Immigrant experience?

May 17, 2007 4:06 PM

Any good books/movies/etc. about the immigration experience for Mexicans in America, particularly southern California?

The account can be of legal immigration or otherwise, and can be real or fictional (although accurately portrayed of course). The more contemporary the account, the better. I'm more interested in their lives, communities, assimilation, and struggles after having arrived in the US than in border crossing stories, but anything that would give me a greater understanding of this community would be welcome.

posted by SBMike to writing & language (31 comments total)

El Norte is about two Guatemalan immigrants. We watched it in Spanish class, it was a great movie, but apparently it's a bit hard to find.
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 4:24 PM on May 17, 2007

You might be interested in the book La Frontera/Borderlands, by Gloria Anzaldua. I read this for a college core course, and it addresses issues of identity, assimilation, gender differences, and the like of being Chicana. She was born in Texas, though very close to the border, so this may not fit within your criteria.
posted by numinous at 4:25 PM on May 17, 2007

There's always the LA portion of Love and Rockets, by the Hernandez Bros, which deals in part with this.
posted by klangklangston at 4:31 PM on May 17, 2007

Seconding El Norte, but a DVD/VCD copy is damn hard to find. (We also watched it in Spanish class)
posted by theiconoclast31 at 5:15 PM on May 17, 2007

Bread and Roses
posted by dog food sugar at 5:39 PM on May 17, 2007

The Tortilla Curtain is a good read and has some interesting perspectives on what it's like to be an illegal immigrant in extremly wealthy parts of southern California.
posted by CaptMcalister at 5:43 PM on May 17, 2007

Watch the "Immigration" episode of the show 30 Days by Morgan Spurlock (dude that did Supersize Me). It's available on the iTunes store for $1.99 and that show was the best hour of television from 2006 in my opinion.
posted by mathowie at 5:52 PM on May 17, 2007

Taylor Hackford's epic Blood In, Blood Out is an underrated film in my opinion. I didn't think I would like it, but it drew me in, and the acting is well done. The kind of movie that if it catches you in the right mood, will really move you.

Amazon.com
Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman) directed this 1993 epic about Chicano gang wars in the California prison system and the differing and tragic paths of three boyhood friends. Half-brothers Paco and Cruz grow up with their cousin Miklo in Chicano Los Angeles, and each in turn is influenced by their violent environment and the prevalence of drugs on their streets. Cruz becomes an artist but winds up tragically addicted to heroin, while Miklo serves time for murder and Paco becomes a cop, setting the stage for a confrontation between the two when Miklo is released from prison. The film strives for an epic feel but takes too long to set up its interweaving stories. It is notable, however, for some fine acting on the part of Benjamin Bratt and Damian Chiapa, as well as smaller roles by Billy Bob Thornton, Ving Rhames and Delroy Lindo. Its depictions of life in the California prison system are harrowing and powerful, and serve as the centerpiece of this urban drama. --Robert Lane
posted by vronsky at 6:00 PM on May 17, 2007

Becoming Mexican-American by George J. Sanchez has been required reading in a few of my 20th century American History courses. Bonus points for you if you want to buy it off of me...
posted by liverbisque at 6:02 PM on May 17, 2007

the classic
posted by rhizome at 6:18 PM on May 17, 2007

It's set in Texas, not California, but John Sayles's Lone Star has some interesting things to say about Mexican immigration. And it's a hell of a movie to boot.
posted by shallowcenter at 6:32 PM on May 17, 2007

Maid in America is a pretty good documentary about the lives of three immigrant domésticas (one of them from Mexico) working in L.A. Apparently it's inspired by the book Maid in the USA, which I have not read.
posted by Orinda at 6:47 PM on May 17, 2007

Did everyone watch El Norte in high school Spanish class, or were we all in the same class?

Thirded.
posted by clh at 7:06 PM on May 17, 2007

Rain of Gold by Victor Villasenor is such a good book. It is mostly autobiographical (well, about the author's family crossing the border and working in the fields of Encinitas/San Marcos area), but it is written in a story-type of style. The characters are so well established, and you love the grandmother! I think I'm going to go home and re-read it.
posted by lil' ears at 7:07 PM on May 17, 2007

shoot, on re-read of OP's question, not so contemporary...maybe 1930s? But it is a great read!
posted by lil' ears at 7:09 PM on May 17, 2007

The Milagro Beanfield War
posted by vronsky at 7:15 PM on May 17, 2007

You need both sides. Victor Davis Hanson wrote of growing up with illegal aliens in the central San Joaquin Valley in a book titled Mexifornia. Also, a shorter essay, Mexifornia: Five years Later is here.
posted by Gerard Sorme at 7:17 PM on May 17, 2007

Seconding El Norte. Excellent.

Also, check out Fast Food Nation, in which the frame story is that of Mexican illegal immigrant laborors in the meat-processing industry.
posted by Miko at 7:57 PM on May 17, 2007

heh... i saw both el norte and milagro beanfield war in spanish class! i came in here to recommend both. also, blood in, blood out is excellent.
posted by lunachic at 8:02 PM on May 17, 2007

If you want a "real world" perspective, I'm the child of Mexican (illegal) immigrants, and I used to toy with the idea of writing down their and my experiences, like:

• finding out your dad used to work as a bartender under a different name with a fake SSN when he was your age;


• knowing that your mother crossed the border in the back of a delivery truck while she was pregnant with you;


• having to be the family spokesperson at the free clinic, food stamp office, school, etc. at age 10 because I was the only one who knew how to speak and write in English;


• having your home become a safehouse for other immigrating family members as they were escorted across the border by "coyotes";


• being alienated from both majority US culture and the immigrant community...

