Film Review: “El Norte” “El Norte” was written and directed by Gregory Nava in 1983. The film exams the hardships involved in peasant life in Guatemala as well the difficulty in escaping these hardships in the United States. It centers primarily on Enrique and Rosa Xuncax whose father and mother were both killed by the military junta in Guatemala. Their father, Arturo, was part of a small, revolutionary group of farmers that wanted to rise against …showed first 75 words of 1302 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1302 total…between his “heart and soul,” his sister, and the opportunity of escaping poverty. So in essence to become rich he would have had to abandon his heart and soul. In both governments then, it seems that the poor are still just “arms” and not men. The fact remains, however, that if Enrique had taken his shot in Chicago he would have broken the chains of poverty. But the cost was more than he could bear.