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- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 200 words.
- Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
- From the "Comment As" drop-down menu, choose Anonymous, then click "Publish."
- Reading responses are due by 8pm on the day PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
I remember my dad always forcing me to watch this movie with him, but when i was younger I always thought the movie was rude and they were being "meanies" to the Cheech Marin. Keep in mind i was about 9 years old when he wanted me to watch it. However, now that I have re-watched this movies, i found myself laughing and understanding what was really going on. After watching Born in East L.A. my dad asked me what i thought about the movie, and i told him I think Cheech Marin was a genius. The way he captured peoples attention by using humor and the stereotypical Mexican he truly did go into depth of how nasty American can sometimes really be. He does a great job by really showing how hard it is to live in Mexico and how difficult it really is to cross the border. I believe that that is really important to show to the audience so that they can really see how the living conditions are and how dangerous it really is to live there, which is why they would want to move to the US for a better living. Throughout the movie he shows how Mexicans are really treated and how they try really hard to leave that living conditions but pinpoints how difficult it is. Even he himself can't go across. Although this film was a comedy, towards the end there's a scene where he finally has enough money to pay to sneak across the border, and while hes in the back of the truck there is a woman crying, begging and apologizing fro not having all the money collected but desperately wanted to cross and was saying that her children were over there already and all thee other things, and the guy is just pushing her away and telling her no. Cheech Marin looks at her and lets her take his place. That right there for some reason really made me somewhat emotional. why? Well it's just heartbreaking to see that what some of these people really have to go through just to come over here to the US, but even then when they are here, they are treated horribly, they work their asses off for a little amount of money, and are at risk of being sent back. It's just very unfair. And props to this movie for showing people, even though is was sugarcoated with humor, it showed the reality of whats really going in even up to today.
ReplyDeletejoanne lopez
Watching this movie for the first time had me shook. It's crazy to see how the main character, Rudy, is pulling through just to get back to his home in East L.A. I feel like this movie represents so many things. In the beginning, so many things got me upset such as the deportation part because Rudy was trying to say he is a U.S citizen and they didn't believe him because of his looks. Things like this happen on a daily basis and it's heartbreaking to see the struggle that they go through. Especially, the breaking part of families. Although, there is many humorious parts of the movie it's real things that are occuring. Disregarding the serious parts, I love how he's constantly trying to learn about his culture and mix his born culture with what he grew up with. It's inspirational at how he kept trying to learn spanish and as he was learning, he was also teaching it. My favorite part was when he was teaching the OT people "waas sappening?" because this shows that it's part of our everyday greetings. Born in East L.A. is a movie that shows so much connections that is true and real.
ReplyDeleteYarazeth Ramirez
After watching the film “Born in East L.A” I found it to be so educational and humorous at the same time. As a first-time watcher of this film I really enjoyed the fact that director of the film tried to show us what happens in the life of a person from a Mexican American background including some humor to it. In the film I also enjoyed the character of “Rudy”, because out there in society there are more “Rudies.” Rudy was deported because of the way he looked, which I found it to be so unfair. The fact that you do not look like others in the place you were born, does not necessarily mean that you do not belong from that place. Rudy portrayed the image of a Mexican American person, because he did not give up getting back to his home, to his family, he tried to do everything he could possibly do. A scene from the film that really touched my heart was when Rudy was selling oranges and then he saw a kid and gave him the orange and later ended giving all the oranges he was supposed to sell, to the kids’ mom. The money that he would have gathered from selling the oranges would have been a big help to pay to cross, but he saw that the family needed the oranges more than he needed the money. This also portrays the way how some of us, Hispanics, sometimes try to help others who are more needed than we might be. Overall, this film was amazing, and I really enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteGuadalupe Cazares
After reading Noriega’s “Waas Sappening?, I better understood that “Born in East L.A.” created humor and curiosity for the audience in an almost sarcastic and ironic way. Rudy, as a Mexican American man who holds rights to citizenship within the U.S., is immediately identified as an illegal immigrant predominantly because of his appearance. While the film is, in my opinion, sometimes portrayed as having random order, more specifically with the appearance of the French woman at the beginning and end of the film, all components of the movie work together to bring across the message of ethnic identity. Ethnicity is not dependent on where one lives, nor does one’s dwelling tell of his/her ethnicity. Altogether the film plays around with this theme. My interpretation of the film and article’s message is that citizenship is a document which does, undoubtedly, possess the power to bring one peacefully back to the north side of the border, and those who do not own such a document are scrutinized essentially because of their origin. The presentation of the film was interesting to watch, and it is unbelievable to know that it consists of numerous symbolic metaphors and illustrations throughout. I was oblivious to this fact before reading Noriega’s article.
