Alambrista Migration Theory

The film Alambrista (1977) by Robert M. Young is a film about a young Mexican man, Roberto who lives in Mexico. His daughter is born at that the beginning of the film, which prompts him to illegally cross the border to the United States in order to obtain money for his family. He finds work, but it is extremely demanding and backbreaking with very little pay or benefits. To make matters worse, he doesn’t know any English, which causes him to stand out. He eventually finds help and kindness with a young American waitress. She takes him in, while he continues to work. While at a nightclub, Roberto is taken by Immigration agents, and to get back into the United States, he accepts a job picking melons. While working the job, he finally finds his

This theory states that people “Migrate for economic reasons: Capital movement or People movement. People decide to move to those places where concentrate better job, better salaries (From poor to strong economies).” (Iglesias, CCS 400 Lecture 8 March 13) In the film, this theory is expressed right from the beginning. Robert is worried about the future after his daughter is born. He states to his wife that she “will eventually go to school, need clothes, etc.” (Alambrista) This prompts him to migrate to the United States, in order to find a better job and salary to be able to support his family. He migrated for economic reasons; unfortunately, he was unable to find a better salary. In fact, he was taken advantage of. For example, he picked fruit in the hot sun, but was paid almost nothing and had to sleep in a chicken coop. The other half of the definition for the National or International Labor Market expresses this. It states that “Those strong economies depends on those people as cheap labor to keep their standards of living. Low cost of labor = low cost of products and services,” (Iglesias, CCS 400 Lecture 8 March 13) which is exactly how the economies worked in the film. For example, is in the scene where the owner of a melon company in Colorado, forces one of his Mexican workers to lie to the group of illegal men that included Roberto that they “would be able to enter the

This theory is defined as “Migration following family, community and friend networks that guarantee support and help in this difficult process.” (Iglesias, CCS 400 Lecture 8, March 13) In the film, this is only expressed a tiny bit. Roberto does not migrate to follow his family or go somewhere where he would have family support. His main reason for migrating is to gain money. However, when Roberto is about to leave for the United States, his mother mentions that “his father left and never came back.” (Alambrista) This shows that Roberto’s father is in the United States, but Roberto doesn’t make any indication that he wants to find his father in order to find support. For example, when his mother states this, he doesn’t tell her he would find him. Additionally, he doesn’t ask anyone if they know of his father, which shows his main goal isn’t to find his father. He is following in his dad’s footsteps, but he is not necessarily following him. He is only going to the United States in order to make money. He does have family in the United States, which is his father, but since he does not know where his father is, he cannot use him for support or help to find