Born in East LA

At the end of Cheech Marins natural in East L. A. (1987), a pair of undocumented Chinese immigrants who guide been trained by Rudy (Marin) in the art of walking, talking, and gesturing like Mexican-Americans successfully act Mexican-American in front of a police officer to move and assure him that they indeed be natives. Of concern to both Lowe and Oboler is the unequal status of minorities as members of the United States content community and citizenry. Basically, the U. S. citizen has been defined as a white male.This subsequently has meant that especially persons of color have been conceived in the popular mind as outside of the boundaries of the American community (Oboler 19). Thus, persons of color argon denied the extension of full citizenship rights (Oboler 28) they are denied protection of their privileges and. . . local body (Berlant 113). Fregoso indicates that with natural in East L. A. Cheech Marin parodies the second level of meaning at which Born in the USA had b een disarticulated from its typifying elements of working-class discourse and rearticulated as an expression of racist and patriotic discourse (56).Marin fundamentally uses to his advantage the nativist logic which results in Born in the USA being taken to signify foreigners (or non-whites) go home (Fregoso 56). His objective is to intervene into the definition of Americans as whites. Underpinning white nativists appropriation of Born in the USA is the extremely narrow reasoning that America cash in 1s chipss to whites because whites are born here. Marin intervenes by indicating that Mexican-Americans besides are born in the USA. Thus, brown people are natives too (Fregoso 56) .When caught up in an Immigration raid, Rudy declares, I was born in East L. A. , to the INS officer to announce his right to be in the United States unharassed. Rudy is also implicitly telling the officer that by birthright he (Rudy) is an equal citizen to the officer and entitled to the resembling freed oms that the officer and any early(a) (white) citizen enjoy. Of course, despite the fact that Rudy declares that he was born in East L. A. , and frankincense a citizen by his nativeness, he is deported.In fact, when he attempts to align himself with INS officers as their bloke American citizen, Rudy is thoroughly rejected. To the officer at the toy factory, Rudy is merely a nonher bean in a bean bag. As he is escorted to the INS van, Rudys appeals to the officers that I am an American citizen are for naught, for he is briskly ushered into the van with the rest of the non-citizen Mexicans. In the INS office in Tijuana, Rudy tells the white officer, Its good to talk to a American but the officer does not accept Rudy as his equal, and in conclusion condemns him to Mexico where you belong. Highly symbolic of the repudiation of Mexican-Americans claims to citizenship equal to that of white Americans is the scene in the INS van when Rudy, banging on the door which separates the depor tees from the INS driver, screams, Im an American. I went to Belmont High, you idiot. Although Rudy is creating quite an uproar, he is not heard by the driver simply because the driver has on a set of headphones. Literally his assertions (shouts) of his membership in the U. S. study community are tuned out.This non-reception of Rudys shouts reflects the refusal of white America to heed persons of color justified demands for equal status as citizens. Rudy just cannot convince U. S. border officials that he is an American and therefore has the right to return to the United States (Cortes 47) they simply depart not hear his claims. All of Rudys encounters with INS officers thus dramatize the exclusion of persons of color from the national community which Lowe and Oboler discuss.Moreover, the negation of Rudys citizenship makes macroscopic the contradictions inherent in white-American nativist logic. With his wallet at home, Rudy finds himself without identification. Thus, he is wit hout any documentation which can back up his claims to citizenship. Without such documentation, his body is all that can be read by the INS officers, whose job it is to regulate who is deep down the nation and who should be kept out. Ultimately, Rudy is deported because he is deemed not-American by virtue of his brown body.His English, Dodgers hat, and knowledge of U. S. popular gloss (as demonstrated by his knowledge of Death Valley Days and John Wayne) are completely disregard as signifiers of his Americanness. Instead, his brown body is taken as a more important signifier. Rudy, on the other hand, is literally excluded from the U. S. citizenry because of of his brown body. Once in Mexico Rudy feels himself to be in a foreign land. The unfamiliarity of Mexico and Mexicans to Rudy is played out to represent Rudys Americanness.For instance, in the INS van headed to Tijuana, Rudy is an outsider amongst the Mexicans. Unable to give tongue to Spanish, he is ultimately called by o ne of the Mexicans a pocho pendejo, a pejorative reference usually intended to refer to Mexican-Americans who cannot speak Spanish and who, subsequently, are deemed less Mexican. In fact, as he is captured by Border Patrol officers on one of his attempts to cross the border, Rudy proclaims, Im