ReplyDeleteCeline Brianna Salas
After reading the article “Waas Sappening?” by Chon Noriega it gave me a more in-depth perspective about the film “Born in East L.A.” At first, I had mixed feelings about the film, I believed that it displayed a stereotypical perspective about our Mexican-American culture. With the pocho or Spanglish that they spoke, or the topic of immigration that are always closely associated with the culture. The article changed my perspective about the film. It made me aware of the deliberate ways Cheech Marin tries to bring awareness about our struggles as Mexican-Americans in the form of cinema. A key word from this article is Lampoon; which means to mock or ridicule the character or behavior of a person or institution. At first, I believed that our culture was being ridiculed, but after further analysis I realized that it was the institutions that chain our culture that were being ridiculed. Institutions such as the Immigration Reform Act of 1986 which reassessed the status of unauthorized immigrants and the English only political movement. Another now familiar topic depicted in the film was that of duality, Rudy was born in East L.A that made him a United States Citizen, but East L.A was predominantly Mexican-American. This made him realize that the American society viewed him as a Mexican, but once in Tijuana the Mexicanos viewed him as American or pocho. This film brought to light the intricacies that we face as Mexican-Americans, “the relationship between race and citizenship.” (245)
ReplyDelete-Víctor D. Gaytán
Both the article “Was Sappening” and the film “Born in East L.A.” have been very impacting because it is just another way of how Mexican-Americans suffer in the United States dealing with job opportunities, immigration, and the struggle they have to go through dealing with the language and how they are able to communicate with others that surround them on a daily basis. It is sad to realize that our culture is often seen as the one where all of the immigration takes place and how they always put us on the spot when they make bad comments. The truth is that we have lost a lot of respect with the pass of time and it has reached the point where even the president of the United States, Donald Trump, even makes strong comments towards all of the Mexican-Americans and how he considers us criminals for the simple fact of being Mexicans. One of the issues that caught my attention on the film, was the way they saw Rudy in east Los Angeles. He was an American citizen but seen as a Mexican in Los Angeles, but when he went back to Tijuana, he was seen more as an American because of the way he spoke which was considered as “pocho.” (211)
ReplyDeleteBruno Morales
After watching the film “Born in East L.A” and reading Noriega’s “Waas Sappening?” I was very in intrigued and thought it was educational. This story of an American mistakenly deported to Mexico as an illegal alien is amiable and plodding, the very last things you'd expect from Cheech. Rudy was by far one of my favorite characters in this film. In the film, Rudy is a Mexican-American who was born in the United States. One day while picking up his cousin at a factory, the Immigration Service raids it to get all the illegal aliens that works there. They think Rudy is an illegal because he has no ID and is hiding, so he is exported to Mexico. Over the next few days, Rudy tries to escape and work in order to get home. Rudy’s determination and lack of fear really stood out to me because he wanted to get back home and to his family so bad that he was willing to do whatever he can to accomplish that. After reading Noriega’s article it connects and goes with “Born in East L.A.”. Even though this was my first time watching the film, I was really impressed by the message the movie provides and how significant it is related to this class.
ReplyDeleteMichael Garcia
As an avid fan of Cheech and Chong, this movie was rather surprising. It explored a depth not yet conveyed by actor Cheech Marin and the message it provided dealing with the Militarization of Immigrations and customs enforcement and the way it impacted East Los Angeles was powerful. It begins in East Los Angeles with the Character Rudy, played by Cheech Marin, picking up his cousin at a factory that gets raided by ICE. With Rudy not having an identity on him, and the fact that he was hiding, the ICE agents assumed he was an alien, and deported him to Tijuana. While in Mexico, Rudy uses his knowledge of Los Angeles as a means to guide him back home. He has to work to go back to Mexico, and Rudy uses this to eventually go back to Los Angeles. While he was in Mexico, however, he realized the hypocrisy for the Americans deporting immigrants, and how Mexico is also not welcoming to Mexican Americans. This relates to Gloria Anzaldua's "how to tame a wild tongue", and as a Mexican who does not speak spanish well but loves going to Mexico I can safely say that this movie is accurate. It is a sad place to live in the "borderlands" but I feel like Most Mexican Americans can relate and it is just something that we have to overcome as a proud and vibrant race.
