Author: José A. Rodríguez
Image: Paula Anderanin

I just recently had the opportunity to watch Cheech Marin’s Born in East LA, his 1987 comedy regarding his character, Rudy Robles, being accidentally deported to Mexico.  As I watched it for the zillionth time, I was surprised at how relevant it is to today’s discussion on undocumented immigrants.

In the movie, Robles (Cheech) goes to an LA factory to pick up his cousin, Javier (Paul Rodriguez, who is undocumented). As INS swept up the people, he ends up getting caught up and being deported, despite being native-born and speaking no Spanish.

The movie follows his journey of trying to return to the US.  He encounters an ex-con, Jimmy (Daniel Stern), for whom he works, while saving up the money to pay a coyote to smuggle him back.  Robles ends up falling in love with Dolores (Kamala Lopez-Dawson) and has to find a way to bring her over.  Along the way, there are tons of hilarious moments, such as teaching Spanglish to the “Waas Sappening Boys.”

For me, the moment that tied the movie together was when Robles came up on a hill to face off against the INS and, as he and a sea of others ended up crossing, Neil Diamond’s “America” played in the background.  If you really listen to the lyrics, it tells the story about why the actual undocumented immigrants, not Robles, came over.

I just recently talked to a friend about this movie and what I wanted to do in this review.  She missed the point a little bit, when she focused more on the hilarious moments and not the fact that a US-born Mexican was deported to Mexico though not being born there.  In recent times, there is the story of Emily Ruiz, a Guatemalan-American girl that was deported to Guatemala.  Back during the early 20th century, there was repatriation of Mexican-Americans, during the 1920s-1930s, back to Mexico.  Now, we see the possibility of native-born children of undocumented immigrants losing their rights to citizenship under the 14th Amendment, Section 1.

Don’t think that I’m saying that this movie isn’t funny, despite its relevance to today’s political situations.  The lessons to the Waas Sappening Boys regarding how to pass for American was and still is funny.  The border crossing scene was priceless.  My point is just that, with what’s going on today, I see a deeper meaning than just the comedy on the surface.  Maybe it’s just me.