Born in East L.A. (1987) on Netflix
Rudy Robles goes to a Downtown Los Angeles factory to collect his cousin Javier. An immigration raid hits the plant, and with no identification on him, Rudy is deported to Mexico.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.1/107,323 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes40%
Trailer
Plot summary
Rudy Robles is a native-born American of Mexican descent who lives in East Los Angeles and gets by on simple Spanglish. His mother asks him to collect his cousin Javier from a factory in Downtown Los Angeles. Immigration officers raid the plant while Rudy is there, and because he carries no identification and cannot confirm his citizenship, he is deported to Tijuana. He has left his wallet behind. With no way to reach his mother, Rudy meets Jimmy and Dolores south of the border, and his attempts to cross back fail. Rudy manages only very simple Spanglish, but he speaks fluent German from his service in the United States Army in West Germany.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Born in East L.A. (1987)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The movie grew out of Cheech & Chong's 1985 song "Born in East L.A.," a parody of Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." written by Cheech Marin; Universal executive Frank Price, who knew Marin from Columbia Pictures, called him to suggest the song become a film.
- Tommy Chong, who has no role in the film at all, still turns up in one comedic scene as a portrait of Jesus Christ hanging above an answering machine.
- Universal executive Frank Price, the only executive who supported the project, was fired before production began after the failure of Howard the Duck, so the studio barely promoted the finished movie.
- Richard Pryor left Marin a phone message after seeing the film, saying he went in not expecting much and was blown away, telling him he had made a great film and that he should be proud.
- The scene of Marin standing outside the bar was improvised, and Marin claims the people who walked past him were not extras at all, so their reactions on screen are real.
