Review of the Film “The Day Laborers/Los jornaleros,” 2003. Starring José Caro, Ricardo Molina, Andrés Salcedo. USA: Amigo Films. Spanish or English, English subtitles. Violence, adult situations.

Three cousins sneak into the US and have very different experiences.

This film is a classic and tells the story of many immigrants from Mexico who come live lives they would never have imagined.  Perhaps it will help some people understand why immigrants come here, try to survive, try for something better, and try to have a future.

Three healthy handsome Mexican men with no jobs and no opportunities come to the US in hopes of becoming rich.  They are healthy and energetic but have no prospects in Mexico.

Up to no good, they steal a camera and take photos of the three of them.  They remember there is an uncle in the US who is always claiming “there are lots of jobs there.”  They suddenly decide to “go to the north.”

The photos, the need to stay united, and the theme of becoming rich, combine to serve as guides for what will follow.  Leaving their state, they head north and meet up with their uncle who lets them stay at his place—as long as they can help pay rent and utilities.

The three cousins wind up working as day laborers, waiting in a parking lot each morning to get picked up to go do manual labor of various sorts.  They get paid cash and do a lot of heavy work, sometimes getting stiffed by somebody who avoids paying them for their back-breaking work.

They meet a young woman who has no experience in these kinds of things, and one of the boys takes a liking to her, encouraging her instead to “take the bus downtown” and look for work there… where women go to find employment.  When they return one night to the parking lot after their day’s work, they see her and realize she needs a break.

The uncle takes the young woman in, and with the three cousins, toils every day of the week to try to help make ends meet.  She cooks for them, she and falls sound asleep on the couch from exhaustion.

All three young men work very hard and become disgusted with how difficult it is to make it in the US.  Says one of them at the table when they are paying bills, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this!”  The others agree.  He goes on the exclaim, “We were supposed to get rich” by coming to the US. 

This film is referred to often as yet another typical story of how hard it is to go on a big adventure—out of desperation—and try to survive and even have a decent life in the US. 

This movie has become a classic because it shows how the three men have extremely different experiences in learning English, finding work, and making important decisions about their lives.  As it would happen, the boys have very different paths they follow.

One of the boys follows a path the others do not like, and he himself has trouble accepting the reality of who he really is.  His love of art, and his love of the employer who helps him understand his “confusion” helps bring a happy ending to the story for him—and for the whole “family” that results from the meetings and love and friendships that appear on the paths to adulthood for the young men.  

This movie is good at showing how immigrants face great obstacles and must make some decisions they do not wish to make.  Their rite of passage is different in each case.

The photos of the three of them come back to remind them of both where they came from and where their journeys have taken them. 

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More information is available at this site: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378139/