The story starts with villagers who go about their daily business but then in a land of poverty they are still threatened by a shift in power. The military accuses them of harboring rebels. Most of us have seen countless peasant struggles but what makes this different is the metaphoric language brought out by a man who has nothing to lose except his dignity in old age. Early on the old man has his violin taken from him. One does not know the clear motive behind this but can guess that here is popular means of keeping one hostage without physical aggression.

Tension mounts around the instrument as each side has a different agenda on how to use it. The old man would want to transport munitions in its case while the commander would want the comfort of turning back to earlier years when he failed to have music in his youth. The strength of the old man lies in his ability to play a violin he would hide in his cornfield were it not for munitions currently stashed for his villagers. One recognizes early that his prowess lies in his cunning to buy time so that he can visit his property in exchange for having to play his violin. This is a man whose life is attached to his music. Oddly enough there is a bond between he and the military commander who soon trusts the old man to instruct him on playing at least until he realizes that the violin is only a cover.

The poetic imagery also makes these ordinary people stronger than the eye would see. I appreciated the tender scene between grandfather and grandson explaining the conflict between the forces of good and evil as a godly plan to show mortals wall material greed does; eventually the vanquished will arise and claim their rightful place. That explanation was narrated as the camera climbed up the knotty trunk of a tree. The grandson would later reappear at the end of the film putting the narrative to music while playing a guitar, which was enough to remind of his carrying the old man's torch.

It is however the visuals of the man riding his mule compared to the modern jeep of the commander that helps to transport the tension to the viewer even more directly than the dialogue. Hence the lonely scenes of the man as he has to reckon with the security people who could not care about whose property was whose, adds weight to the confrontation when eventually the old man could finally use the violin as the final weapon in his struggle.

In the beginning of The Mission the characters are introduced. We see Father Gabriel the leader of the Jesuit order in the new world, Rodrigo Mendoza the famous slave trader and mercenary, Don Cabeza a lobbyist for the dehumanization of Native Peoples and Felipe and Mendoza's girlfriend who are responsible for Mendoza's dramatic change in that if Mendoza's girlfriend wouldn't have cheated on him with his brother Mendoza would've never killed his brother and in turn never had to seek penance for his sudden outburst of anger which left his brother laying lifeless on the city street.

After murdering his brother Felipe, Mendoza goes to a mission to mope and pretty much give up on his life. While Mendoza is sitting in the mission Father Gabriel comes to visit him. Father Gabriel offers him penance for murdering his brother which Mendoza refuses at first but after further convincing by Father Gabriel he agrees to carry a bag full of armor and other such items of war around with him until he thinks he deserves to be set free. The bag of war items symbolizes all the weight killing puts on the shoulders of your conscience with each kill the more weight you put on your on shoulders. In an ironic twist of events Mendoza doesn't set himself free the Guaraní set him free and kick his bag into the river symbolizing the forgiveness of all his past transgressions.

After being set free by the Guaraní Mendoza is never the same. First of all during a presentation of the Guarani's ability to sing and play music in front of the Cardinal Don Cabeza tries to tell the Cardinal that his plantations don't keep slaves but Mendoza having been a slave trader know that he does and not only owns them but also treats them with less respect then a dog or swine Don Cabeza used this as an excuse to try and adulterate the good name of the Jesuit order saying they taught contempt for lawful profit. Mendoza's speech during the Cardinals review of the missions was a major turning point for him. He went from an enemy of the Native Americans to their most outspoken protector and advocate. However to make up brownie points with the Cardinal Mendoza prepared and recited a lengthy speech of apology addressing practically every member in the crowd from Don Cabeza to the little native boy that was singing.

After showing his loyalties lie with the Guaraní he set forth to help Father Gabriel and the other Jesuits build a mission for the Native peoples. The Mission was special to the Guaraní because it was one of the only places left for the Natives to live without slavery and keep their dignity by only having to convert to the Catholic faith in order to live there. People like Don Cabeza were looking to destroy the missions and were greatly set back by Mendoza since Mendoza was a former slave trader and knew all of their deceitful tricks and knew how to inept what they were saying in slave trade talk.

When the Cardinal finally decided the mission was to be closed down the Natives responded in defiance saying that it was their home they built it, if they went back into the jungle the devil would get them, ect, the Portuguese slave traders responded by letting them know that by the end of the week either the Guaraní were going to be dead or slaves.

The Portuguese statement split the Guaraní camp in half. Father Gabriel and half of the Guaraní wanted to resist through love and faith, and Mendoza and the remaining half wanting to fight for the lives of the Guaraní and their right to live without slavery.

Both sides brought up good reasons as to why they thought that they should either fight or just let faith guide them. On the faith side was Father Gabriel his point of view was that if Mendoza went back to his violent ways that all the repenting was a waste; he was hoping that by showing the Portuguese that the Guaraní were civil and Christian through holding an extravagant mass and march up to the river to meet the Portuguese's. This approach had no chance of success.

Robert Mendoza's plan was to resist with everything he had in him. His thinking was that if he could catch the Portuguese off guard in an ambush killing their leader and seizing some of their guns the Portuguese would think that the slaves weren't worth all the lives they would have to pay in order to get them and would leave them alone. This approach had a small chance of success but still more then Father Gabriel's' plan.

Mendoza much like myself thought that a life of slavery is worse than death and that human dignity was worth protecting even if it means using violence. By standing up to the Portuguese he sent a message that the Natives would not just stand idly by and watch themselves be conquered and enslaved.

To start, Enrique and Rosa are brother and sister and when their parents are taken away from them, they decide to leave everything behind and go north to the United States. Once in the United States, they are suffering rat bites and now need to find a job to earn money to pay rent and to buy clothes so they fit in. The only concern they have now is immigration. Enrique finds work easy as he learns more and more English. He gets promoted and loves living in America. Rosa on the other hand has problems adapting and I feel she does not know as much English as she should to be able to work well in America. Both Enrique and Rosa manage to escape immigration trying to catch them at their works.

Symbolism is key to writing a good book or directing a good movie. In this movie, a mountain goat was symbolic of Enrique showing up on the mountain where his sister was. First, the mountain goat was there and it startled Rosa then she got distracted and when she turned to face the goat again, it was Enrique. Butterflies in this movie were symbolic of their mother's spirit. When Rosa went home to see her mother, the only thing she could find was her mother's jewelry and a bunch of butterflies. Without symbolism, this movie would not have as much emphasis. After Rosa dies, all of this symbolism forms in Enrique's thoughts, which to me represents his family being in his heart.

Finally, El Norte has a strong meaning behind it. From watching the movie, I have learned that life in the United Stats could be harder for illegal immigrants than back where they used to live. Always being afraid of immigration, needing money for food, rent, and clothes to fit in is hard to do in life. Back in Guatemala, all Rosa and Enrique had to worry about was poverty. It took Rosa getting sick and dying for Enrique to realize that life back at home was better than life in the United States.

In conclusion, El Norte, a movie of a brother sister duo who escape from Guatemala to live in America, shows how hard it actually is for illegal immigrants to live there. The main characters, Enrique and Rosa, face these struggles and show how they handle it. The symbolism in this movie all comes together at the end of the movie to show Enrique's feelings of his family. After speaking of what I have learned of watching this movie, I hope one feels the same way I feel and gain an appreciation of how hard an immigrant's life can be living in the United States.