You know, your typical stuff. Email's in my profile if you have any questions.
posted by lychee at 8:21 PM on May 17, 2007

Mi Familia
posted by hortense at 8:37 PM on May 17, 2007

Drink Cultura
posted by cali at 8:53 PM on May 17, 2007

Why is everyone suggesting El Norte? It isn't about Mexican immigrants (as one of the first people to suggest it noted). It's a fabulous film, but not particularly topical to this question. That sort of conflation is really offensive, honestly.

The movie Born in East LA is a lot smarter than its comedic approach would suggest.

Similarly, all of Culture Clash's skits (many available on DVD) use humor to discuss these issues to great effect.

Richard Rodriguez's books are standards, as are the rest of the Chicano studies canon (Acuña, Anzaldua, Urea, etc etc etc). In fact, this is such an established field of literature and film that I am not quite sure why you are asking this here, instead of asking your teacher, or googling Chicano studies. Here is one useful link; here is another -- there is a huge array of these resources available on the web.
posted by Forktine at 9:13 PM on May 17, 2007

It's a fabulous film, but not particularly topical to this question.

Disagree! Its perfectly appropriate even if the protagonists are not Mexicans since it takes place in that same world. I say this as the son of Mexican immigrants.

Also, the whole Chicano studies stuff is not relevant in many ways since its focus has seemed to be the experience of Mexican-Americans who have been here for generations - the pochos, so to speak.

Rodriguez and others point out that there is in fact this cultural divide here in the United States between the recent immigrants, still tied in many ways to Mexico, and sometimes returning to Mexico, and the multi-generational ones who not only may have never been to Mexico....they dont even speak Spanish.

I'm guessing the OP here is less interested in the role of Mexican-Americans over the last 100-200 years (and it has been a huge role) than in the experiences of recent immigrants.
posted by vacapinta at 10:36 PM on May 17, 2007

Another vote for Maid in America.
posted by inviolable at 12:14 AM on May 18, 2007

El Norte is about two Guatemalan immigrants. We watched it in Spanish class, it was a great movie, but apparently it's a bit hard to find.

Wow, I watched that in Spanish class, too. Is that standard for American high school Spanish classes. Good movie, btw.
posted by zardoz at 2:57 AM on May 18, 2007

Canicula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera by Norma Elia Cantu
posted by summit at 4:53 AM on May 18, 2007

Disagree! Its perfectly appropriate even if the protagonists are not Mexicans since it takes place in that same world. I say this as the son of Mexican immigrants.

And I would respectfully suggest that you are bringing a level of sophistication to your viewing of the movie that most do not -- many, if not most, people see the immigrants in El Norte as interchangeable with those in Mi Familia or Bread and Roses, when in fact they are portraying distinctly different immigration experiences. (If nothing else, the context of the Central American violence and repression of the 1980s provided a "push" factor in El Norte that hasn't existed for Mexican migration since the revolution.) Again, it is a fantastic movie, and very much worth watching... but it is not about Mexican immigration to the US.

Also, the whole Chicano studies stuff is not relevant in many ways since its focus has seemed to be the experience of Mexican-Americans who have been here for generations - the pochos, so to speak.

I sort of agree, although I think this really depends on what you read. There are plenty of books valorizing the Tejano / New Mexican "the border crossed us" history. But there are lots and lots of memoirs and descriptions of recent immigration as well, and many authors straddle the line between those experiences (eg Rodriguez). It's a reasonably large field of study, and foundational texts like Rudy Acuña's Occupied America look at both communities.

Rodriguez and others point out that there is in fact this cultural divide here in the United States between the recent immigrants, still tied in many ways to Mexico, and sometimes returning to Mexico, and the multi-generational ones who not only may have never been to Mexico....they dont even speak Spanish.

Yes, absolutely. A lot of the fun with Rodriguez is watching his analysis evolve through each of his books -- I would suggest reading them in the order they were written, to really see this evolution in his thinking. The main character in Sandra Cisneros' Caramelo also makes that problematic "return" to Mexico in the course of the book, with similarly ambiguous results.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the PBS documentary Chicano!. Your local university library should have a copy.
posted by Forktine at 6:04 AM on May 18, 2007

There are plenty of books valorizing the Tejano / New Mexican "the border crossed us" history.

And this is the category that The Milagro-Beanfield War (btw, the book is great and the movie is a waste of time) falls into, for the most part.
posted by kittyprecious at 6:10 AM on May 18, 2007

A Journey To Mexico is a documentary about how the culture of Jalisco impacted Detroit's Mexicantown.

Los Repatriados is a documentary about the great illegal deportations of Mexicans from Detroit in the 1930s, when a lot of Mexican citizens were rounded up and sent back. Some of them remigrated.
posted by klangklangston at 7:02 AM on May 18, 2007

The ethnography Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society by Leo R. Chavez focuses on migrant farmworkers from Mexico and other Central American countries who settled in San Diego county. It was a compelling read in a cultural anthropology class I took last spring.
posted by vespertine at 12:00 AM on May 19, 2007