an American citizen. I dont even speak Spanish. Whereas the Spanish language is commonly utilize as an identifier of Hispanics (Oboler 12), Marin presents a pocho Rudy to make more obvious Rudys American identity. Basically, to present Mexican-Americans as brown Americans, Born on East L. A. plays on Rudys/Mexican-Americans pagan distance from Mexico and Mexicans. Edward Simmen posits that Mexicans-Americans physical and cultural distance from Mexico accounts for the uniqueness, if not unrelatablity, of Mexican-Americans when compared to Mexicans in Mexico. He statesAfter all, it is difficult to deny the fact that the contemporary Mexican-American, while he may have firm cultural roots in Me xico, is actually only a distant cousin to the Mexicano backup in present-day Mexico a distance that is rapidly increasing with each peeled generation, with each new educational opportunity offered to and taken by the Mexican-American, and certainly with each mile the Mexican-American moves north from the border. (17) I dont belong here in downtown TJ cause I was born in East L. A. Although of Mexican descent, Rudy is not on the nose Mexican. Within Mexico and amongst Mexicans, Rudy is an outsider, rendered so by his different socio-cultural experiences and subsequent sense of self. Rudy does not, however, come across as a whited Mexican. When he aligns himself with white Americans, it is as a fellow American citizen, and not as a fellow white. This distinction is crucial for understanding the cultural identity politics of the film. Rudys forced journey to Mexico, however, does not expedite some personal reconciliation with a lost or repressed dimension to his identity.Instead, he wants to go home, This type of nationalism is effective in its contestation of white-American nativism as well in its depiction of a securely distinct identity. Fregoso says, though, that by the end of the film, when Rudy crosses back with a mass of immigrants, he crosses back as a collective subject instead of as an individual (68). She says Rudys forced residence in Tijuana effectuate a transformation in his subject position. By living like an immigrant, experiencing the difficulties of trying to make it across, Rudy gains a new awareness. His transformation has a symbolic resonance at the level of political consciousness. 68) Carlos Cortes says that when Rudy and the immigrants rush the border, At least for the moment, the people have caused the border to disappear (47). One can take Cortess reading to refer to the excess of the borders/differences between Rudy, the Mexican immigrants, the Salvadorena Dolores, the Chinese/Indians, and whatever other groups might be present. Thus, under duress, differences give track (at least for the moment) to group consciousness. But the final sequence of the film turns on the differences between Rudy and the noncitizen others and reinscribes these differences. basic of all, in the abovementioned scene in which the undocumented Chinese immigrants pass as native Mexican-Americans, the fact of their non-citizenship contributes to Rudys sensed citizenship. And, as they are performing for the officer, Rudy is marrying the Salvadorena Dolores so she does not get arrested by the INS officers, who are in acerb pursuit of her. These two scenes really sum up the way in which the film asserts Mexican-American citizenship, for Rudys citizenship consistently emerges in relation to others noncitizenship.The narrative truth which the spectator is always let in on (Fregoso 60) is that Rudy is an American citizen, albeit one whose privileges are denied, and various others are not. It thus seems that Rudys American citizenship co mes into focus through the same process by which white Americans Americanness and citizenship become apparent both depend on others lack of citizenship. Oboler indicates that the nations white identity was forged in the nineteenth century partially through the creation of racialized perceptions that homogenized Latin Americas population (18).Likewise, Rudys identity as an American citizen is foregrounded in contrast to Mexican, Salvadorena, and Chinese others. Christine List says that Chicano features provide a public forum for Chicano cultural expression and articulate issues of Chicano identity on a national and international scale (13). Born in East L. A. sets up as its central conflict Rudys dilemma of proving his identity (List 151), specifically as an American citizen. As the film asserts his/Mexican-Americans American citizenship, it effectively intervenes into the construction of the American citizen as white.However, Mexican-American citizenship is established through other s noncitizenship. much(prenominal) a method for the recuperation of Mexican-American citizenship is troubling because it still others noncitizens. With regard to definitions of nation, Cortes states, As context or character, as goal or protection, borders have served a key role in Hollywoods exploration of the formation and renewal of our nation (42). Born in East L. A. s reformation of the nation ultimately asserts Mexican-Americans citizenship by foregrounding others noncitizenship, which is to say, others fundamental outsiderness in relation to the U. S. national community.