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El Corrido (also known as El Carpa de Los Rasquachis) is a 1976 musical comedy film directed and written by Luis Valdez, and produced by El Teatro Campesino. It is a film adaptation of Valdez's musical La Gran Carpa de los Rasquachis. The film stars Phil Esparza as Jesus Pelado Rasquachi, a young Mexican man who travels to the United States in search of work, and who suffers various unfortunate and comical events as he traverses the United States.
| El Corrido | |
|---|---|
| El Carpa de Los Rasquachis | |
| Directed by | Luis Valdez |
| Screenplay by | Luis Valdes |
| Based on | La Gran Carpa de los Rasquachis |
| Produced by | El Teatro Campesino |
| Starring | Phil Esparza, Felix Alvarez, Lily Alvarez, Rosamaria Escalante, Rosa Apodaca, Frances Romero, Carlos Caliche, Ed Robledo, Jesus Padron. |
Production company | PBS |
| Distributed by | PBS |
| Language | Spanish |
Plot
[edit]The story begins with a young man named Beto (Daniel Valdez) questioning an old man with a guitar (Luis Valdez) about going to America to seek work, as they ride in a truck for the border. The old man decides to narrate the story of Jesus Pelado Rasquachi (Felix Alvarez) in order to show the young man what America is really like. Jesus Pelado Rasquachi finds himself unable to secure employment in the fictional Mexican town of Guangoche, and desires to migrate to the United States in search of a job. Due to his inability to pay a smuggler the fee for border crossing, he comes in contact with El Diablo (Jose Delgado), a mobster who he ends up borrowing money from. Even after borrowing the money Rasquachi is unable to cross the border due to his lack of both American money with which to bribe the guards or an American sponsor. Due to his lack of legal employment, Rasquachi is forced to work low-paying and difficult jobs at the behest of the smuggler who contracts him to various ranchers on the border near Ciudad Juarez. Rasquachi continues to work around the western area of the United States, poorly paid and subjected to poor working conditions before finally ending up in an area resembling Los Angeles, where he dies an old man, having met death (Socorro Cruz). The old man finishes his story and mysteriously disappears, when Beto is accosted by a series of farm workers who demand to know the story of Jesus Pelado Rasquachi. Beto then tells the story himself and leads the crowd away, as the old man wanders down the road towards America.
Production
[edit]Luis Valdez is known for establishing the poor working conditions of migrant farm-workers through his comedic theatrical performances, and throughout the 60's and 70's made many revisions to the core story of El Corrido. His most polished version, La Gran Carpa de los Rasquachis, was eventually adapted by PBS into a short film featured in its 1976 Ballad of a Farmworker television series.
Cast
[edit]- Felix Alvarez as Jesus Pelado Rasquachi
- Lily Alvarez as Rasquachi's Wife
- Daniel Valdez as Beto
- Luis Valdez as Old Narrator
- Jose Delgado as El Diablo and Truck Driver
- Socorro Cruz as Death and Foreman
References
[edit]Citations
<ref>[Calvert, K. (2008, Aug). Bordering on genius. Monterey County Weekly Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/docview]</ref>
Cienfuegos, Javier. “Rasquachismo, Mobility, El Teatro Campesino, and a Pelado Migration Journey by Javier Cienfuegos.” Latino Mobility in California History, Scalar USC, scalar.usc.edu/works/race-and-migration-in-the-united-states-/rasquachismo-mobility-el-teatro-campesino-and-a-pelado-migration-journey.
Broyles-González, Yolanda. El Teatro Campesino: Theater in the Chicano Movement. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994. Print.
- Harding, James M, and Cindy Rosenthal. Restaging the Sixties: Radical Theaters and Their Legacies. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006. Print.
- Valdez, Luis. “El Corrido or La Carpa de Los Rasquachis.” PBS, 1976.
- http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/fr/modules/item/589-campesino-familia-rasquache?tmpl=component&print=1