Film Review
Documentary Sí, Propaganda No

Romántico
Directed by Mark Becker
Plays Jan. 19-25 at the Grand Illusion

Review by LESTER GRAY
Arts Editor

Carmelo Muñiz Sánchez is a Christian. His priorities line up in the appropriate order: God, work, and family. He epitomizes the Protestant work ethic. Born into abject poverty, he works two jobs so that his wife and children can have a better life. While his ascent up the ladder of success is slow, his grip on the old bootstraps remains steadfast. As an illegal Mexican immigrant however, his identity in America and his country of origin is ambiguous.

In the documentary Romántico, we follow Carmelo and his partner, Arturo, as the two troubadours make the rounds from restaurant to restaurant serenading San Francisco diners. Depending on the day of the week, the duo makes $20 to $50 a night in tips. When the weather is decent, the men pull a shift at the car wash.

Carmelo’s meager income, much of which he sends back to Mexico, significantly boosts the otherwise impoverished conditions of the family he left behind. His main concern is for his daughters. He fears that if they do not receive an education, they will have to depend on a husband or failing that, fall into prostitution.

While his goals are humble, they provide a challenge. At 57 years old, he shares a cramped living area with four other immigrants. His partner’s drinking problem, developed recently, is becoming problematic. He has been away from home for five years and he dearly misses the family for whom he works so hard. However, they are further away than the miles or the border could ever represent.

Vacillating on going back home and influenced by the condition of his ailing mother, who has lost both legs to diabetes, he returns. His homecoming appears to inspire mixed feelings. His wife and the two girls welcome him, but they all realize that their standard of living is about to plunge. Although he picks up gigs in Mexico, he makes only a small fraction of what he earned in the States.

For years Carmelo has saved up for his oldest daughter’s quinceanera, a Latino celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday — an acknowledgement of her maturity. Unfortunately, just before the event, Carmelo’s mother passes away, and the family fails to receive the insurance they had counted on to cover the burial. The quinceanera fund goes for the funeral.

The birthday arrives, the long anticipated party is now a family potluck. No one is so ungrateful as to display outright disappointment, but the celebration is muted.

As the situation unfolds before Carmelo, he considers a return to the United States but knows that at his age he could never make it through the dessert on foot, while a coyote (smuggler) represents a large expense. He suffers, like his late mother, from diabetes and his leg is swelling. Retirement is not an option and he must make a decision. (I won’t give that away.)

Romántico is not a polemic. It does not particularly contribute to either side of the immigration issue. And whether or not you are moved to root for immigrants, it is hard not to sympathize with Carmelo, who deals in good faith with whatever God brings to his door.

This is an example of the documentary in its finest form, not as tool of persuasion, but as a window into the complexity of our lives, in a way that can only be expressed through this particular medium.