ReplyDeleteMichael Gonzalez
After watching the movie “Born in East L.A.” and reading “Waas Sappening?” I found them to be interesting and liked how humor was used throughout the movie. I liked how so many things that you see in Mexico comes out in the movie. For example, selling what you can in the streets to make a buck or having more than one job to be able to make payments or make ends meet. Another thing that I liked about the movie was that the movie shows how Mexicans struggle in the United Sates finding jobs, speaking the language to be able to talk to others, and the fear of getting deported. Rudy is a great example of many Mexicans that come to the United States. He pretty much took any job that was available, so he could go back to the United States. He wouldn’t give up or complain about the job even though it seemed like he didn’t like it, or the pay was low, he would suck it up and do it. Lots of Mexicans that come to the United States do the same thing, they find whatever job they can find to support their families, even if they aren’t been payed fairly. This is something that many people don’t see, the determination that Mexicans have, lots of people just see the bad side but not the good side.
ReplyDeleteIvan Lira
After watching the film “Born in East L. A.” I realize that discrimination happens even if you’re not undocumented. People don’t realize that it doesn’t matter if your black or brown, it doesn’t mean that you’re illegal. In the movie a Mexican American from East L. A was mistaken for an undocumented person and got deported while he was in a factory working like always does, but his capture and deportation they made it seem like a comedy instead of a sad story. Nowadays this things still happened, it’s sad that they discriminate their own kind. In the movie I don’t know why they could off deported the Rudy if he was an American citizen. But aside from all that founded funny that an American citizen had to pass all that to cross the border to the United States, Ruby suffered what an undocumented to cross the border and even though he got judge really badly just by his skin color he had to suffer what a person from another country that want to come here to the U.S. to come and form the American dream. It was funny the fact that he had to sell oranges and other things to get enough money in order for him to cross back into his country.
ReplyDelete-Mayra Saldaña
I found interesting how the reading “Waas Sappening” is connected with the film “Born in East L.A.” At some point I found it funny how they would try to speak English, but they would sound more like Spanglish or pocho which means some words would sound more Spanish than English. This kind of made me feel kind of bad because I thought they were making fun off our culture especially since the main character was immigrant, who is Rudy. But this film brought to light the industries that we face as Mexican Americans, this film consists of numerous symbolic metaphors and illustrations that emphases what we as Mexicans deal with and struggle in our daily life. Most because they don’t know how speak another language that is Spanish, or some are a dark color which I find unfair. Rudy, portrayed the image of a Mexican American person, because he did not give up getting back home and been unfair to his family he tried to do everything he could possibly do. Since throughout the movie he shows how Mexicans are really treated and how they try hard to leave that living conditions.
ReplyDelete-Maria Leal
Born in East L.A. is a very funny film, and it made me laugh many times; however, as the article we read analyses, there are a lot of hidden messages about race, identity, and culture.
ReplyDeleteI Found the reading very interesting after watching the movie because I was not able to catch all the little details by myself, so this reading made me aware of some other issues being modestly shared under the lines of the movie. For example, I did not catch that Rudy came to 3 realizations during the movie which were “American society views him as more Mexican than American, Mexicans see him as American or pocho, and his attitudes toward women and immigrants have been callous.” So after reading the article I understood more things about the movie that did not cross my mind the first time around. I believe that this movie is one of those that every time you watch it, you find something new. I also liked that in the article the author talks about borders because when I was watching the movie, Anzaldua’s messages could not stop crossing my mind. The film does a good job of showing the strict mental frames that society has created about Mexicans and Mexican American.
I feel that I have to watch it again, just to grasp more and more the hidden messages about the racial structures and reactions of the time. this film was very impressive to me because to me it is very hard to make fun of personal challenges or problems that I have to deal with, so the fact that this movie overcomes the sadness about the actual situation and it’s able to make fun of and have fun with it its very valuable to me.
Ingrid Davila
“Born in East L.A.” and Noriega’s “Waas Sappening?” are perfect yet different depictions of how Chicanx identity is viewed in the United States. The entire plot of the movie was based on the fact that the main character, Rudy Robles, was racially profiled in an immigration raid. Because Cheech Marin didn’t fit the mold of what a “true” American looks like as well as not having documentation on him, this lead to a series of comedic attempts of getting back to his homeland. If Marin’s character were white with also no documentation, this movie would have been a lot shorter and ended much sooner. This movie, though it is displayed through a comedic medium, is an exaggerated depiction of how systemic racism affects those of us who do not look like this false idea of what an American is. This is reflected through racist legislation like the “show me your papers” law that was made earlier this year. It is fascinating how subtle the government tries to oppress people of color, specifically Latinxs, even in 2017. I like the movies and the articles analyzation of language portrayed by the main character and how it perfectly showed his borderland identity as a Mexican-American.
