the meritocratic "American Dream" which seems to pretend that working your butt off is all you need to 'make it' in this country, and which ignores the loads of other systemic and institutional factors at work here. Thanks for sharing your point of view and experiences. I also really hope that your parents get a break from the systemic crap and get to enjoy economic stability.