Sin Nombre (Without Name)

Title: Sin Nombre (Without Name)
Released: 2009

Plot Summary

Sin Nombre is not an easy movie to watch. One of the first scenes shows the initiation of twelve-year-old Smiley into gang Mara Salvatrucha by men with their faces covered in tattoos in southern Mexico.

Smiley's macabre story intersects with a more hopeful story of a Honduran family at the dawn of their immigrant journey to the United States. The film exposes the dangers of the trip including crossing the Mexican border and shows what lengths people will go to for a better life.

The film illuminates gang culture from the inside as well as highlighting the dangerous reality of immigration. Sin Nombre blends Hollywood gangster movies like Goodfellas and New Jack City with classic immigration story El Norte, a favorite film of high school Spanish teachers. I'll certainly be thinking about this movie for quite some time.

Language Learning Notes

The movie uses a lot of slang and often replaces vos with tú. Mara Salvatrucha members often use English words brother and homie when talking to each other, which is interesting given that the Mara Salvatrucha is a gang that originated in Los Angeles.