ReplyDeleteAndrea Juarez
Born In East L.A. was such a funny and enjoyable movie to watch. I had only heard about this movie from some of my friends but never had I had the chance and time to watch it. I am glad I took almost these two hours of my day to watch this movie not only for the purpose of this class but it was also genuinely enjoyable. I had been having a rough week with exams and homework and this movie bought humor and a smile to my day. Cheech Marin did an amazing job acting and showing the hardship he went through and that people go through in Mexico. How they deported them and when trying to explaining his situation the guy that worked with immigration and customs department could not careless. As funny as it may sound stories like the one portrayed in the movie happen in real life. This movie was funny of humor yet had some heartbreaking scenes as well. For example towards the end of the movie he finally made and worked enough to pay a pollero to take him back to L.A. As he was waiting for everyone to get in the truck he notices that there is a lady crying her eyes out and begging to be taken with them to reunite with her family but unfortunately doesn’t have enough money to pay the trip. Cheech sees this lady and of the good of his heart gives up his spot and gives it to her, now if you ask me that is a very life changing moment and experience for that lady. This was one of my favorite scenes of the movie accompanied with many humorous scenes like Javier thinking that Jesus was in Tijuana and thinking he wanted a beer. Overall this movie is a movie that all should watch and I’m glad I did.
ReplyDeleteBrandi Rae Rodriguez
In my opinion Cheech Marin was a genius and creative, he portrayed perfectly how the lives of Mexicans really are and he also show the true colors of some Americans. It was amazing to me to see how somebody could do this by showing humor and seriousness. In the article “was sappening?” it says, ‘Born in EAs L.A. was dumped on the national market without the usual advance press screenings.’ This means that the movie was not fully processes because of Marin’s past reputation. The movie demonstrates how dangerous is to cross the border from Mexico to U.S. Also, it made me reflect on my life and to think of what they go through and just for them to receive less than the minimum wage. They come here to live a better life and parents come to U.S to offered to their kids a better education for them to have a future. Also, how Marin was not ‘wetback’ and ‘illegal alien’ but a Chicano. And how they wanted to send him back because they thought he was undocumented by his looks. The film places more attention on constructing ‘borders’ that will frame events than it does on character and plot development.
ReplyDeleteStephanie Nicole cantu
This film has to be one of my favorites. I remember being a little girl and going through this CD case laying around my house with this movie in it. I played it over and over. “Born in East L.A” is a story of a man named Rudy who is an American citizen who gets deported because of the way he looks. He forgets to bring his papers so they don’t let him cross again, even though he was an American citizen but didn’t look like one. I must admit, this film has a lot of humor in it, but humor that gets you to understand the silliness Rudy does and has to go through to portray the story to its audience. I honestly connected to this movie because it was filled with humor but also made me realize that things that Rudy went through are real life events that a lot of Mexican American’s go through. Why is it that he got deported just because of the color of his skin and the way he looked? Stereotyping will always take over. It is never good to judge a book by its cover! Nonetheless, this film was humorous, educational, and eye opening.
ReplyDeleteGiselle Sanchez
After watching the film “Born in East L.A” was upsetting watching Rudy get deported because he looked Mexican. There was a couple of scenes that were disappointing to watch. One of the scene that got me mad was when Rudy went to go look for his cousin and the police got there and they didn’t listen to Rudy when he said he was citizen they just assumed he was illegal. Or when he gave the officer his name and another Rudy came up a and the officer didn’t even bother to keep looking. The fact that the officers didn’t help Rudy out because he looked Mexican was disturbing. Rudy had to overcome a lot obstacles but he didn’t allow that to stop him. Even though he wanted to go home so bad, he still helped people out. One of the scene that almost made me cry was he was ready to leave to L.A, there was a couple that didn’t have enough money for both them, so Rudy gave the wife his spot. This film was educational and humorous, it taught us what the Mexican-American when through back then and even in the difficult time Rudy still found of way to joke around. Sandy Martinez
ReplyDeleteThis was the first time I saw the film “Born in East La” and being honest I liked a lot. I liked the movie because the story if Rudy is so interesting and funny, because he was an American and got deported by error. When Rudy was in Tijuana he got to experience what most immigrants that want to come to the U.S. pass through. Also, this movie reflects the struggle that most people living in Mexico especially in the border pass through everyday where poverty is very common and people leaving to the U.S. is not unusual. In the film we can see different problems that we had talk about in class for example, at the beginning when Rudy was caught in the raid we saw how an American was using only immigrants to work in his factory, I relate this to the readings of the maquiladoras in Mexico and how some of those maquiladoras are owned by Americans who know that they will make more money paying less. After reading Noriega “wass sappening” it gives us a more well analyzed side of the story and the main character, for example when Rudy is deported, in the eyes of Americans he is a Mexican, but in the eyes of Mexican he is seen as “pocho”, this is what Anzaldúa says in his book “Borderlands” when she feels that she doesn’t belong to any culture, Mexican or American.
