When it comes to movies about immigration, one that immediately comes to mind is 2007’s Under The Same Moon (La Misma Luna in Spanish) which centers around a young boy living in Mexico named Carlitos who takes an offer to make the journey across the border to reunite with his mother who is working and living in the U.S. illegally in Los Angeles. After being separated from coyotes (people who smuggle migrants across the border), he goes on a journey across the Southwestern U.S. trying to travel to Los Angeles to reunite with his mother. He ends up dealing with a homeless man who attempts to sell him in the streets after not paying him $100 that he loses. He later works on a tomato farm raided by immigration enforcement to which he escapes with an immigrant named Enrique. He and Enrique then go to Tucson, Arizona where they work at a kitchen. They then find his absent father who abandons him before they both travel to Los Angeles. However, while searching, they end up sleeping one night on a bench and Carlitos is about to be arrested by the police before Enrique sacrifices himself by splashing the officers with coffee and encourages him to run away and find his mother nearby. The movie was directed by Patricia Riggen and was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 to a standing ovation before being released theatrically in the U.S. and Mexico in 2008.
Describe your Experience
I first watched this movie in late 2022 in my Spanish 2 class while I was in 11th grade and 17 years old, and really felt the film was a good way to show the journey and struggle immigrants make while crossing the Southern U.S. Border and when living and working in the country and some parts I recall myself and others in the class getting emotional at some scenes. I do cite this film at times when talking about immigration issues within the U.S. and how we can reform it to prevent both Carlitos and his mother Rosario who deal with situations that a lot of undocumented immigrants deal with while Carlitos is on his journey and Rosario is trying to make a living for him not knowing he’s on this journey. I had also wanted to research more on my own about solutions to improve the lives of those immigrating the U.S. and how we can make it easier for people to come here legally and those here undocumented and contributing to society to gain legal status. I also have turned back to this movie to want to screen this for those who are hesitant on immigration to try showing the struggles people go through with how hard it is to legally immigrate here.
Classifying Your Experience
I think the thing I felt watching this movie was frustration seeing the many obstacles that both Carlitos and Rosario went through. One of these examples that frustrated me a lot towards the end of movie was when Carlitos and Enrique are walking through East Los Angeles and walk by Rosario on a bench not noticing her. Rosario also has an experience where she loses one of her jobs in Los Angeles due to racism. The scene where the coyotes are at the border also was very frustrating because they were done with the inspection before one of the officials stopped them after noticing unpaid traffic tickets last second which got very frustrating as made Carlitos’ journey much more uncomfortable. The man who tried to sell him in the streets also frustrated me as it showed how little people will care for unaccompanied children trying to live a better life.
Determining the Narrative Technologies Prompting My Experience
When it comes to Narrative Technologies prompting my experience, Vulnerable Character was what stuck with me the most, seeing how Carlitos for most of the movie is in the deserts of the Southwestern U.S. and Rosario is in Los Angeles. Both of their experiences despite their locations felt similar as both are struggling to make meet’s end as undocumented immigrants with Rosario struggling to find work and ultimately deciding to get a green card to improve her life and opting to marry a U.S. Citizen to fulfill this before changing her mind after a phone call from Mexico claims that Carlitos might be dead. Carlitos also keeps running into different situations as an unaccompanied minor ending up with different people taking care of him and acting suspicious of him. While both are going through different situations, it does still feel as if they both are in the same boat and struggling over and over again throughout the movie. I do also remember a book I read in 7th grade about two separate characters in Ethiopia going through different situations and stories in every chapter which made me think of this as well. Both characters would meet up at the end of the story with it turning out that the boy who late in the book migrated to the U.S. and then began a charity to benefit villagers in Ethiopia struggling for clean water ends up meeting with a girl in a village at the end of the book who lives in a poor village with no access to clean water. The same thing happens at the end of this movie where both trying to call each other on a payphone end up seeing each other across the street and jubilantly celebrate. As part of this ending to the movie, Pivot to Positive Emotion gets used after the depressing nature of the movie as a whole especially after Carlitos runs off following the arrest of Enrique and to where he finds his mother.
Extra
I think overall that this movie is something that should get looked at more by those studying immigration and want to see the experiences that they go through so that they can get a better and somewhat realistic understanding of traveling as a migrant. Most people go into the topic not thinking about the experiences that people have and I think this movie gives something that people should understand and reflect upon more especially considering the current administration but also humanity itself. There are so many setbacks people experience when it comes to immigration here in the U.S. and many don’t see how difficult it is to come here compared to many years ago. Instead, people don’t come up with solutions and instead poke at those who are here undocumented without thinking it over and realizing most would come here legally if they could. When most individuals in this movie are apprehended, they aren’t committing violence, they are here to make money and live, something not easy to accomplish where they originally were from. The scene on the tomato farm made me think of this the most, they’re all there trying to make a wage, only for immigration enforcement to show up and violently apprehend people, same with the beginning of the movie where a young Rosario witnesses peers get apprehended while she’s swimming in the Rio Grande. If people could have more empathy towards others, they would be able to see through the issues Rosario, Carlitos, and others in this movie endure.
