Themes: Immigrant Life, Culture Clash, Down on Their Luck
Main Cast: Jose Alcala, Daniel Valdez, Rose Portillo, Marco Rodriguez, Lupe Ontiveros
Release Year: 1994
Country: US
Run Time: 99 minutes
Plot
This landmark of Chicano cinema is an adaptation of Tomas Rivera's 1971 novel of the same title. Told from the perspective of Marcos, the 12-year-old son of migrant Mexican-American farm workers, the film follows their travels over the course of a year, each of its 12 sections linked to a month of the calendar. The family starts off in Texas at the beginning of harvest season. Their hardscrabble journey takes them across the length and breadth of the Midwest. Along the way, Marcos and his family encounter a rich, difficult, and, at times, pathetic cast of characters including other migrant workers, a shoe salesman, and, in the most startling part of the film, white Americans. Through these encounters, Marcos comes to understand his place in the order of things, namely, near the bottom, discovers the power of familial bonds to comfort and overcome hardship, and uncovers in himself a desire to learn and educate. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide
Cast
Jose Alcala - Marcos
Daniel Valdez - Bartolo
Rose Portillo - Florentina
Marco Rodriguez - Joaquin
Lupe Ontiveros - Dona Rosa
Evelyn Guerrero - Lupita; Sam Vlahos - Don Cleto; Art Bonilla - Lalo; Sal Lopez - El Mohado; Miguel Rodríguez - Narrator
Credit
Kirk M. Petruccelli - Art Director, Russell J. Smith - Art Director, Peter Stolz - Art Director, Bob Morones - Associate Producer, Bob Morones - Casting, Severo Perez - Co-producer, Yvonne Cervantes - Costume Designer, John Acevedo - First Assistant Director, Severo Perez - Director, Susan Heick - Editor, Marcos Loya - Composer (Music Score), Marcos Loya - Musical Arrangement, Armin Ganz - Production Designer, Virgil Harper - Cinematographer, Lidsay Law - Producer, Paul Espinosa - Producer, Norine Joy Francis - Set Designer, Sharon Reed - Set Designer, Susumu Tokunow - Sound/Sound Designer, Severo Perez - Screenwriter, Tomas Rivera - Book Author