ReplyDeleteLuis Reyna
After watching the movie “Born in East L.A.” and reading the article “Waas Sappening?” I came to the realization that we are who we are no matter where we go or where life force us to go. The part where Rudy was deported made me really sad, knowing that he was a third generation Chicano who didn’t even speak english but was wrongfully deported because of his physical appearance. Nowadays we see those events happen often, where law enforcement officials request proof of citizenship or legal residency based on an individual’s physical appearance.
ReplyDeleteWass Sappening? Offered a lot of details about the movie, it helped me understand the concept from a different perspective. The fact that Rudy had to go to a country that he did not know and relate with people that did not speak his language was very difficult. Also, it must of been very difficult for him to realize that, “ the American society viewed him as more Mexican than American, Mexicans saw him as American or pocho, and his attitudes toward women and immigrants have been callous” making it seem like if he did not belong anywhere. Another thing a loved about the movie and the article is the cultural emphasis they make. Depicting how Mexicans and Mexican-Americans keep their culture and costumes alive when the interior decor of Rudy mother’s house is described. That makes me think on how important it is for us as parents to transmit our culture to the future generations if we want to keep it alive.
Rossy Tapia Cervantes
After viewing both resources “Born in East L.A” and Noriega’s “Waas Sappening,” I conclusively related the humor exhibited to that of the play we learned about earlier in the semester. They truly flaunted the vigorous acts of the Americanos in funny ways that helped catch my interest in the story. Although it was very amusing, there were also some very heartbreaking scenes that left me saddened as Rudy was separated from his family and stereotyped by his appearance in his actual birth town, also known as East Los Angeles. This has been typical during the early years and it continues to exist even to this day as citizens are sometimes frisked during a stop and asked if they may be shown their citizen papers all because of the way they look, which I find to be completely unfair. As I further surveyed the information given, it became clear that it was hard for Rudy to even be accepted back in Tijuana because of his assimilation in the American language he had already developed. This revealed some of the same complications Anzaldua talked about in her books about being a Mexican-American living in the United States. I also found it uplifting that Rudy sacrificed the oranges he needed to make money to make it back home to a family who he found was much more in need of them than he was. Not only did he extend a hand out, but he used the logical knowledge he developed in Los Angeles to find an alternative way back home. I feel most Mexican’s carry this good morality as they know what life is like in the south side of the border.
ReplyDeleteAdrian Martinez
After watching “Born in East LA,” all I can think about is the saying that says to not judge a book by its cover because Rudy was an American citizen who was sent to Mexico because he looked Mexican. This movie is just an example of how many people are judged by how they look, not what they are. Rudy forgot his wallet when he went to pick up his cousin from work and could not prove he was a United States citizen when immigration arrived, and they would not believe he was because he did not look like one, the officer even admired how good his English was, but he still believed he was Mexican. It must be a struggle to be sent to a country that you have not been to before and to not know anyone there. It is sad that up till this day people still judge others by how they look and it should not be that way because we are all the same in a way, we are all human.
ReplyDeleteYadira de Leon
From what I gathered with the film ‘Born in East L.A.’ and the narrative “Waas Sappening?” by Noriega, the film made a great impact on our community’s. Although this movie is more of a comedy the message behind is clear. Our society judge’s others just by the color of someone’s skin. The main character Rudy, played by Cheech Marin, is falsely deported across the border just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What I found to be equally upsetting was that they just assumed that he was illegal for being at the place the workers were in. When I watch movies, I tend to go beyond what is lying in front and focus on unfortunate situations and sometime picture myself there. When they began to deport all the workers they caught, as well as Rudy, I just thought of how much their lives were about to shift. Although they were illegal, that was their life, they had made a living, had a family, a home. And yet none of that matters just for the mere fact that they are undocumented. In Noriega’s narrative one line stuck out to me, “The film conflates these two objects of desire around an idea of the foreignness of “American” public status symbols (lowriders, white women) in the barrio.” What I felt what this statement is saying that in some way the Hispanic culture begins to assimilate itself into the other culture, specifically white. In some way being foreign opens you up to a different type of experience only the individual can gain strength in identity.
ReplyDelete-Alma De La Llana